A private business letter from Horion to Serenus, probably his agent, rebuking him for not sending contractors or reporting news, and instructing him to check on the compulsory grain purchase, obtain an account from the sitologos Ptolemaios, and come to settle the rent accounts. It was written at Oxyrhynchus in the 3rd century AD.
In English machine translation
Horion to Serenus, greetings.
You did not send the contractors as I instructed you, nor did you even write whether they had taken their leave (?), so that I might make arrangements accordingly, nor whether Diogas the wool-seller came, so that we might learn his intention too. I instructed you to inquire about the compulsory purchase of grain, whether it is being completed, and to meet Ptolemaios the sitologos and send his account, after receiving it from Apollonios and Heras, so that our household may not be troubled. So even now do these things, and take the trouble to come here yourself, so that we may settle the accounts of the rents. If the inspectors have come, inform Nikephoros, so that […]
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The synagorastikon was a compulsory purchase of grain by the state from landholders; the sitologos was the official in charge of a public granary. 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 (catalogued as Letter of Horion to Serenus). It has not been reviewed by a papyrologist: check the edition before citing. Restorations follow the edition; […] marks lost text and (?) an uncertain reading.