Fragment of a loan contract from the Oxyrhynchite nome in the 2nd century AD, in which three arouras of land serve as security for a loan from a man named Ophelas. If the borrower fails to repay, Ophelas may take possession of the land and its produce permanently; the borrower guarantees the land free of claims and taxes and faces penalties for breach.
In English machine translation
[... lines lost ...]
[...] ... [...] ... [...] ...
[...] eight [...]hundred (?) drachmas [...]
[...] but if he does not repay as written, let it be permitted to Ophelas [...] ... and ... [...] to enter upon the aforesaid arouras and to hold them [...] together with those who will succeed him for all time, and to carry off the produce arising from them each year, and [...] ... lent (?) [...]
[...] neither against Ophelas nor against those deriving from him, nor against the arouras, nor against any part of them, nor against the produce arising from them, in any manner; but he shall also of necessity guarantee to Ophelas and those deriving from him the three arouras, always secure against all claims with every guarantee, free from public dues and all other taxes from former times up to the stated term and including the term itself. And if the borrower contravenes any of these things, it shall be invalid, and he shall additionally pay to Ophelas or those deriving from him, for whatever point he contravenes, the damages and a penalty of 300 silver drachmas and an equal amount to the public treasury, and the money immediately with half as much again, together with the appropriate interest for the time from when he contravenes; and let Ophelas have the right of execution upon the borrower and upon all his property, as if by a court judgment. Of the taxes and [...] of the registrations in the cavalry allotments (?) of the coming [...] both parties equally, because they have given [...] the registrations and the costs of the deposit [...]
[...]
"Katalochismos" refers to the official registration of transfers of catoecic (settler) land; the parties share these costs equally. The amount of the loan is lost apart from the word "eight".
Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Loan on Security). It has not been reviewed by a papyrologist: check the edition before citing. Restorations follow the edition; […] marks lost text and (?) an uncertain reading.