Act prescript
This text is no doubt a contract, but its nature cannot be specified. The text begins with a full dating formula.
One text, 3 sources · Trismegistos-Text 2853
Prescript of a contract with eponymous priests and personal descriptions TM 2853unknown180/179 (?) BCE
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 →
Opening of a Ptolemaic Greek contract with a full dating formula naming the reigning king and the eponymous priests and priestesses of the royal cult. Only scraps of the body survive, including numbers and physical descriptions of parties (medium height, honey-coloured complexion), so the type of agreement cannot be determined.
In English machine translation
[In the reign of Ptolemy son of Ptolemy and Cleopatra, gods Epiphaneis, year] […], [when the priest] [of Alexander and the gods Soteres and the gods Adelphoi and the gods Euergetai and the gods Philopatores and the gods Epiphaneis […] and the gods Philometores was Poseidonios son of Pos]eidonios, [the athlophoros] of Berenike [Euergetis was Strat]onike daughter of Apollonios, [the kanephoros of Arsino]e Philadelphos was Simariste [daughter of Euphranor, the pri]estess of Arsinoe Philopator was [Eirene daughter of Pt]olemaios, in the month […] Epeiph […] has been summoned (?) […]
[…] to you (?) […]
[…] forty (?) […]
[…]tor […]
[…] thirty […]
[…]
[…] of medium height, honey-coloured complexion, straight-haired
[…] allotment (?) […]
[…] of medium height, honey-[coloured] […]
[…]
The kings' names are restored; mention of the gods Philometores alongside the gods Epiphaneis suggests the early reign of Ptolemy VI. The athlophoros and kanephoros were annual priestesses of the dynastic cult used to date documents.
Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Act Prescript). 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.leid.inst.1.20
βασιλεύοντος Πτολεμαίου τοῦ Πτολεμαίου καὶ Κλεοπάτρας θεῶν Ἐπιφανῶν ἔτους[…]ἐφʼ ἱερέως Ποσειδωνίου τοῦ Ποσειδωνίου Ἀλεξάνδρου καὶ θεῶν Σωτήρων καὶ θεῶν Ἀδελφῶν καὶ θεῶν Εὐεργετῶν καὶ θεῶν Φιλοπατόρων καὶ θεῶν Ἐπιφανῶν […] καὶ θεῶν Φιλομητόρων, ἀθλοφόρου Βερενίκης Εὐεργέτιδος Στρα…