A private letter of the 2nd century AD from Hermaios to his son Areios. He reports sending purple dye, 12 eggs for a little girl and 160 drachmas, and tells Areios to settle accounts with a certain Paneros and pay him 60 drachmas more.
In English machine translation
Greetings, my child Areios,
from Hermaios your father.
I have sent you the purple dye; the darker shade has been made for the sparse (?) one and the brighter for the other. I have sent 12 eggs to the little girl. If Paneros comes to you, settle accounts with him on what he owes from before, and pay him an additional 60 drachmas, making a single account. There is no question about his written documents (?), if he settles accounts. I have sent you 160 drachmas. Greet the little girl and her mother, nothing to you in […] field (?) on the 28th.
The meaning of 'to spanon' (literally 'the sparse/thin one'), for which the darker dye was made, is uncertain; it may refer to a piece of cloth. The last line is damaged and its sense unclear.
Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below. It has not been reviewed by a papyrologist: check the edition before citing. Restorations follow the edition; […] marks lost text and (?) an uncertain reading.