Home › Spine › TM 20305
One text, 2 sources · Trismegistos-Text 20305

Loan of money with mortgage on inherited property TM 20305Kellis (Oasis Magna)374 (?)

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 loan contract in which a man acknowledges borrowing a sum of silver talents at monthly interest, pledging as security a share of property near a house inherited from his late wife Tauris. The parties are connected with the village of Aphrodite in the Antaiopolite nome; the scribe, Aurelius Pebos of Kellis, signed for the illiterate borrower. Found at Kellis in the Dakhla Oasis, probably AD 374.

In English machine translation

[…] […] from the village […] to […] residing in the village of Aphrodite of the Antaiopolite nome, greetings. I acknowledge that I have received and borrowed from you for my own personal and pressing need 10,000 (?) talents of silver […] of capital, and I will provide you as interest on these each month […] talents of silver […] of silver […] for the present […], the time being reckoned from the month […] of the current […] indiction until repayment of the capital, which I shall also repay without any delay or any dispute whenever you wish […] […] […] myriads […] […] total 4 (?) myriads of talents […] […] to be […] […] of the time I mortgage […] the […] share falling to me […] near the house […] opposite me […] which came to me from the inheritance of my late wife Tauris […] as security for the debt […] of the aforesaid silver of yours. This bond I have issued to you for your security, valid, written in a single copy (?), secure and lawful, with the subscription of the one subscribing on my behalf, and having been asked the formal question I gave my assent. In the consulship of our master […] eternal Augustus for the 3rd time and of Flavius […] the most illustrious, indiction […] I, Aurelius […], the aforesaid, have received […] 10,000 talents […] and I will repay as stated above. Aurelius Pebos from the village of Kellis, residing in the village of Aphrodite, wrote at his request, since he does not know letters.

Although found at Kellis, the contract appears to have been drawn up in Aphrodite in the Antaiopolite nome in the Nile Valley. The huge sums in talents reflect the severe inflation of the 4th-century currency.

Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Loan of Money with Mortgage). 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.kellis.1.43

Papyri.info — DDbDP (Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri) — text · 374 (?) · Kellis (Oasis Magna)

[… ? lines lost …] […]…[…] ἀπὸ κώμης[…] […]… καταμένοντι ἐν κώμῃ Ἀφροδίτης τοῦ Ἀνταιοπολίτου χαίρειν. ὁμολογῶ ἐσχηκέναι καὶ δεδανεῖσθαι παρὰ σοῦ εἰς ἰδίαν μου καὶ ἀναγκαίαν χρείαν ἀργυρίου ταλάντων μυριάδα[…] […]…ια κεφαλαίου καὶ παρέξω σοι ὑπὲρ λόγου ἐπικερδίας τούτων κατὰ μῆνα …