Account of tax collections

Description

The papyrus appears to be complete, but the first column is mutilated and the writing on the verso is much abraded. The hand of the recto is the common slanting cursive of the period; that of the verso is more upright and skilled. The ink is considerably faded on both sides. The text of the recto is a list, in three columns, of tax payments for a tenth indiction. A column of writing on the verso, consisting of 17 lines, may be a continuation of the recto account, but the illegibility of the caption makes it impossible to determine this with certainty. Like the recto, it records payments in talents and drachmas, and most of the same taxpayers reappear; despite the general mutilation the following names can be read with fair assurance in lines 4 -6 and 9-17: Abaous son of Paesios, Serapion s. of Harpalos, Papeis s. of Aion, Chaireas s. of Vallas, Kopres s. of Heras, Serapion s. of Patas, Ptollas s. of Venaphris, Chairemon, Aphous [sic] s. of Tiberinus, Seuthes s. of Ptelemaios [sic], Ptollas, Sarapion s. of Casianus. To the right of this verso column, apparently in still another (smaller) hand, are the beginnings of three lines; these look like the remains of a brief notation, perhaps a docket to or memorandum about the whole document. F arther to the right there were once one or two more colums of writing, from which nothing is now recoverable.The recto account, which is reproduced below, records taxpayers' payments, most of them made in money (talents and drachmas) and a few in pounds of meat. The payments are listed under three captions: "Collection of money taxes of the 10th indiction" (lines 1-2), "And to the chaff account" (line 36 ), "And to the gifts account of the 10th indiction, collected by the sitologos Antiouris" (lines 43-44). What precisely is meant by this last caption is not certain. The terms 6cx)..),(cx, 6cxU6,;, have been encountered before in the papyri, but always in the sense of "presents," usually given by a tenant to his landlord, sometimes on the occasion of a religious festival: e.g. PAmh 93 (=W'Chr 314), 11-12 (cf. S. Eitrem, Symbolae Osloenses 17 (1937], pp. 41-45 ; P. Derchain, Chronique d'Egypte 30 (1955], pp. 324-26 suggests that the term may be "decalque en grec" from Egyptian; see also J. Herrmann, Studien zur Bodenpacht [ =Munchener Beitriige 41], pp. 115-16). 12 contains the first occurrence of the term in a context suggesting a tax or regular payment. Possibly we are to understand that the money collected under this heading went into a fund earmarked for festival purposes. Professor J. H. Oliver calls my attention to the parallel development of sportulae from illicit tips into legitimate fees (cf. A. H. M. Jones, Studies in Roman Government and Law, pp. 170-72 = Journal of Roman Studies 39 (1949)], pp. 50-51 ). Nos. 12, 15, 16, and 17 are tied closely together by the names which they share with one another. Some of the individua ls named in these lists are found also in PCair Isid, which suggests that the tenth indiction of 12 an<l 16 is that of 321 /2 A.D.(from ed. pr.)