Home › Spine › TM 36079
One text, 2 sources · Trismegistos-Text 36079

Letter from Zacharias to a comes about estate business TM 36079Antinoites (?)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 Zacharias to a superior holding the rank of comes, acknowledging a letter brought by the courier Akorios and reporting on business: replies from Damianos and Victor, administrator of Poïs, sent by a monastery boat, and matters concerning estate agents, gold, and assistants. It probably comes from the Antinoite region.

In English machine translation

[recto] † I received the letter of your admirable lordship through Akorios the courier (symmachos), and Christ the Lord is my witness that I was overjoyed to learn of your health, as if I were seeing my own brother Epanakios risen from the dead, until God deems me worthy to make obeisance again at the feet of your lordship [and] […] and as […] I shall ask the lord Damianos, your receiver (hypodektes). Akorios the courier could not wait for the reply, but, God willing, when I go down to Antinoou at Easter, I am writing to you the reply of the lord Damianos himself and of the lord Victor, the administrator of Poïs, through the helmsman (?) of the boat of the monastery called 'of the Dove'. As for Akes the pronoetes, […] he gave the summaries (?) to Akorios when he went down, and, as he says, much gold […] of the most esteemed Philippos the mesites, and it was demanded by the illustris […] to give, except these things. As for Theon the assistant, I found that he had fled, [nor have I spoken] with him until now. But I spoke with Joseph the assistant of Psobthis, and a letter […] a certain sailor for 6 solidi, who happens to be near you. The same man says […] that by your letter you ordered him to make this letter […] Akorios came […] he spent many days in Lykopolis […] to me […] that even if I had not gone up, they would not have been paid to me […] your […] to pay in advance […] […] to you. And I hope that […] […] of the household (?) of the boat as […] […] he could not carry […] […] of the said opportunity […] […] […] […] [verso] † Deliver to my lord […] the comes. † Zacharias, your servant †

A symmachos was a letter-carrier or courier on large estates; a pronoetes was an estate manager. The word 'oiakion' (literally 'tiller') seems to refer to the helmsman or crew of the monastery boat.

Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Letter of Zacharias). 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.ant.2.94

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

[r] † τὰ γράμματα τῆς ὑμετέρας περιβλέπτου δεσποτείας ἐδεξάμην διὰ Ἀκωρίου τοῦ συμμάχου καὶ μαρτυρεῖ μοι ὁ δεσπότης Χριστὸς ὅτι περιχαρὴς ἐγενόμην μαθὼν τὴν ὑγίειαν αὐτῆς, ὡς ὅτι τὸν ἴδιόν μου ἀδελφὸν Ἐπανάκιον βλέπων ἀναστήσαντα ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν ἕως καταξιώσῃ με ὁ Θεὸς προσκυνῆσαι …