Petition to the Chief of Police

‘Serapion, chief of police, from Sentheus son of Anoubion, of the village of Dionysias, dwelling in the sandy quarter of the farmstead of Publius Petronius and Gaius Petronius. In the night before the 17th of the present month Sebastus of the 16th year of Tiberius Caesar Augustus, as I was sleeping at the door of the house which I inhabit in the farmstead, certain individuals making a thievish incursion undermined by way of the beer-shop the northern wall of the house, and having gained admission they carried off property of mine of which a list is appended. I suspect that Papontos, formerly brewer, from Talei and Felicion son of Papais were the perpetrators. Wherefore I request you to order the archephodus of Euhemeria to inquire into the matter and to dispatch the guilty persons to you for the consequent punishment. Farewell. The list is:— 120 silver dr. received on account of an undertaking from Claudius freedman of Livia wife of Drusus Caesar which I kept in a casket, a preparation of woof and warp for a cloak worth 18 silver dr., a small wooden box in which were 4 silver dr., 2 drinking cups of tin, a shovel, an axe, a mattock, a belt in which were 4 drachmae in copper, a flask in which was ½ chous of oil, a cook’s kneading-trough, a basket in which were 50 loaves, 25 pairs. ‘Sentheus, aged 30 years, with a scar on the left wrist.’