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Letter from Hierax to Herculanus about delegations for soldiers' pay TM 16885Untere Thebais

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 →

An official letter from Hierax to Herculanus concerning military pay arrangements in late 3rd- or early 4th-century Egypt. Hierax explains that, by order of the catholicus (finance official), petitions from the praepositi pass through him to the catholicus's office, and that the resulting delegations for a birthday donative of the Caesar Maximian, the stipend due on 1 September, and salgamum will be sent on by express courier when they arrive.

In English machine translation

[recto] To my lord brother Herculanus, Hierax, greetings (literally: to fare well). On receiving your letter, my lord brother, I held a celebration. As I have also made clear to my lord brother Heliodoros the praepositus by an official letter, […] through the divine fortune of our masters the Augusti and the Caesars. Since there is an order of my lord the most distinguished catholicus that the praepositi should send the petitions to me, and that I should send them to the office of the catholicus, so that the delegations (delegationes) may be sent out by my lord the most distinguished catholicus […] strategos (?) […] to order […] one for the donative for the birthday of our master Maximian the Caesar, another for the stipend of the Kalends of September, and the third for salgamum. The petitions have been forwarded to my lord the most distinguished catholicus. As soon as the delegations arrive, they will immediately be dispatched by me by express courier. May the gods preserve you with your dearest ones always. [verso] […] to brother Herculanus […]

Delegationes were official orders authorizing payments; salgamum was a soldiers' allowance in kind (provisions such as preserved foods or fuel). Maximian as Caesar points to the Tetrarchic period, likely c. AD 293-305 (Galerius Maximianus).

Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Official Letter from Hierax to Herculanus). 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.31.2561

Papyri.info — DDbDP (Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri) — text · Untere Thebais

[r] κυρίῳ ἀδελφῷ Ἡρκουλανῷ Ἱέραξ εὖ πράττειν. τὰ μὲν γράμματά σου κομισάμενος, κύριέ μου ἀδελφέ, πανήγυριν ἤγαγον. ὡς δὲ καὶ τῷ κυρίῳ μου ἀδελφῷ Ἡλιοδώρῳ τῷ πραιποσίτῳ διὰ δημοσίας ἐπιστολῆς φανερὸν πεποίηκα, χρη…[…]…[…]α διὰ τὴν θείαν τύχην τῶν δεσποτῶν ἡμῶν τῶν Σεβαστῶν καὶ τῶν…