Extracts from court proceedings on Egyptian testamentary law TM 16418Oxyrhynchos

[… lines lost …] […] […] […] […] […] […] it is best that they give judgment according to the laws of the Egyptians, under which it is permitted also to change one's testamentary dispositions. The deceased made his dispositions properly. Year 12 of the deified Trajan, Pachon 13. Areios and Sarapion, both sons of Ptolemaios, against Athenodoros and Apollonios. From the proceedings: Sulpicius Similis, having inquired of Artemidoros, the expounder of the laws, about the matter, and having conferred with his advisers, said: "The Egyptian had the power to make his dispositions as he wished." Year […] of the deified Trajan, Tybi 20, in the case of Tryphon and others against Did[…], after other matters: Sulpicius Similis, having conferred with his advisers and having consulted Artemidoros the jurist, said: "It is said […] […] […] neither the wife, in whose favour the father of the bridegroom agreed on some innovation, nor her sons survive, by whom the terms of the agreement could be enforced, this document is now invalid. The law, as it is said, gives power to the one who arranged the 'total sale' (panprasion), while retaining his own property for the children, to choose one of them and make him heir. Therefore, since the second security has lapsed, the right has reverted to the first. It was permitted to him to appoint heirs as he wished, leaving his children as the ones for whom he made the 'total sale'."