Home › Spine › TM 30658
One text, 2 sources · Trismegistos-Text 30658

Letter from Herakleides to Pappos about overdue work on the estates TM 30658unbekanntIII

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 →

Private letter from Herakleides to Pappos, written in the 3rd century AD, about agricultural work on estates. Herakleides reports, while politely deferring to Pappos' expertise, that the seasonal tasks on the plantations have not yet been done and that weeds have grown because of it.

In English machine translation

[verso] Herakleides to the most honoured Pappos, greetings. To write to you, who know better than I the right season for each task, I consider superfluous. However, so that I may not seem to be neglectful, I write to you that, although the estates (vineyards?) are in season and ought already to have been pruned (?), for it is already time also for tying them up, we have not yet done any of these things, besides the fact that they have also produced a great deal of weeds above them because they have not been pruned (?), and […] […]

The verbs translated 'pruned' (katastellein) and 'tying up' (analambanein) are technical viticultural terms whose exact sense is uncertain; they probably refer to cutting back and training the vines. The end of the letter is lost.

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.

DDbDP-text Full record →

p.berl.moeller.10v

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

[v] Ἡρακλείδης Πάππωι τῶι τιμιωτάτωι χαίρειν. τὸ γράφειν σοι εἰδότι μᾶλλον ἐμοῦ ἑκάστου ἔργου τὸν καιρὸν περιττὸν ἡγοῦμαι. πλὴν ἵνα μὴ δοκοίην ἀμελεῖν, γράφω σοι, ὅτι καιρὸν ἐχόντων τῶν κτημάτων καὶ ὀφειλόντων ἤδη καὶ κατεστάλθαι ἤδη γὰρ καὶ πρὸς τὸ ἀναλημφθῆναί ἐστιν οὐδὲν οὔπω …