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One text, 2 sources · Trismegistos-Text 37108

Letter about the purchase of honey and payment owed to sellers TM 37108Oxyrhynchos (?)VII

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 →

Fragment of a business letter in which the writer reports difficulties buying honey at the expected price and asks the recipient to send the rest of three solidi so he can pay the sellers. He has already jarred the honey and loaded it, and promises to report how many Knidian jars were filled.

In English machine translation

[… lines lost …] […] at 40, the honey is not sold here; and we were [in no way] able to compel the sellers and to take it at 35 (?). And had it not been for the 23 carats of Alexandria sent to me through Asklas, which made 22 public carats, I would have received nothing of the three solidi. So then, please send me here the remainder of the three solidi, so that I may pay the sellers of the honey, since I am being pressed by them; for I have already put the honey into jars and loaded it onto the boat (?). And I will write to you straight after this how many Knidian jars I filled with the honey. †

Carats of Alexandria and public carats were different units of account for fractions of the gold solidus, hence 23 of the one equalling 22 of the other. The word karis is obscure and may denote a boat or container; 'Knidian' refers to a type of wine or storage jar.

Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Epistula). 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.iand.2.18

Papyri.info — DDbDP (Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri) — text · VII · Oxyrhynchos (?)

[… ? lines lost …] […] κατὰ τεσσεράκοντα , οὐ πωλεῖται τὸ μέλιν ἐνταῦθα· καὶ ἐδυνήθημεν οὐδαμῶς ἀναγκάσαι τοὺς πωλοῦντας καὶ λαβεῖν κατὰ λε. καὶ εἰ μὴ τὰ εἴκοσι τρία κεράτια Ἀλεξανδρείας τὰ πεμφθέντα μοι διὰ τοῦ Ἀσκλᾶ τὰ ποιήσαντα δημόσια εἴκοσι δύο κεράτια, οὐδὲν ἔλαβον ἐκ τῶν τ…