Fragment of a contract
Fragment of a contract between a landowner and some nightwatchmen, who undertake to protect his property. Belongs to the archive of Dioscoros.
One text, 3 sources · Trismegistos-Text 36178
Fragment of a contract with night watchmen to guard property TM 36178Aphrodites Kome (Antaiopolites)VIth Century AD
The same ancient text or artifact as recorded by 4 records across 3 independent projects, recognised as one entity by its TM-Text identifier. View on Trismegistos →
Fragment of a labour contract from Aphrodito in which a group of night watchmen undertake to guard a landowner's property in winter and summer, promising to make good anything stolen, including livestock, produce, chaff, clothing and tools. It belongs to the archive of Dioskoros and is dated 2 January 537.
In English machine translation
[...]
[...] (traces) [...]
[...] guarding by night [...] in winter and in summer, both outside [...]
[...] of livestock and animals, produce and chaff, clothing and tools, and the [...]
[...] we will make good to you everything stolen in it that causes you loss (?), and damage [...]
[...] pledged to you [...] of the possessions, and of our [...]
[...] (traces) [...]
[...]
The precise date is not preserved in the surviving lines; one record gives only the 6th century AD. The pledge of the watchmen's possessions as security is typical of such guarantee clauses.
Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Fragment eines Arbeitsvertrages). 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.cair.masp.2.67273
p.heid.5.347
[… ? lines lost …] […]…ρ……πρικ……α…εξ…………… […]παραφυλακὴν νύκτας δε…… ἐν χειμῶνί τε καὶ θέρει, ἐν τʼ ἔξω […]…φορα […]θρεμμάτων τε καὶ ζῴων, γενήματά τε καὶ ἄχυρα, ἐνδύματά τε καὶ ἐργαλίδια, καὶ τὰ […]ἀποπληρώσομέν σοι τὰ πάντα προστρίβουσαν σοι κλαπέντα ἐν αὐτῷ καὶ βλάβη […] σοι ὑ…