A lease offer from four men of Hermopolis to the town councillor Aurelius Hermeias alias Silvanus, renting five arouras of his land near Thynis for one year to sow with wheat at a rent of 4 artabas per aroura. The landowner keeps responsibility for all taxes, and he signs his acceptance. Dated 25 October 320 at Hermopolis.
In English machine translation
In the consulship of our masters Flavius Valerius Constantinus Augustus for the 6th time and Constantinus the most noble Caesar.
To Aurelius Hermeias also called Silvanus, son of Olympios, councillor of Hermopolis,
from the Aurelii Hales son of Horion, his mother being Isidora, and Pinoution son of Pieus, his mother being Sophia, and […]os son of Ammonios, his mother being Tanyris, and Amonis son of Pieus, through us, the present Hales and Pinoution, all from Hermopolis the most splendid city.
We wish, voluntarily and of our own free choice, to lease from you for the 9th indiction only the five arouras belonging to you near Thynis, from the holding of Asklepiades, for sowing with wheat, at a rent for each aroura found to be under crop according to the survey of 4 artabas of wheat. The total rent we will pay and measure out, under mutual guarantee or from whichever of us you choose, in discharge of the said 4 artabas, in new wheat, cleaned, unadulterated, free of earth, sieved, by the Athenian measure, at the threshing floors of the metropolis, all public dues and levies of every kind and surcharges and annona payments being the responsibility of you, the landowner. The lease is valid, and having been asked the formal question we have consented.
In the aforesaid consulship, Phaophi 28.
I, Aurelius Hermeias also called Silvanus, have leased as stated above.
The annona was the state tax in kind on agricultural produce; here the landlord, not the tenants, bears it. The rent is reckoned per aroura actually found sown by the official survey.
Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Pachtung von Feldern). It has not been reviewed by a papyrologist: check the edition before citing. Restorations follow the edition; […] marks lost text and (?) an uncertain reading.