An offer to lease addressed to the landowner Asklepiades by two men of Tebtynis, Harpaesis and Sasopis, who propose to rent 25 1/2 arouras of cleruchic land near Kerkesis for six years. Rent alternates between 60 artabas of wheat in odd years and payment of the land tax in even years, with customary gifts of cumin and cocks and the usual maintenance duties. Written at Tebtynis in September AD 140.
In English machine translation
To Asklepiades son of Asklepiades, his mother being Eirene daughter of Herakleides,
from Harpaesis son of Kronion and Sasopis son of another Kronion, both from the village of Tebtynis, Persians of the Epigone. We wish to lease from you, under mutual guarantee for payment, the 25 1/2 arouras of cleruchic land belonging to you near Kerkesis in the division of Polemon, or however many they may be, among which are 12 arouras of pasture, for six years from the present fourth year of Antoninus Caesar the lord, at a yearly rent: in the first, third and fifth years of the lease, each year without seed, on the arouras I sow with wheat, 60 artabas of new, clean, unadulterated wheat free of barley, by the measure of the granary of Louppos of the aforesaid village of Tebtynis, and […]; and in the second, fourth and sixth years of the lease, on condition that we measure each year into the public account the artaba tax on the whole 25 1/2 arouras, the receipt for which we shall hand over each year; and as customary gifts each year for the six years 2 measures of cumin and 2 cocks, each worth 4 drachmas, all free from deductions and risk. We are forbidden to abandon the lease before the end of the term, but we shall carry out at our own expense each year all the appropriate works: all dyke works, waterings, subdivisions, double hoeings, clearing of canals and water channels, all at the proper seasons, causing no damage; and we shall pay the aforesaid rent in the month of Pauni at Tebtynis, and after the term we shall hand back the land clear of fodder grazed by sheep and of folding. If it seems good to you, lease it.
We shall also pay for the wheat-bearing land for the three years the transport costs to the public granary falling on you, Asklepiades, the naubia being our charge as lessees.
Harpaesis, about 45 years old, scar on left thumb.
Sasopis, about 30 years old, scar on right knee.
Year 4 of Imperator Caesar Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pius, Thoth 7.
The alternating rent reflects a fallow-rotation arrangement in which the lessees pay only state dues in alternate years. Naubia were a compulsory dyke-work charge measured in units of earth moved.
Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Affitto di terreno). It has not been reviewed by a papyrologist: check the edition before citing. Restorations follow the edition; […] marks lost text and (?) an uncertain reading.