Letter to the decurion Teres

Description

A senior officer (higher in rank than a centurion, prsesumably a praefectus castrorum) informs the decurion Teres that at the request of the strategos of the Coptite nome he is granted thirty day's leave to look after his posesiones in the Arsinoite jome. It is not clear to us why Teres asked for this leave. One immediately thinks of a connection with the aftermath of the Jewish revolt under the reign of Trajan, but another possibility is that Teres, in active services, possesed property in the Arsinoite nome which he had let or hire. For another request of leave cf. P.I Price, some Roman ostraca from Egypt, JJP 9-10 (1955-1956), no 2 (SB VI 9272). Cf. also P.Mich. XII 629 and O.Flor. 1. For the dots between thw words see E. Otha Wingo, Latin Punctuation in the classical Age, The Hague-Paris 1972. It is not necessary that this papyrus was found in the Coptite nome.;If the strategos is named Chrysermus, then the text should be dated in c. A.D. 103 (BL IX, 374)