Apprenticeship contract for linen-weaving between Menodoros and Lucius Pompeius Niger TM 20987Oxyrhynchus (?)A.D. 48

[recto] Menodoros son of Apollonios, of the Althaean deme, to Lucius Pompeius Niger, greeting. I acknowledge that your son Fuscus, not yet of age, has been apprenticed to me, so that I may teach him the whole craft of seated linen-weaving completely, just as I myself know it, in two years from the month Germanikeios of the eighth year of Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus Imperator, on condition that I shall pay you on his behalf as wages each month 4 silver drachmas, total 4 dr., you, the father, feeding and clothing him; and you shall provide him to me remaining at his instruction for the days themselves, obedient in matters concerning the craft. He shall be idle three days a month, for which I shall deduct nothing from the wages; for any more days I shall deduct the corresponding share of the wages, and you shall provide him to me in return for an equal number of days after the term on the same terms. You shall not take him away from me within the term, nor shall I be permitted to dismiss him within the same term. When this is completed I shall present him to you before three fellow craftsmen whom we choose by common consent […]. If I transgress in any respect, I shall pay you at once the damages and expenses, and whatever wages I still owe plus half again, and a penalty of 100 silver drachmas, as if by judgment, in addition to the foregoing remaining valid. Year 8 of Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus Imperator, Pharmouthi 18. About 40 years old, scar on right cheek. I, Menodoros son of Apollonios, shall teach and do as stated above. [verso] Menodoros, (concerning) Fuscus