Letter of Helladios forwarding the amir's circular on runaway caulkers TM 20236unbekannt675 - 676 (?)

[recto] † So that our most magnificent brotherhood may know that yesterday, which was the fourth of the present month, I received a letter from my master the most praiseworthy dux through Sergios the soldier who was sent, concerning the caulkers who have fled, (saying) that if you are found to have let off even a single one, you will pay 1 solidus for him and will be in danger of your life. And if there are foreign caulkers in your pagarchy, seize these too and send them under a wooden pillory (?). Copy of the sigillion sent to me by my master the most glorious amir: † In the name of God, Jordanes to all the pagarchs of the Thebaid. Since the caulkers who work on the boats of Babylon have fled, and we have instructed our topoteretes not to let off a single caulker without sending him to us, but that whoever holds or hides a caulker shall pay 1 solidus, if he has the means, and we have instructed him to show you the present sigillion: therefore whoever does not give himself up (?) and send to you every caulker who is in his district after seeing and having read to him this sigillion, letting off even a single one, we will not accept his property in place of his life. Therefore, as has been said, gather the caulkers and send them to our caulking (?) boats. And so that you may have no doubt, I have used the present sigillion. Below my present letter I have appended the sigillion sent to me by the same most glorious amir […] […] [verso] † To my God-protected master and brother Papas, pagarch of Upper Apollonos, † Helladios †