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Letter concerning difficulties in tax collection and the collector Kollouthos TM 37291Antaiopolites (?)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 fragmentary letter to an official addressed as 'your magnificence' about difficulties in collecting taxes. The writer asks that letters be forwarded to the ekdikos and to Victor, administrator of the Antaiopolite nome, and that armed retainers force the tax collector Kollouthos to come down with gold that is owed. Sixth century AD, probably from the Antaiopolite nome.

In English machine translation

[… lines lost …] […] show him […] for they have already made a second attack against us […] let your magnificence not use delay concerning this. For I have written a letter to the ekdikos about this, which please deign to deliver to him. And if there is need, deign to send the most esteemed Megas or someone else able […] to them. And the letter to Victor the dioiketes of the Antaiopolite nome, please deign to send at once, and take copies and send them to me. And since, from what I see, Kollouthos the collector (hypodektes) of the lord Ioannes the councillor will not consent to come down in good faith, may your magnificence deign to attach to him bucellarii, who are to make him come down here forthwith on foot. For the late (holy) one paid in advance a sufficient amount of gold on their behalf, concerning which long ago […] and I pressed them to collect this and come down and […] but they would not consent to come down, although the same venerable man was pressing them also about another demand for gold. Please deign therefore, since they would not consent […], to send him down without any pretext. And let the tractator also come down with him […]. And let the same Kollouthos also take the gold that was collected from Scholastikos […] of the shepherds and […] see to it that it is sent to me.

Bucellarii were privately employed armed retainers of great households and officials in late antique Egypt. The ekdikos was a civic legal defender, and the hypodektes and tractator were tax officials.

Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Brief, Schwierigkeiten bei der Steuererhebung betreffend). 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.koeln.5.240

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

[… ? lines lost …] …[…]…[…]…[…]…[…]λη…… ἐπιδείξατε αὐτῷ […]ἤδη γὰρ δευτέραν ἔφοδον ἐποίησαν καθʼ ἡμῶν θ…[…]…[…]ὑπερθέσει χρήσηται ἡ σὴ μεγαλοπρέπεια περὶ τούτου. ἐπιστολὴν γὰρ πεποίημαι πρὸς τὸν ἔκδικον περὶ τούτου, ἥνπερ ἀποδοῦναι αὐτῷ καταξιώσατε. εἰ δὲ χρεία γένηται, καταξιώσα…