Letter
An illiterate letter from Asclas to Abonas concerning boats and other matters. The verso contains the address.
One text, 3 sources · Trismegistos-Text 33680
Letter from Asklas to the secretary Abonas about boats and grain TM 33680OxyrhynchusLate 4th or 5th century
The same ancient text or artifact as recorded by 3 records across 3 independent projects, recognised as one entity by its TM-Text identifier. View on Trismegistos →
A business letter from Asklas to the secretary Abonas at Oxyrhynchus about repairing and locating boats needed for transporting grain to the Nile, loading cargo, and accounts of payments in gold solidi. It dates to the late Roman or early Byzantine period.
In English machine translation
[recto]
From […]
† I received your letter about the boat of Kalol. For God's sake do not neglect to repair (?) it, since it is otherwise the right season above all and we need the boats. So take care to repair it at once. And about the boat of Philostratos, do not neglect to look for it, since I wrote to the lord Heliotoros about it; for indeed we need them, and indeed our boats have not had time to come to the great river, and I want to load the measure on Philostratos and Ptolemas. I wrote … to swear the oath … thus to load the remainder onto the boat. And about the price of the wheat of Philostratos take care … and write to me how many solidi I have given to Apa Nakios, so that he may learn how much I owe to send him; but also about the […] to withhold 10 solidi […]
[… 2 lines lost …]
[verso]
† Deliver to my most honoured brother Abonas, secretary, from Asklas.
One record dates the letter to the late 4th or 5th century instead of the first half of the 6th. The verb rendered 'repair' (written rhoēsai/rhogēsai) is of uncertain meaning in this badly spelled text.
Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Letter from Asclas). 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.oxy.16.1929
[r] παρὰ † τὰ γράμματά σου ἐδεξάμην περὶ τοῦ πλοίου Καλῶλ. διὰ τὸν θεὸν μὴ ἀμελήσῃς τοῦ ῥωῆσαι τοῦτο ἐπειδὴ ἄλλως καιρός ἐστιν μάλιστα καὶ χρείαν ἔχομεν τὰ πλοῖα. φροντίσαι οὖν τοῦτο πάραυτα ῥογῆσαι, καὶ περὶ τὸ πλοῖον Φιλοστράτου μὴ ἀμελήσῃς τοῦ ζητῆσαι τοῦτο, ἐπειδὴ ἔγραψα πρὸς…