Petition of three brothers expelled from a vineyard lease near Sarapieion TM 17700Hermopolis316 (?)

[To …] Theophanes, strategos or exactor of the Hermopolite nome, from […]nos and Horos and Anoupis, all three sons of Dios, from the village of Tertomepa of the same nome. In the present year, most excellent strategos, we leased from Adelphios, gymnasiarch and councillor of the same city, two vineyard plots belonging to him together with five orchards near the village of Sarapieion, for one single year of the 4th indiction, on condition that, in return for the manual vine-dressing work and the other service which we ourselves perform, we receive one fourth part of the yield that will come forth, in accordance with the lease that was made. Accordingly, trusting in the written agreements that were made, we have carried out the pruning of the orchards, and we have carried out the reed-work of the vineyard except for a very small area. But we do not know how, with nothing having happened, the same Adelphios, forgetful of his pledges, sent his own steward Kopreas to the village to stop us while we were engaged in the reed-work, and he also drove us out of the care of the estates. Therefore, since every pretext and dispute has been removed, we submit this petition to your diligence, being ourselves utterly poor and, so to speak, lacking even food, asking that you order the wages for the labours we have performed to be paid to us, for which we pay […] and the lease which we made, so that we may, having received these, deposit them for what we […] in the […] […]