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One text, 2 sources · Trismegistos-Text 28940

Letter about payment for sheep and grazing of a fodder plot TM 28940OxyrhynchitesII - III

The same ancient text or artifact as recorded by 3 records across 2 independent projects, recognised as one entity by its TM-Text identifier. View on Trismegistos →

Private letter asking the recipient to release Priamos and Mamertinus and hand over 14 sheep after settling a payment totalling 260 drachmas. The writer complains that the recipient broke his word about the price for grazing a fodder plot and reproaches him for missing a festival. From the Oxyrhynchite nome, 2nd-3rd century AD.

In English machine translation

[recto] […] […] when Priamos arrives, release him, giving him the 14 sheep you have with you, while you receive 140 drachmas, besides the 40 drachmas you received from me in my presence and 80 from Priamos, making 260 drachmas in all. I want you to know that you have acted against your pledge. For when I was present you promised that the two-aroura plot of fodder would be grazed for 100 drachmas. But afterwards you made a new demand on us, with the price of the goat, of 30 drachmas, though the five arouras were not even full, knowing that I was not coming forward as a stranger but as one of your own. So now, dearest, make no delay, but release him and Mamertinus at once, serving them (?) for the night. You did wrong not to come up for the festival. Even now come up, for the sake of … your friend. Farewell. [verso] Agath…

The opening is lost, so the names of sender and recipient are unknown; the verso may preserve the start of an address (Agath…). The arithmetic (140 + 40 + 80 = 260) is stated in the text itself.

Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Private Letter). It has not been reviewed by a papyrologist: check the edition before citing. Restorations follow the edition; […] marks lost text and (?) an uncertain reading.

DDbDP-text Full record →

p.dubl.15

Papyri.info — DDbDP (Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri) — text · II - III · Oxyrhynchites

[r] [… ? lines lost …] […]θεων παραγενομένου Πριάμου ἀπόλυσον αὐτὸν, δοὺς αὐτῷ τὰ ὄντα παρὰ σοὶ πρόβατα ιδ, σοῦ ἀπολαμβάνοντος δραχμὰς ἑκατὸν τεσσεράκοντα μεθʼ ἃς ἔλαβες παρʼ ἐμοῦ ἐπὶ παρόντι μοι δραχμὰς τεσσεράκοντα καὶ παρὰ Πριάμου ὀγδοήκοντα , ὡς εἶναι ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ δραχμὰς διακ…