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One text, 2 sources · Trismegistos-Text 26865

Letter from Theon to Chairemon about fodder, chaff and wine TM 26865OxyrhynchosII - III

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 business letter from Theon to Chairemon, probably a farm manager, giving instructions about fodder (trodden hay and chaff) at Tholthis, the sale of orchard wine, wages for manure work, and sending six jars of wine by donkey. It dates to the 2nd or 3rd century AD and comes from Oxyrhynchus.

In English machine translation

[recto] [… lines lost …] [verso] From Theon. Greetings, Chairemon. If you find that you need trodden hay (?), transfer to Tholthis the stock of Hekysios that is there. But let plenty of chaff be mixed in so that it is not used up quickly; for when the cheap wines of the orchard are sold, then you can buy trodden hay there. For perhaps it will be cheap as the water rises. Do not neglect the transport of the chaff from Tholthis. And for now do not pay wages to the animals (?) for the sake of manure until the inundation, so that you do not pay wages. Farewell. Send up for the allowance 6 jars of wine from the orchard by the donkey of Kopreus, and do it now, and by one of his sons.

"Chortopatema" seems to mean hay or fodder trodden out on the threshing floor; the phrase rendered "to the animals (?)" (Greek ktesi) is uncertain. The recto text is lost and the letter is written on the verso.

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 Theon to Chaeremon). 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.41.2985

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

[r,ctr] [… ? lines lost …] [r,minf] [v] παρὰ Θέωνος χαῖρε Χαιρήμων. ἐὰν μάθῃς ὅτι χρείαν ἔχεις χορτοπατήματος εἰς τὴν Θῶλθιν μετένεγκον τὸ τοῦ Ἑκυσίου ἐκεῖ. ἀλλὰ πολὺ ἄχυρον παραμιγήτω ἵνα μὴ ταχέως ἀναλωθῇ· ὅταν γὰρ τὰ τοῦ πωμαρίου οἰνάρια πραθῇ, τότε δύνασαι χορτοπάτημα ἐκεῖ ἀγ…