Home › Spine › TM 18535
One text, 2 sources · Trismegistos-Text 18535

Letter from a woman to her husband Sarapion about their son's enlistment TM 18535unbekannt41 - 67

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 private letter from a woman, daughter of Demetrios, to her husband Sarapion, written in Egypt under Claudius or Nero. She warns him about a legal opponent, reproaches him for encouraging their son Sarapas to join the army, asks for lentils and radish oil, and gives instructions about sowing their allotment and grain for the public granary.

In English machine translation

[recto] [… lines lost …] […] … month (?) […] not; therefore I am writing to you, so that you may know. We ourselves have not yet done anything. If the opponent goes up, keep an eye on him. For I fear that he may give up (?), for he has become sick of it. As for Sarapas our son, he has not lodged with me at all, but went off to the camp to enlist as a soldier. You did not do well in advising him to serve as a soldier. For when I told him not to enlist, he says to me: "My father told me to enlist." As for Epaphroditos, he is here with me. Please, then: I have lentils in the middle room of the house; send them to me, and a chous of radish oil, so that I may have monthly provisions here; for I am not neglectful, but I remain here in good spirits. And if the allotment is flooded, […] quickly (?) and sow it well. I informed you about the crops once […] a letter to the prefect […] us, so that it may be measured into the public granary and given for seed the […] [… lines lost …] Year […] of Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus Imperator, Mesore 22. [verso] […] then the mother and Demetris and his children; greet […] and Aparosi(?) […] […] his mother and Dionysia and her children and […] […] her and the mother … [Address:] [So-and-so, daughter of Dem]etrios, to Sarapion, the father.

The address calls Sarapion "the father", meaning father of the children; the HGV record identifies him as the writer's husband. The dating line names Claudius, which conflicts somewhat with the wider range AD 41-67 given in the records.

Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Brief einer Frau an ihren Mann). 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 →

bgu.4.1097

Papyri.info — DDbDP (Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri) — text · 41 - 67

[r] [… ? lines lost …] […]…μηνο[…] οὐ διὸ γράφω σοί, ἵνʼ εἰδῇς. οὔπω δὲ ἡμεῖς οὐδὲν πεποιήκαμεν. ἐὰν δὲ ὁ ἀντίδικος ἀναβῇ, περίβλεπε αὐτόν. φοβοῦμαι γὰρ μὴ σχάσῃ, νεναυσίακε γάρ. περὶ δὲ Σαραπᾶτος τοῦ υἱοῦ οὐ καταλέλυκε παρʼ ἐμὲ ὅλως, ἀλλὰ ἀπῆλθεν εἰς παρεμβολὴν στρατεύσασθαι. οὐ…