A letter written from Alexandria between AD 113 and 117 to a woman addressed as "sister", probably Aline, wife of the strategos Apollonios. The writer cannot find the title deeds of sale for some slaves, asks her to help trace the dates and registry offices of the sales, and reports recommending her to officials.
In English machine translation
[column 1]
[…]
[column 2]
[…] letters of recommendation to the epistrategos, in case he should reach you first. I also instructed Antoninus the soldier, who was with us during the epistrategy of Vindex and has now sailed up again with the epistrategos, to stand by you in the whole affair. Nonetheless I have now also sent you a little letter to him. The documents of title for the slaves I have not found up to now. For at my house neither the sale from you to Achilleus was found, nor that from Achilleus to the deceased lady. And Achilleus is away from home, and I am at a loss in the matter, since I am not accustomed to throw away any document at all, least of all the more important ones. But also the man who bought the other slave from you, a petty orator who pleads before the iuridicus, though he often promised to tell us the date of the sale, has behaved unreasonably. So if you can remember the date well and through which record office it was executed, let me know, and search among your papers in case the sale to Apollonarion is there. And if you know through which scribe the registration of the sale from you to Achilleus was made, write to me; for it was not found with Potamon the scribe. And so that
[column 3]
in the meantime no one troubles you, I have written to the secretary of the strategos recommending little Herakleides and explaining the matter, so that he may think of something else until I send the documents or come myself. As for the letter about Sarapion, confirm it as your own achievement to those who inquire of you and to Sarapion himself, grasping also the importance of the matter. And if, with good fortune, you sail down, bring a fine small blanket (?), so that we may send it to Philos, who has treated us generously, or whatever else you approve. I pray for your health, sister. Greet Herakleides. Ptolemaios greets everyone.
Mecheir 28
Part of the archive of the strategos Apollonios; the opening column is lost. "Chrematismoi" here means official documents of title; the "dikaiodotes" is the iuridicus, a Roman judicial official in Alexandria.
Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Wo sind die Papiere?). It has not been reviewed by a papyrologist: check the edition before citing. Restorations follow the edition; […] marks lost text and (?) an uncertain reading.