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Letter from Didymos to his sons Areios and Dionysios about a boat and fodder TM 30386OxyrhynchosIII

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

A private letter from Didymos to his sons Areios and Dionysios, complaining that their neglect over arranging a boat left him stranded with his animals and forced him to have them swim across the river. He asks them urgently to hire a boat of 150 to 200 artabas capacity, arrange for fodder to be carried as part of the fare, and send certain containers from the house. Oxyrhynchus, 3rd century AD.

In English machine translation

Didymos to Areios and Dionysios, his sons, greetings. We have been badly let down (?), since you neglected the matter of the boat. Because of this I did not even send the animals up today, expecting to load fodder for them. And now we have not found a ferry to take them across, but taking a risk I sent them to be taken across swimming, and whether he was able to bring them up [...]. So do everything to send us a boat, so that the [...] which they have made are not lost as well. Let the boat be of up to 150 (artabas) capacity, unless Paesis' boat is coming, or if it is necessary, even up to 200. And when you engage the boat, agree with the sailor to load 4 baskets of fodder for us as part of the freight charge. And send us a jar, above all the small badion that is in the bedroom, and the large kapsakes. And look after the animals until we come up. For see, a little fodder for them [...]. I pray for your health for many years.

Badion and kapsakes are types of jars or flasks with no exact English equivalent. Boat capacity is reckoned in artabas, a grain measure, which is understood rather than written.

Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Letter from Didymus). 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.oxy.36.2784

Papyri.info — DDbDP (Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri) — text · III · Oxyrhynchos

Δίδυμος Ἀρείῳ καὶ Διονυσίωι υἱοῖς χαίρειν. ἱκανῶς ἐνηδρεύθημεν, ἀμελησάντων ὑμῶν περὶ τὸ πλοῖον. διὰ γὰρ τοῦτο σήμερον οὐδὲ τὰ κτήνη ἀνέπεμψα προσδοκῶν χόρτον αὐτοῖς ἐμβαλέσθαι. καὶ νῦν πορθμεῖον οὐκ εὕρομεν διαπερᾶσαι αὐτὰ ἀλλὰ παραβολευσάμενος ἔπεμψα αὐτὰ κολυμβω διαπεραθῆναι κ…