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One text, 2 sources · Trismegistos-Text 15974

Contract for a substitute in the liturgy of letter-carrying TM 15974Oxyrhynchos217 - 218

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 →

A contract from Oxyrhynchus in which Aurelius Apollos, nominated to the compulsory public service of letter-carrying, engages Aurelius Theon also called Julianus to perform the service in his place, carrying monthly reports and letters, for a wage of 32 drachmas a month paid in two instalments. It dates to AD 217-218.

In English machine translation

Aurelius Apollos son of Doras son of Apollonios, his mother being Apollonia, and Aurelius Theon also called Julianus son of Dionysios, his mother being Sinthonis, both from the city of Oxyrhynchus, mutually agree: Apollos, having been nominated by the amphodogrammateus of the 6th tribe, 2nd cycle, for letter-carrying, has contracted with Theon also called Julianus that he shall fill his place in his stead, both in the dispatch of monthly reports and of letters and other things pertaining to the same liturgy, so that Apollonios (?) shall be untroubled; and he has contracted with him for the said liturgy from Mecheir 1 of the present year 2 until the end of the term of the liturgy, receiving from Apollonios each month as wages 32 drachmas, on condition that he receives them, on the 10th of each month 16 drachmas and likewise on the 30th the remaining 16 drachmas; and that no one may transgress any of the foregoing, or the transgressor shall pay as a fine […] drachmas […]. The agreement is valid, written in duplicate so that each party has a single copy […]

A liturgy was a compulsory public service imposed on citizens; hiring a substitute was common. The text calls the nominee Apollos but later Apollonios, apparently the same man.

Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Substitution in 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.

DDbDP-text Full record →

p.oxy.43.3095

Papyri.info — DDbDP (Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri) — text · 217 - 218 · Oxyrhynchos

ὁμολογοῦσι ἀλλήλοις Αὐρήλιοι Ἀπολλῶς Δωρᾶτος τοῦ Ἀπολλωνίου μητρὸς Ἀπολλωνίας καὶ Θέων ὁ καὶ Ἰουλιανὸς Διονυσίου μητρὸς Σινθώνιος, ἀμφότεροι ἀπʼ Ὀξυρύγχων πόλεως, ὁ μὲν Ἀπολλῶς εἰσδοθεὶς ὑπὸ τοῦ τῆς ϛ φυλῆς β περιόδου ἀμφοδογραμματέως εἰς ἐπιστολαφορίαν συνηλλαχέναι τῷ Θέωνι τῷ κ…