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One text, 2 sources · Trismegistos-Text 15629

Petition about the theft of eight sheep TM 15629Oxyrhynchos2. Sept. 98

The same ancient text or artifact as recorded by 2 records across 2 independent projects, recognised as one entity by its TM-Text identifier. View on Trismegistos →

Petition by Melas son of Hermogenes reporting that thieves broke through his courtyard wall and drove off eight sheep, whose dung he later found hidden in a shrine of the Dioskouroi beside the desert guards' watchtower, as he showed to the village police chief Ploution. Written by his father because Melas was illiterate, at Oxyrhynchus in AD 98.

In English machine translation

[... lines lost ...] [...] ... [...] the ... [...] ... certain persons, in the manner of robbers, dug through the wall of the courtyard on the public street and entered and drove off 8 of my sheep. While I was searching for them, I found their dung in the shrine of the Dioskouroi beside the watchtower of the desert guards, in a hidden place of the shrine, and I showed it to Ploution, chief of police of the village, who came with me for the search, and to the desert guards. Therefore I ask, if it seems good, that you deal with the matter as you think fit, so that I may obtain help. Farewell. Year 2 of Imperator Caesar Nerva Traianus Augustus Germanicus, month Sebastos 5. I, Melas son of Hermogenes, have submitted this. I, Hermogenes son of Melas, wrote on behalf of my son, who does not know letters.

The opening with the addressee is lost. Sebastos was an honorific name for the month Thoth; the archephodos was a village police chief and the eremophylakes were desert guards.

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

DDbDP-text Full record →

p.oxy.49.3467

Papyri.info — DDbDP (Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri) — text · 2. Sept. 98 · Oxyrhynchos

[… ? lines lost …] […]…[…] την …ρ…[…] νος λῃστρικῷ τρόπῳ διορύξαντές τινες τὸ ἐν τῇ δημοσίᾳ ῥύμῃ τεῖχος τῆς αὐλῆς καὶ εἰσελθόντες ἀπήλασάν μου πρόβατα ὀκτώ . ἐπιζητοῦντος δέ μου ταῦτα, εὗρον ἐν τῷ πρὸς τῷ τῶν ἐρημοφυλάκων μαγδώλῳ ἱερῷ Διοσκούρων τὴν τούτων κόπρον ἐν τόπῳ τινὶ κρυ…