Copy of a circular ordering letters forwarded from fort to fort TM 144595Didymoi

Fragment of a circular letter instructing the garrisons of the desert road forts to forward a dispatch addressed to a high official from fort to fort without delay, with a note that it was sent from Koptos to Phoinikon by a man named Chrysoplokamos. It ends with a date, Year 16, Pachon 23, and a record that the letters were passed on by Indos at the 9th hour of the night, at the fort of Didymoi in Egypt's Eastern Desert.

In English machine translation

The term monomachos, literally 'single fighter' or gladiator, seems here to designate a kind of courier or soldier on the desert roads. A praesidium was a small fortified road station.

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