Private letter
Letter to a chief physician.
One text, 3 sources · Trismegistos-Text 28901
Letter from Theon to Ammonios the chief physician about grapes, bread and purchases TM 28901Unknown place, province of EgyptIInd century A.D.
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 Theon to Ammonios, a chief physician, acknowledging receipt of a sealed basket of fresh grapes and sending back bread and rolls through the same carrier, Petechon. Theon also mentions donkey work from Hathyr 13, a pending matter, and asks Ammonios to buy him figs and another item weighing 5 minas and to tell him the price. It dates to the 2nd century AD, from an unknown place in Egypt.
In English machine translation
Theon to Ammonios the chief physician, greetings. I received from Petechon a sealed basket full of fresh grapes. Receive from the same man 12 loaves of pure bread and the basket containing 5 rolls (kollourai), pure, as you wrote. Every day he will drive the donkeys from the 13th of Hathyr; he receives barley […]. He is sitting by […] Chemm… […] if he comes out, I will inform you about the necessary matter, and take from him the price. Buy me figs and […] weighing 5 minas; send them to me. Tell me the price you want me to pay.
An archiatros was a chief or public physician, often a salaried civic doctor. The middle section and one purchased item ("ανκ…λην") are damaged and unclear.
Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Letter to a Chief Physician). 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.oslo.2.53
Θέων Ἀμμωνίῳ τῷ ἀρχιατρῷ χαίρειν. ἐκομισάμην παρὰ Πετεχῶντος κίστην ἐσφραγισμένην μεστὴν σταφυλῆς χλωρᾶς. κόμισαι παρὰ τοῦ αὐτοῦ καθαροὺς ἄρτους δώδεκα καὶ τὴν κίστην ἔχουσαν κολλούρας πέντε , καθαροὺς καθὼς ἔγραψας. καθʼ ἡμέραν ἄξει τοὺς ὄνους ἀπὸ ιγ τοῦ Ἁθύρ· λαμβάνει κριθῆς χ …