Priest's protest against nomination as grain collector at Persea TM 10268Arsinoites

Petition from Souchos, a priest of Nephotes, to a high official protesting that he was nominated out of spite to the office of grain collector (sitologos) at the village of Persea in the Herakleides division of the Arsinoite nome, though he was neither wealthy nor a landowner there. He asks that the strategos be instructed accordingly; dated year 21 of Commodus, Pauni 8.

In English machine translation

The sitologia was a compulsory public service (liturgy) of collecting state grain, assigned to men of sufficient means; the reference to twenty talents likely concerns the property qualification. The addressee, styled 'most excellent', is probably the epistrategos.

Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Protest against Nomination to a Liturgy). It has not been reviewed by a papyrologist: check the edition before citing. Restorations follow the edition; […] marks lost text and (?) an uncertain reading.