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One text, 2 sources · Trismegistos-Text 35597

Letter asking a dioiketes to release the wives of village officials TM 35597Oxyrhynchosspätes V - frühes VI

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 Phoibammon and Philippos to their patron Maiarmakis, an estate administrator (dioiketes), asking him to release seven wives of village officials who were being held, and promising to bring the officials themselves into custody when ordered. It comes from Oxyrhynchus, late 5th or early 6th century AD.

In English machine translation

[recto] † As we requested of your lordship that, until we should write to your magnificence, you should not release the wives of the village headmen, we now ask our lord to release the wife of Menas the meizon and the wife of Dionysios the village scribe and the wife of Enoch the meizon and the wife of Pkolios the chief field-guard and the wife of Phoibammon the komarch and the wife of Pamouthios his fellow komarch and the wife of Enoch the komarch; their wives make seven. We ask our lord that these be released, and when you order it we will bring these same persons themselves to you and deliver them into custody. This we write, and we do obeisance to the footsteps of our lord. † [verso] † To our own most well-spoken patron Maiarmakis, with God, dioiketes, † Phoibammon and Philippos.

The wives were evidently held as hostages to force their husbands, village officials, to appear. Meizon and komarch are village office titles with no exact English equivalent.

Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Letter to a Dioecetes). 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.16.1835

Papyri.info — DDbDP (Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri) — text · spätes V - frühes VI · Oxyrhynchos

[r] † καθὼς παρεκαλέσαμεν τὴν ὑμετέραν δεσποτίαν ἵνα, ἄχρι γράφωμεν τῇ ὑμετέρᾳ μεγαλοπρεπείᾳ, μὴ ἀπολῦσῃ τὰς γυναῖκας τῶν πρωτοκωμητῶν,παρακαλοῦμεν τὸν ἡμῶν δεσπότην ἀπολῦσαι τὴν γυναῖκα Μηνᾶ τοῦ μείζονος καὶ τὴνγυναῖκα Διονυσίου τοῦ κωμογραμματέως καὶ τὴν τοῦ Ἐνὼχ τοῦ μείζονος κ…