One text, 3 sources · Trismegistos-Text 27084

Letter from Claudius Terentianus to his father Tiberianus about money for travel to Alexandria TM 27084unknown place, province of Egypt(?)(Early) IInd century A.D.

The same ancient text or artifact as recorded by 6 records across 3 independent projects, recognised as one entity by its TM-Text identifier. View on Trismegistos →

A Latin private letter from Claudius Terentianus to his father Claudius Tiberianus, recounting his failed attempts to get money and clothing from Saturninus and others so that he could travel to Alexandria, amid family troubles including his mother's childbirth and a dispute involving Ptolemaeus. It dates to the early 2nd century AD and comes from Roman Egypt.

In English machine translation

[recto] [… 9 lines lost …] I say to him, 'Give me'; I say, 'a little money, I shall go', I say, 'to the friends of my father.' Likewise he entrusted to me a needle and linens; he gave me not a single as. I, however, collected a little money here and there and went to […] and […] and bought the few things I wanted. If the weather were favourable, he would go out to Alexandria; he was silent. Likewise he did not give me money, but a gold piece to my mother for clothes. 'This is,' he said, 'what your father entrusted to me.' But at the time I came, everything was lacking (?), both wool and…; and I found my mother pregnant; she could do nothing. Then after a few days she gave birth and could not help me. Likewise Ptolemes, my father, had a dispute over my clothes, and it happened that he had to go to Alexandria with the recruits, and he left me alone with my mother; we could do nothing in his absence. When we were about to leave there, my mother said, 'Let us wait for him until he comes, and I will come with you to Alexandria and escort you as far as the ship.' Saturninus was already ready to leave on that day when so great a dispute arose. I say to him, 'Come, intervene, if you can help Ptolemaeus my father.' He cared no more for me than for a toilet sponge, but only for his own business, and, absorbed in his own affairs as he was leaving, I say to him, 'Give me a little money so that I can come with my things to Alexandria for expenses.' He denied that he had any. 'Come,' he says, 'to Alexandria and I will give it to you.' I did not leave. My mother sold the linens for us for an as (?) so that I might come to Alexandria. [verso] To Claudius Tiberianus, his father, from Claudius Terentianus.

The Latin is colloquial and confused, so several passages are uncertain; 'father' may be a term of respect, as Terentianus also calls Ptolemaeus his father. A 'xylesphongium' was a sponge on a stick used in latrines..

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

Private Letter

Papyri.info — APIS (Advanced Papyrological Information System) — papyri · P.Mich.inv. 5393 · (Early) IInd century A.D. · unknown place, province of Egypt(?)

Letter from Claudius Terentianus to his father(?) Claudius Tiberianus, explaining his unsuccessful attempts to obtain money and clothing to go to Alexandria

c.epist.lat.146

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

[r] [… 9 lines lost …] dico illi da mihi dico aes paucum ibo dico ad amicos patris mei item acum linteaminaque mihi mandavit nullum assem mihi dedit ego tamen hinc abinde collegi paucum aes et ivi ad …uaroclum et …g[…]ivan et emi pauca quae expetivi si aequum tempus esset se exit…