Letter of the governor Kurrah ibn Sharik to Basileios about arrears in the grain tax TM 20496kome Aphrodito3 November, 710 A.D.

[recto] Concerning 1,300 artabas of grain, arrears for the granaries. [… 1 line lost …] In the name of God. Kurrah son of Sharik, governor, to Basileios, administrator of the village of Aphrodito. We give thanks to God, and after this: we have found you in arrears, out of the grain assigned from the embole of the produce of the ninth indiction for the account of the granaries, by 1,300 artabas. So on receiving the present letter, immediately and at that very hour, load and dispatch this grain without neglect, if indeed you have any good sense. And if any of it is owed through the villages of your administration, write to us village by village and what is in arrears through them. But do not neglect this, as has been said, until the demands of the public treasury surround you all at once and you are found unable to meet them. For this brings great harm to you and to those of your administration. And you will know that if you come to us and a single artaba, and only one, of this grain is found in arrears through your administration, we shall seize you and bind you until you pay it from your own resources and deliver it, God commanding. Written in the month of Hathyr, day 7, indiction 9. [verso] Kurrah son of Sharik, governor, to Basileios, administrator of the village of Aphrodito. † Month of Hathyr, day 24, indiction 9. Brought by Souleeiman the courier, concerning the arrears of the embole of the ninth indiction.