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One text, 2 sources · Trismegistos-Text 31783

Letter from Theon to his son Apollonios with farm instructions TM 31783OxyrhynchosIII

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 Theon to his son Apollonios, sending eggs and vegetables and giving farm instructions: cutting and burning a thorn tree, levelling earthworks, preparing bricks for a wall, and paying wheat to river-workers. Written at Oxyrhynchus in the 3rd century AD.

In English machine translation

Theon to Apollonios his son, greetings. Since I did not find meat to send you, I have sent 20 eggs and vegetables. Have the acacia (?) tree cut down and throw its wood into the borer (?). But you, cut it down and burn its root, and if the work is finished as far as the embankment, let the […] be thrown down and let the whole of the filled-in area be levelled. And put the baked brick by the wall, and the builder is coming and will build the southern wall. [And] I spoke to the steward of Apollonios about the machine, about which he told me that if I am there […] to the carpenters and […] let the river-workers […] stop and not […] plot of land […] [margin] Have given from the threshing-floor to the river-workers from Stratonikos to Mouchis 8 1/2 artabas of wheat […] be there with him […]

Akantha here probably means the acacia (thorn) tree, valued for timber; the meaning of trypanon in this context is uncertain. The potamitai were workers on the river or canals.

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 Theon to his son Apollonios). 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.14.1674

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

[ctr] Θέων Ἀπολλωνίῳ υἱῷ χαίρειν. ἐπειδὴ οὐχ εὗρον κρέας σοι πέμψαι, ἔπεμψα ᾠὰ κ καὶ λάχανα. ποίησον τὴν ἄκανθαν καταβληθῆναι καὶ τὴν ὕλην αὐτῆς βάλε εἰς τὸν τρύπανον. ἀλλὰ σὺ κατάβαλε καὶ καῦσον τὴν ῥίζαν αὐτῆς, καὶ ἐὰν συντελεσθῇ τὸ ἔργον μέχρι τοῦ χώματος, καταβληθήτω ἡ κ…νις …