Drafts of letters from Zenon to various persons

Description

The first letter is addressed to Sostratos: Demetrios had lately sailed down to see Zenodoros and ask that an order should be sent to Hermaphilos the oikonomos and to the accountants to make inquiry and, if it should appear that the arrears of year 4 were covered by the surplus of year 5, to give back their bails to the sureties. Zenon had already written to Sostratos, when Demetrios was starting, to ask Kraton the praktor to deal indulgently with Dionysodoros in the matter of the 3000 drachmae for which he guaranteed the firm of Hippokrates and Demetrios. Now it appeared that Zenodoros had sailed up to Sebennytos and that Demetrios had probably not found him in Alexandria. So if Sostratos has not already spoken to Kraton and obtained his consent, he is urged to do so without delay; otherwise if the guarantee be exacted while the arrears are being made good, they are likely to lose 3000 drachmae, for it is not easy to recover anything from the Treasury. The second letter, of which we have only the opening lines, is addressed to Kraton and deals with the same subject. The third draft, addressed to Sostratos, is about Samoelis and Alexandros, two Jews who had contracted to exploit the vineyard of Zenon and Sostratos. Apparently the contractors were complaining that they were prevented from passing through the neighbouring properties to obtain the reeds which they needed for training the vines. Zenon is alarmed at the idea that they may leave the vineyard and renounce their contract, and he asks Sostratos to take some steps in order to prevent this. Below is a fragment of another letter to the two vine-dresses about the same matter.