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Letter from Diogenes to Apollogenes ordering vines to be cut down TM 26813OxyrhynchosII

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 Diogenes to Apollogenes, written at Oxyrhynchus in the 2nd century AD, about managing an estate. Diogenes impatiently repeats his order to cut down certain vines and resow the land, questions the need for three teams of animals to irrigate a small vineyard at Chalothis, and acknowledges receipt of a jar of olives.

In English machine translation

[recto] Diogenes to his dearest Apollogenes, […] greeting. Having written to you countless times to cut down the [vines?] near Phai[…] […], as Demetrios the gymnasiarch and Adrastos and Sotas decided, I again received a letter from you today asking what I want done. To which I reply: cut them down, cut them down, cut them down, cut them down, cut them down! There, I say it many times over. And let it be sown with whatever should be grown, together with the […] which is now under fodder, when the fodder has been grazed or cut. I am surprised if there is need of three teams for the irrigation of the vineyard at Chalothis, which has been reduced to a small area. For it is not so much a matter of the price of the extra team as of its feed and the other expense. But if you think there is need, send my letter on to Sarapion at Oxyrhynchus, which I have enclosed (?) […], and you will tell him whether you want a male […] instead of the males a female […]; but know that […] of a female […] less. I received […] the jar of olives; the other things […] I have written, keep them until I come to you. Farewell, dearest Apollogenes. Farewell. Mecheir 16. [verso] …

The fivefold repetition of 'cut down' (ekkopson) is in the original and shows the writer's exasperation. The 'teams' (zeugē) are pairs of draught animals, probably oxen, used to work irrigation machines.

Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Letter of Diogenes to Apollogenes). 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 →

p.oxy.42.3063

Papyri.info — DDbDP (Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri) — text · II · Oxyrhynchos

[r] Διογένης Ἀπολλογένει τῶι φιλτάτωι …… χαίρειν. μυριάκις γεγραφὼς ἐκκόψαι τὰ πρὸς τῷ Φάι αμπε[…]… ὡς ἔδοξεν Δημητρίῳ τῷ γυμνασιάρχῳ καὶ Ἀδράστῳ καὶ Σώτᾳ πάλιν σου ἔλαβον ἐπιστολὴν σήμερον πυνθανομένου τί βούλομαι γενέσθαι. πρὸς ἣν ἀντιγράφω ἔκκοψον ἔκκοψον ἔκκοψον ἔκκοψον ἔκκοψ…