A formal undertaking by three registered farmers of the hamlet of Lower Sasou, a steward and a secretary among them, to the great landowner Flavius Apion. They promise to collect all public taxes of the tenth indiction, pay them to his estate, and make good any shortfall from their own property. Written at Oxyrhynchus in July 576.
In English machine translation
[recto]
† In the reign of our most divine and most pious master, greatest benefactor, Flavius Iustinus, the eternal Augustus and Imperator, year 11, in the 2nd consulship of their Serenity, and of Flavius Tiberius also called New Constantine, our most fortunate Caesar, Epeiph 28, indiction 9.
To Flavius Apion, the all-renowned and most magnificent former ordinary consul and patrician, landowner also here in the New City of Justin (Oxyrhynchus), through Menas, servant, who makes the stipulation and acquires for his own master, the same all-renowned man, the right of action and obligation, the Aurelii Anoup, steward (phrontistes), son of Ieremias, and Pamouthios son of Anoup, and another Pamouthios, secretary, son of Praous, all originating from the hamlet of Lower Sasou belonging to your magnificence, registered farmers of the same, greetings.
We acknowledge through this our present written security, without fraud, fear, force, deceit or compulsion, that we are ready to collect all the public taxes of the tenth indiction at the risk of ourselves and of the property of each of us, and to pay them to the glorious house, and to leave nothing at all of them in arrears. If it should happen that any of the said public taxes of the tenth indiction remain uncollected, we acknowledge, being liable for one another, that we will give these to your magnificence without any delay, at the risk of all our possessions. This agreement, written in a single copy, is valid, and having been asked the formal question we gave our assent.
We, the Aurelii Anoup son of Elias and Pamouthis son of Anoup and Pamouthis son of Praous, the aforementioned, agree to the present agreement concerning the public taxes as set out above. I, the same Pamouthis, wrote with my own hand on behalf of myself and on behalf of the others, who are illiterate. †
☧ Executed through me, Menas. ☧
[verso]
† Agreement made by those from the hamlet of Lower Sasou. †
The steward's father is called Ieremias in the body but Elias in the subscription. 'Registered farmers' renders enapographoi georgoi, tenants bound to the estate (often called coloni adscripticii).
Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Appointment of Tax Collectors). It has not been reviewed by a papyrologist: check the edition before citing. Restorations follow the edition; […] marks lost text and (?) an uncertain reading.