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One text, 2 sources · Trismegistos-Text 35840

Letter of the deacon Esaias to the priest Martyrios about woad, grain and taxes at Senyris TM 35840Oxyrhynchites (?)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 sixth-century letter from the deacon Esaias to the priest Martyrios about the village of Senyris, probably in the Oxyrhynchite nome. The farmers refuse to pay their taxes until the woad dealer (monopolist) comes to buy their woad, and debtors refuse to pay for grain; Esaias asks Martyrios to petition the landowner and to instruct him what to do.

In English machine translation

[recto] Let your piety know that all the farmers of the village were found saying: "We have our woad; we will not provide a single keration toward our public taxes unless the monopolist comes and takes this woad of ours." Those who have no woad have given a sufficient guarantor, so that those who have surplus woad will pay on behalf of those who have none. Please go up to the landowner and urge him to send this monopolist here first. And as for the grain, I have not sold a single solidus' worth, God alone knows. And those who owe the remainder of the grain refused to pay the price of this grain, saying: "Unless you take this grain." Write to me what ought to be done. For I collected six nomismata and gave them as an advance payment. Petros and Menas the servants (?) are holding back from me […] You have their note for one third of a nomisma. And you have […] through apa Sirios the symmachos for one nomisma, so that of the same apa Sirios […] one nomisma. I greet you much. [verso] Deliver to our most God-fearing lord Martyrios, priest, […] from Esaias, deacon. […] note about grain and gold on behalf of the village of Senyris […] 1st (?) indiction

Woad (isatis) was a dye plant; the monopolarios held a concession to buy it. A symmachos was a letter carrier or messenger on large estates.

Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Byzantinischer Brief (I)). 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.hamb.3.228

Papyri.info — DDbDP (Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri) — text · VI · Oxyrhynchites (?)

[r] μάθῃ ἡ σὴ εὐσέβεια, ὅτι ηὑρέθησαν πάντες οἱ γεωργοὶ τῆς κώμης λέγοντες ὅτι· ἔχομεν τὴν ἰσάτιν ἡμῶν· οὐ παρέχομεν ἓν κεράτιον εἰς τὸ δημόσιον ἡμῶν , εἰ μὴ ἔρχεται ὁ μονοπωλάριος καὶ λάβῃ τὴν αὐτὴν ἰσάτιν ἡμῶν. οἱ δὲ μὴ ἔχοντες ἰσάτιν δέδωκαν ἐγγυητὴν ἱκανόν, ὅτι οἱ ἔχοντες περ…