Home › Spine › TM 25638
One text, 2 sources · Trismegistos-Text 25638

Letter from Zosimos to Sarapion about the sale of a neighbour's olive grove TM 25638ArsinoitesI

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 private letter from Zosimos to Sarapion, sending his man about an olive grove whose fruit-buyer was being pressed by tax collectors and which is now to be sold to the head of a royal office. Zosimos claims a neighbour's right of first purchase and asks Sarapion to report on the situation. It dates to the 1st century AD, from the Arsinoite nome.

In English machine translation

Zosimos to his dearest Sarapion, greetings. I have sent you my man, so that you will kindly, after settling (?) the matter of the boundary, concerning his own olive grove here; for since recently his fruit-buyer, being harassed by the collectors on account of an assessment (?), sent me word through Soterichos the camel-driver: "Look after him until I come to you," and I promised them the matter as though he were coming; but just now I heard from the fruit-buyer that it is being sold to the head of the royal […]. So it is necessary to prepare and to choose in advance, so that he may be able to sell; for I have the prior claim, since I am his neighbour. So please let me know how things stand; for I know to whom I am writing, and our guards [are] a trouble to […]. I pray for your health.

The karpones was a buyer of a crop in advance; Zosimos invokes a neighbour's pre-emption right (to proteraion). Several phrases are grammatically loose and the restorations of 'olive grove' and 'boundary' are editorial.

Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below. 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 →

bgu.3.830

Papyri.info — DDbDP (Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri) — text · I · Arsinoites

Ζώσιμος Σαραπίωνι τῶι φιλτάτωι χαίρειν. διεπεμψάμην σοι τὸν ἐμὸν ἄνθρωπον, ὅπως καλῶς ποιήσεις, συμβαλὼν χάρακα περὶ τοῦ ἐλαιῶνος ἰδίου αὐτοῦ τοῦ ἐνθάδε· ἐπεὶ γὰρ πρώην διενοχλούμενος ὁ αὐτοῦ καρπώνης ὑπὸ τῶν πρακτόρων ἕνεκα ἐπιβολῆς ἔπεμψέ μοι διὰ Σωτηρίχου τοῦ καμηλίτου φάσιν, …