A ten-year lease in which the brothers Phoibammon and Leous, of the village of Ptemenkyrkis Poimenon, rent three arouras of land in the holding called Karei from a Flavius for an annual rent of 4 1/2 gold solidi less 13 1/2 carats. The contract was written for the illiterate lessees by Aurelius Apollos son of Ioannes, at Hermopolis, probably in AD 493.
In English machine translation
[recto]
After the consulship […]
of the most illustrious […]
To Flavius […]
[…]
Phoibammon […]
brother Leous […]
of the village of Ptemenkyrkis Poimenon […]
[…]
[…] of three arouras, we acknowledge and […]
being mutual sureties and mutual guarantors for each other, willingly and of our own choice,
that we have leased from your admirableness for a ten-year
period, from the crops of the auspicious coming first indiction, the
three arouras belonging to you, your excellence, likewise situated
in the holding called Karei in the tax district of the same village,
for sowing and planting whatever we choose, at a fixed rent for these each year of 4 1/2 gold solidi less 3 carats on each solidus, by the public standard of Hermopolis, total 4 1/2 gold solidi
less 13 1/2 carats, which rent we shall pay on our mutual guarantee without any
delay or dispute. The lease is valid and binding, and having been asked
we acknowledged […]. We, Phoibammon son of L… and Leous, full brother,
have leased on mutual guarantee as stated above. I, Aurelius Apollos
son of Ioannes, who also drew up the document, having been asked, wrote for them, as they were present
and told me that they do not know letters.
Written by me, Apollos.
[verso]
[…] 4 1/2 solidi less carats […] of Phoibammon and Leous
[…]
The date rests on a largely restored post-consular formula and is uncertain. Carats (keratia) were fractions of the gold solidus, 24 to the coin.
Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Pachtvertrag). It has not been reviewed by a papyrologist: check the edition before citing. Restorations follow the edition; […] marks lost text and (?) an uncertain reading.