Private letter
The recipient has neglected sending the writer of the letter some olive-oil that the latter had asked for, and now he is writing demanding for his oil to be dispatched to him immediately or else.
One text, 3 sources · Trismegistos-Text 31416
Letter demanding the dispatch of a metretes of oil TM 31416Oxyrhynchus3rd or 4th century A.D.
The same ancient text or artifact as recorded by 3 records across 3 independent projects, recognised as one entity by its TM-Text identifier. View on Trismegistos →
Fragment of a private letter in which the writer rebukes the recipient for failing to send him oil through his brother and for staying in the Oxyrhynchite nome. He demands that a metretes of oil be sent with his messenger, together with a donkey, or else he will come and quarrel or have others collect it. It dates to the 3rd or 4th century AD, from Oxyrhynchus.
In English machine translation
[…]
You are doing wrong in not sending me the oil through your brother, but instead staying in the Oxyrhynchite (nome) and not showing up here. Now therefore send me the metretes of oil with the man sent by me, giving him a donkey, so that I am not compelled to come there and fight with you, or you compel me to ask others to demand it from you. For this reason also, contrary to the […]
[…]
The metretes was a standard liquid measure for oil and wine. The beginning and end of the letter are lost, and the final surviving line is illegible.
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.
p.fouad.1.79
[… ? lines lost …] κακὸν πράσσεις μὴ ἀποστείλας μοι τὸ ἔλαιον διὰτοῦ ἀδελφοῦ σου, ἀλλὰ παρεπιδημήσας τῷ Ὀξυρυγχείτῃ καὶ μὴ φανεὶς ἐνθάδε. νῦν οὖν τὸν μετρητὴν τοῦ ἐλαίου μοι ἀπόστειλον μετὰ τοῦ ἀποσταλέντος ὑπʼ ἐμοῦ, δοὺς αὐτῷ ὄνον ἵνα μὴ ἐγὼ ἀναγκασθῶ ἐλθὼν ἐκεῖ μαχεσθῆναί σοι ἢ…