Petition from Pabous son of Stotoetis of Soknopaiou Nesos to the local beneficiarius, complaining that the village elder Sempronius and his associates harassed him and insulted him at his house, demanding he hand over his relatives Hekysis and Apynchis, who had fled. He accuses Sempronius of extortion, illegal collections and taking bribes, and asks that the men be brought before the official.
In English machine translation
To the beneficiarius stationed in the district,
from Pabous son of Stotoetis, from the village of Soknopaiou Nesos. Today, which is the 27th, Sempronius, elder of the village, and those with him came upon (us) and created an unreasonable disturbance, on the pretext of detaining my relatives Hekysis and Apynchis as boatmen (?), and they, terrified, disappeared. These men then came upon my house and committed an outrage against me, saying, "You must produce them," saying, "Let us see who it is that profits from you (?)." He is a shameless man in the village, and on every occasion he makes collections and hires out (?) the villagers, and (forced) recruits to hunt; afterwards, having been paid money, he released them. Therefore I submit (this petition) and ask that they be brought before you. Farewell.
Year 25, Pauni 27.
The sense of ἐπιπλόους (here rendered 'boatmen', possibly crew for river transport) and of several phrases is uncertain; the Greek is ungrammatical in places. A beneficiarius was a Roman soldier detached for police and administrative duties.
Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below. It has not been reviewed by a papyrologist: check the edition before citing. Restorations follow the edition; […] marks lost text and (?) an uncertain reading.