One text, 2 sources · Trismegistos-Text 33524
Letter from a father to his son with reproaches and advice TM 33524unbekanntfrühes IV
The same ancient text or artifact as recorded by 3 records across 2 independent projects, recognised as one entity by its TM-Text identifier. View on Trismegistos →
Fragmentary private letter from a father to his son, complaining that he has received no letter for a long time, rebuking the son for impious conduct toward his father, warning him against malicious people spreading rumours, and asking him to care for the father's people staying with him. It closes with a Latin farewell and dates to the early 4th century AD.
In English machine translation
[recto]
[...]
[...] in so long a time I have not received [a letter] [...] so that I am in anguish [lest] you be carried off(?) [...]
[...] me truly [...] in place of a son, but you have [not] done well in the matter of your father, doing an impious thing. But neither [...] ought you to give [...] to wicked people who wish to spread idle rumour about you, nor to trust you simply [...] to converse. For you have no good fellow-citizens in those who have attempted no good concerning you. I ask you therefore, son, to love my people who stay with you as your own, and to guard the knowledge which [...] and I have had [...] you command.
(Latin) I wish(?) that you, son, fare well.
[verso]
...
The Greek letter ends with a Latin farewell formula, apparently 'opto te, fili, bene valere' ('I wish you, son, good health'). The opening is lost, so the names of sender and recipient are unknown.
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.mert.3.115
[r] [… ? lines lost …] […]…αι[…] […]ἐν τοσούτῳ χρόνῳ γράμματα οὐκ ἐδεξάμην[…]ὥστε ἐν ἀγωνίᾳ γενέσθαι μὴ ἁρπαγῇς […]…μ ων […]…ν με ἀληθῶς […] ἀντὶ υἱοῦ ἀλλὰ οὐ καλῶς τὰ περὶ πατρὸς ἐποίησας οὐκ εὐσεβὲς πρᾶγμα ποιῶν· ἀλλʼ οὐδε […]…ν ὀφείλεις δοῦναι κακοῖς ἀνθρώποις τοῖς βουλομένοις…