Letter to Gaius Rustius
End of a letter concerning money matters. The writer had evidently been in financial difficulties and was afraid of their recurrence
One text, 3 sources · Trismegistos-Text 20443
Letter to Gaius Rustius about a wine deal and a dispute with Antas TM 20443Oxyrhynchos1 CE – 99 CE
The same ancient text or artifact as recorded by 3 records across 3 independent projects, recognised as one entity by its TM-Text identifier. View on Trismegistos →
The end of a private letter to Gaius Rustius about a business affair involving 65 jars of wine, a written undertaking made through Artemas, and a promise given through the politarch Theophilos concerning a certain Antas. The writer complains that Antas treated him in Oxyrhynchus like a defaulter even though he had paid, and asks Rustius to keep his word to avoid a quarrel between friends. It dates to around AD 1.
In English machine translation
[recto]
[…] of my sister 65 jars of wine and 10 drachmas, and you bought the wine at 6 drachmas, for which you also made out a written undertaking to me through Artemas about getting rid of (?) Antas himself, because he has […]
as you also promised through the politarch Theophilos, so that […] everything does not happen all over again and we have to upset ourselves again when there is no need. For you do not know how he treated me in Oxyrhynchus, not as one who had paid but as some defrauder who had not paid back. I ask you therefore not to act otherwise, but I know that you will do everything well; for I do not want to have a dispute with you, since you are my friend. Greet all your people and take care of yourself so that you stay well. Farewell.
[verso]
To Gaius Rustius […]
The beginning of the letter is lost, so the full transaction is unclear. A politarch was a city magistrate, an unusual title in Egypt; the general dating ranges from about AD 1 to the 1st century AD.
Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Letter to Gaius Rustius). It has not been reviewed by a papyrologist: check the edition before citing. Restorations follow the edition; […] marks lost text and (?) an uncertain reading.
p.oxy.4.745
[r] [… ? lines lost …] ἀδελφῆς μου οἴνου κεράμια ἑξήκοντα πέντε καὶ δραχμὰς δέκα τὸν δὲ οἶνον ἠγόρασας ἐκ δραχμῶν ἕξ , ὑπὲρ ὧν καὶ ἔθου χειρόγραφον διὰ Ἀρτεμᾶτός μοι περὶ τοῦ αὐτὸν τὸν Ἀντᾶν ἀποστήσειν διὰ τὸ κ…[…]κέναι ὡς καὶ ὑπέσχου διὰ τοῦ πολιτάρχου Θεοφίλου, μὴ[…]νε[…]…η[…]ν…