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One text, 2 sources · Trismegistos-Text 31747

Letter from Herakleides to Sarapion about the annona owed by Demetrios TM 31747Oxyrhynchites, Ägypten

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 →

Letter from Herakleides to Sarapion, apparently an official, on behalf of Demetrios the gnoster, asking that he not be troubled over past years and that the annona now being demanded be settled if possible, since they have no cattle or pigs. It was written on the back of a fragmentary account mentioning freight charges and arouras of land, in the Oxyrhynchite nome.

In English machine translation

[recto, column 1] [… 13 lines lost …] choice (?) […] freight charge […] of the distribution, arouras […] [recto, column 2] [… 14 lines lost …] [verso] Herakleides to Sarapion, the most esteemed, greeting. Demetrios the gnoster has asked me to tell you that he should be left untroubled concerning the previous years. For he says that I helped him greatly also in the matter of the annona. And he says that the annona is now being demanded. If then you can again settle it on your own account, good luck to it. But if not, write what you wish to be made ready. But do not neglect it, for I have not yet gone out. If you are able to settle it, you do a great work, because we have neither cattle nor pigs. I pray for your health and full prosperity.

A gnoster was a local official who vouched for the identity or status of persons; the annona here is a levy in kind, possibly of meat given the mention of cattle and pigs. The recto preserves only scraps of an unrelated account.

Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Letter of Heraclides to an Official). 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.12.1490

Papyri.info — DDbDP (Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri) — text · Oxyrhynchites, Ägypten

[r,1] [… 13 lines lost …] αἱρέσι τ[…] φορέτρο […] διανομῆς ἀρουρῶν […] [r,2] [… 14 lines lost …] [v] Ἡρακλείδης Σαραπίωνι τῶι ἀξιολογωτάτῳ χαίρειν. Δημήτριος ὁ γνωστὴρ ἠξίωσέν με λέγειν σοι ὥστε αὐτὸν ἄλυπον γενέσθαι ὑπὲρ τῶν προτέρων ἐτῶν. λέγει γὰρ ὅτι ὠφέλησα αὐτὸν μεγάλως καὶ…