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One text, 2 sources · Trismegistos-Text 35593

Letter from Apa Nakios, headman of Tholthis, to Papas of Takona about a shepherds' fight TM 35593Tholthis (Oxyrhynchites)spätes V

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 letter from Apa Nakios, headman of the village of Tholthis, to Papas, headman of neighbouring Takona, complaining that Takona's shepherds fought with Tholthis's shepherds and drove off sheep into Takona's land. He asks Papas to restrain the shepherds and field-guards to avoid further clashes and to release what was taken. It dates to the late 5th century AD in the Oxyrhynchite nome.

In English machine translation

[recto] From […] † To the headman of the village of Takona. Some people have informed me that the shepherds of your village had a fight with those of our village of Tholthis, and were carrying off some of our sheep into your land; and I sent my field-guards to go in, and they have given the information. Please, therefore, instruct our (?) field-guards and the shepherds of your village […] that there should be no unpleasantness towards us […] everyone ought not to stir up unpleasantness. For indeed we ought not to stir up skirmishes on either side, for we have no business, with the permission of our pagarchs, except that you should instruct those belonging to us, from small to great, not to stir up a fight among themselves […] nor is our assistant […] the pagarch. Please […] now release these things, so that his water-wheel (?) may not remain unsown. [verso] ☧ Deliver […] to Papas, headman of the village of Takona, from Apa Nakios, headman of Tholthis.

The 'meizon' was a village headman; the Greek is ungrammatical and several lines are damaged, so parts of the translation are approximate. 'Mechane' probably refers to an irrigation machine or the land it serves.

Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Complaint of a μείζων). 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.16.1831

Papyri.info — DDbDP (Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri) — text · spätes V · Tholthis (Oxyrhynchites)

[r] παρὰ † μείζονι κώμης Τακόνα. τινὲς μεταδεδώκασί μοι ὡς ὅτιπερ οἱ ποιμένες τῆς σῆς κώμης ὑμῶν μάχην ἔσχαν πρὸς τοὺς ἡμῶν κώμης Θόλθεως καὶ τῶν ἡμῶν προβάτων ἀποφέροντες εἰς τὴν ὑμῶν γῆν, καὶ ἔπεμψα εἰσβῆναι τοὺς ἐμοὺς ἀγροφύλακας καὶ δεδώκασι τὴν ἐπιστήμην. θέλησον οὖν παραγγε…