An official order from the governor of the Thebaid to the villagers of Aphrodite in the Antaiopolite nome, instructing them to ship their grain levy for the second indiction promptly to Alexandria, partly on small boats. It belongs to the archive of Dioskoros and dates probably to AD 538-539.
In English machine translation
[recto, column 1]
[… lines lost …]
[…] […]
now that the time has come in which care must be taken for the indispensable grain shipment of the fortunate […] second indiction, avoiding all blame for negligence, make haste with all fear to send it off to the great city of the Alexandrians, loading the required quantity onto small boats straightaway and at once, according to the schedule set out below, at the risk of the office staff; for it is for this reason that (this order) has been sent from the office.
I have read. I have read.
†
Checked.
To the people of the village of Aphrodite of the Antaiopolite nome.
[column 2]
[… lines lost …]
[It is required that from your village, following the example of the past first indiction, you bring in the quantity set out below on account of the grain levy of the second indiction and load it onto boats, and that you send the] president [and the overseer and the sailors together with the] boats loaded with the produce to the office for the customary processing of the records, so that after this the same quantity may be sent off to the great city of Alexandria:
wheat, 6,100 (?) artabas
of which, for the present, by small boats: wheat, 2,000 (?) artabas, and the twentieth parts, 1 and 2 (?)
remainder for the great grain levy: wheat, 4,100 (?) artabas
[verso]
[To the people of the] village of Aphrodite [of the Antaiopolite nome]
The grain figures use abbreviated numerals whose exact values are uncertain; the embole was the compulsory grain levy shipped to Alexandria (and on to Constantinople). The issuing governor's name is lost; the Latin 'legi' and 'recognovi' are office validation marks.
Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Ordre). It has not been reviewed by a papyrologist: check the edition before citing. Restorations follow the edition; […] marks lost text and (?) an uncertain reading.