Letter from Theagenes and Panechotes to their villagers about liturgies TM 30331OxyrhynchosIII

Fragmentary letter from Theagenes and Panechotes to the people of their village, reporting that the procurator had handed over to the villagers those who had registered in the city, so that they could be assigned compulsory public services. They also report that a certain Dionysios son of Pataesis had paid the village headman to plead about the liturgy before the epistrategos. Written at Oxyrhynchus in the 3rd century AD.

In English machine translation

A liturgy was a compulsory public service imposed on qualified residents; the dispute seems to concern villagers who had registered in the city, perhaps to escape village liturgies. The verb 'gave' has no stated object, so whether it was a bribe or a share of information is uncertain.

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