Contract [Late II AD]
Contract of a businness manager with two flute players to perform in Alabastrine for 8 days
One text, 3 sources · Trismegistos-Text 27234
Contract for pipe-playing by a troupe at Alabastrine TM 27234Alabastrine (Hermopolites)170 CE – 199 CE
The same ancient text or artifact as recorded by 3 records across 3 independent projects, recognised as one entity by its TM-Text identifier. View on Trismegistos →
A contract for musical entertainment in which Silvanus son of Ammonios, an agent from the Hermopolite nome, agrees with two men of Alabastrine to perform on the pipe with his whole troupe in their village for 8 days from Epeiph 24, for a daily wage in silver drachmas. It dates to the late 2nd century AD; the rest of the text is lost.
In English machine translation
Silvanus son of Ammonios, of the Hermopolite nome, agent,
to Ploution son of Tapous and Dioskoros
son of Hadrianos, both from Alabastrine, greetings. I have agreed with
you that I shall play the pipe together with
my whole troupe in the aforesaid village for 8 days from the 24th
of the coming month Epeiph, at a wage
for each day of […] silver drachmas
[…]
[…]
The museum description calls the two villagers flute players, but the text has Silvanus himself and his troupe (syntaxis) doing the playing, with the villagers apparently as hirers. The verb 'aulein' refers to playing the aulos, a reed pipe usually rendered 'flute'.
Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Contract for Musical Entertainment). It has not been reviewed by a papyrologist: check the edition before citing. Restorations follow the edition; […] marks lost text and (?) an uncertain reading.
p.col.8.226
Σιλβανὸς Ἀμμωνίου Ἑρμοπολίτης πραγματευτὴς Πλουτίωνι Ταποῦτος καὶ Διοσκόρῳ Ἁδριανοῦ ἀμφοτέροις ἀπὸ Ἀλαβαστρίνης χαίρειν· συνεφώνησα πρὸς ὑμᾶς ὥστε αὐλῆσαί με ἅμα τῇ συντάξει μου πάσῃ ἐν τῇ προκειμένῃ κώμῃ ἐφʼ ἡμέρας η ἀπὸ κδ τοῦ ἑξῆς μηνὸς Ἐπείφ, μισθοῦ ἑκάστης ἡμέρας ἀργυρίου δρ…