Petition of Anoup to Apion for relief from debt after loss of his animals TM 20771Oxyrhynchus6th century

† To my good master, Christ-loving, lover of the poor, all-praiseworthy, most magnificent patrician and dux of the Thebaid, Apion, from Anoup, your wretched servant, from the estate belonging to it (your house) called Phakra. The glorious house of my good master has acquired nothing unjust or impious, but is always full of mercy, pouring forth necessities to those in need. Therefore I too, the wretched servant of my good master, wish through this present petition of mine to obtain mercy, and to make known to your mastership that from my fathers and forefathers I have served my good master, paying the public taxes yearly. And by the will of God in the past eleventh indiction and the past tenth my animals died, and I borrowed no small amount of gold, 15 solidi, until I could buy the same animals. But when I approached my good master, (asking) that he have mercy on me when I came here, the agents of my master would not consent to act according to the order of my good master. For if, master, your mercy does not reach me, I cannot remain on my holding and be of service to the landowner's affairs. And I beseech and implore your mastership to order that I be shown mercy, since I have come into great ruin. For I have no other refuge except that of the Lord Christ and of your eminence. And I will send up undying hymns to the Lord Christ for the life of your mastership and of its most magnificent son, the lord Strategios. †