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One text, 2 sources · Trismegistos-Text 23023

Wet-nursing contract for a foundling girl taken up as a slave TM 23023Oxyrhynchos25 - 26

The same ancient text or artifact as recorded by 2 records across 2 independent projects, recognised as one entity by its TM-Text identifier. View on Trismegistos →

A wet-nursing contract from Oxyrhynchus in which a Persian woman, Therb[…], with her husband as guardian and guarantor, agrees with Panechotes son of Pausiris to suckle and nurse for two years a baby girl he had rescued from a dung-heap to raise as a slave. Panechotes pays her yearly sums for food, clothing and other expenses, part of which she acknowledges receiving.

In English machine translation

[In the twelfth year of Tiberius Caesar Augustus], […] in the city of Oxyrhynchus of the Thebaid. Therb[…], from the village of […] of the […] toparchy, a Persian woman, with her guardian [and guarantor of all the terms of] this contract for payment, [her own husband] […] son of Demetrios, of the same [village, a Persian of the Epigone], acknowledges to Panechotes son of Pausiris that she has received [from him] in the street (?), from the present day, a female foundling infant which he has taken up [from the dung-heap into slavery], to which he has given the name […], [so that] the acknowledging party is obliged [to nourish it and suckle it with] her own milk, and also [to nurse it for a period of two] years from the same present day, [in return for the sums fixed] to be paid to her by Panechotes [for nourishment and] clothing and all the other [expenses for the child] […] and […] reckoning per year […] of silver coin, […] drachmas, [and indeed forthwith] she acknowledges, she and [her guardian and guarantor], to have received […] from Panechotes […] drachmas […] [… lines lost …]

Children picked up from rubbish heaps (apo koprias) were commonly raised as slaves in Roman Egypt. The phrase 'of the Thebaid' after Oxyrhynchus is unusual and may be a misreading or scribal oddity.

Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Engagement de nourrice). It has not been reviewed by a papyrologist: check the edition before citing. Restorations follow the edition; […] marks lost text and (?) an uncertain reading.

DDbDP-text Full record →

c.pap.gr.1.15

Papyri.info — DDbDP (Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri) — text · 25 - 26 · Oxyrhynchos

ἔτους δωδεκάτου Τιβερίου Καίσαρος Σεβαστοῦ[…]… ἐν Ὀξυρύγχων πόλει τῆς Θηβαίδος. ὁμολογεῖ Θερβ[…]ἀπὸ κώμης[…]τῆς[…] τοπαρχίας Περσίνη μετὰ κυρίου καὶ ἐγγύου πάντων τῶν κατὰ τὴν συγγραφὴν ταύτην εἰς ἔκτισιν τοῦ ἑαυτῆς ἀνδρὸς[…] […]… τοῦ Δημητρίου τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς αὐτῆς κώμης Πέρσου τῆς …