Letter of Heraclides
Side 1: Letter from Heraclides to Hatres, reproaching him for not sending 20 drachmae. (Grenfell & Hunt) Side 2: Parts of 19 lines from a taxing-account. (Grenfell & Hunt)
One text, 3 sources · Trismegistos-Text 28372
Letter from Herakleides to Hatres demanding payment of 20 drachmas TM 28372Oxyrhynchos2nd 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 private letter from Herakleides to Hatres, reproaching him for failing to send 20 drachmas that Herakleides had assigned to his partners. He demands immediate payment to the letter carrier and threatens to come in person, recalling that Hatres avoided him at Paomis out of a guilty conscience. Written at Oxyrhynchus in the 2nd century AD.
In English machine translation
Herakleides to his dearest Hatres, greetings.
You ought, even without my writing to you, to have sent up the 20 drachmas by Saetes, knowing that I transferred them there to my partners; but you have waited all this time without paying. So it is imperative that you pay at once to the bearer of this letter, so that you may spare me trouble too. See to it then that you do not act otherwise and make me come to you to have it out with you. For indeed I found you at Paomis then, and when I wished to treat you kindly you did not wait, held back by a bad conscience.
The other side of the papyrus carries part of a tax account. Paomis is a village; the verb rendered 'have it out' (synzētein) implies a dispute or reckoning.
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 Heraclides). 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.oxy.3.532
Ἡρακλείδης Ἁτρῆτι τῶι φιλτάτῳ χαίρειν. ἔδει μέν σε χωρὶς τοῦ με γεγραφέναι σοι διὰ Σαήτου ἀναπέμψαι τὰς δραχμὰς κ, εἰδὼς ὅτι αὐτόθι μετεβαλόμην τοῖς κοινωνοῖς μου αὐτάς, ἀλλὰ ἀνέμεινας τὸν τοσοῦτον χρόνον μὴ ἀποδούς. ἀναγκαίως οὖν τῷ ἀναδιδοῦντι σοι τὸ ἐπιστόλιον τοῦτο εὐθέως ἀπό…