A draft or copy of a petition from the magistrates and council of Oxyrhynchus to a high official, asking that property a man received from Cleopatra also called Philoumene, held by the city as security for his debts, be released from confiscation into the sacred account of the high priest. A second column preserves the official's reply telling the council to present its case when he hears the matter with the advocate of the god's account present.
In English machine translation
[1]
[…] having taken place […] to the account of the god, it being in accordance with [the law that] his property, whatever was ancestral and privately owned, should be separated [and] taken up into the sacred account; but that what had [come down to him] in the name of Philoumene should be untouched, having long before been held by us as security for what he owes, before […] his property into the department of the high priest. But this did not happen so; rather these too, along with the rest, […] and from then until now they are under the administration of the high priest, and […] are improperly taken up into the account of the god. Having therefore attended to and undertaken the examination of the matter, the civic revenues […] since there is a shortage of funds, we recognized that […] being full, as it will seem to you too, of the most complete reasonableness […] into the most sacred treasury of the lord, in such ministers (?) […] the privilege, and those who take precedence in the contracts which […] their own and holding, knowing […] to Lysanias two and to Philosarapis […]
[…]
[…] most […] transferring (?) […] account, very many […] into […]
[…] a cession having taken place in the 29th year of the deified Commodus […] in the 8th year of the deified Severus and Marcus Antoninus […] to the god, which things we set out not in word but in deed, adducing documents, on which grounds we beg and request, in accordance with what is most just, […] that his other property be held by the [department] of the high priesthood […] but that what came to him in the name of Cleopatra also called Philoumene […] by inheritance […] he inherited […] a third part of this […] and of right […] account, so that the most holy [treasury] may also have […] from the god and from you, the administrator, […] and owed, and if now […]
[…]
[2]
Au[…] to the magistrates and council of the Oxyrhynchites, greetings. Concerning the property of Cleopatra also called Philoumene, which you requested in what you wrote to me, you can inform me when I am sitting in judgment, in the presence of the advocate of the account of the god, […] before the judgment, from the […]
[…]
[…] administrator
[…]
The 'account of the god' refers to the sacred account administered by the high priest (of Alexandria and all Egypt), into which confiscated property passed. The text mentions the 29th year of Commodus and the 8th year of Severus and Caracalla (AD 199/200), so it dates to the early 3rd century AD or later.
Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Petition). It has not been reviewed by a papyrologist: check the edition before citing. Restorations follow the edition; […] marks lost text and (?) an uncertain reading.