A contract addressed to the archidikastes recording the sale of a half share of a small house in the Dromos of Thoeris quarter of Oxyrhynchus. Aurelius Moros and Aurelia Penierax sell it to Aurelius Sarapion for 160 silver drachmas, with the usual guarantees against claims. It dates from the early 3rd century AD.
In English machine translation
To Aurelius Sarapion also called Ammonios, priest, archidikastes and in charge of the supervision of the chrematistai and the other courts,
from Aurelius Sarapion son of Theon son of Diogenes, his mother being Sarapous, from the city of Oxyrhynchus, and from Aurelius Moros son of Saras, his mother being Sisois, and Aurelia Penierax daughter of […]atos, her mother being Taarthonis, both from the same city, Penierax acting without a guardian according to the customs of the Romans by the right of children.
Moros and Penierax acknowledge that they have sold to Sarapion, from now for all time, the half share belonging to them in the same city in the quarter of the Dromos of Thoeris of a small house with all its fixtures and entrances and exits, of which the whole has as neighbours: on the south, Saras; on the north, the purchaser and his brother; on the east, formerly Heron and partners; on the west, a public street. The 160 drachmas of silver in imperial coin agreed as the price of this half share of the small house and all fixtures Moros and Penierax have received on the spot from the purchaser, from hand to hand, in full.
Sarapion, therefore, with his descendants and those who will succeed him, shall possess and own this half share of the small house and all fixtures, and shall have the power to manage and administer it in whatever manner he chooses without hindrance, and neither Moros nor Penierax nor anyone else on their behalf shall proceed against him in any manner; and they shall deliver the aforesaid half share free from the registration of men and from the cultivation of royal and estate land and from every kind of debt, both public and private, and from anything else whatsoever. Anyone who proceeds or lays claim in any manner whatsoever on account of the share they will immediately repel at their own expense as if by judgment. To the formal question whether this has been done thus rightly and properly, the purchaser asked, and the sellers agreed.
[…]
The 'right of children' (ius liberorum) allowed a Roman woman with enough children to act without a guardian. The end of the contract, including any date and signatures, 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 Sale of Part of a House). It has not been reviewed by a papyrologist: check the edition before citing. Restorations follow the edition; […] marks lost text and (?) an uncertain reading.