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One text, 2 sources · Trismegistos-Text 37512

Letter to Senouthios about arrested men, donkeys and a sheep register TM 37512unbekannt

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 Byzantine or early Arab-period letter of instructions to an official named Senouthios, ordering him to hold two arrested men instead of sending them to Babylon, arranging maintenance money and barley for donkeys and their drivers, and demanding a count and register of sheep. It ends with an angry curse over the register.

In English machine translation

[recto] † Do not send to Babylon the two men who were arrested from the hamlet of Leiskanachos, but lock them up in your harbour and write to me. As for the donkeys, arrange for there to be given to the […] for the maintenance of each donkey one tremissis, and that the donkey drivers receive one artaba of barley for each donkey, so that the donkeys may eat the barley on the road, and the tremissis be given ⟦to each donkey driver⟧ on account of its maintenance; but let one man take charge of them and spend from them on their account. If you have maintenance allowances and barley down at Babylon on account of such maintenance, do not give tremisses or barley. If you clear out (?) the male sheep, write to me at once how many are male and how many female, and send their register, ⟦and send me⟧ so that God may rot your soul as you have rotted me over this register. [verso] † To the in all respects […] most honoured Senouthios […] […] †

A tremissis is a gold coin worth one third of a solidus; Babylon is the fortress at Old Cairo. The writer puns on 'rot' (sēpō), cursing the recipient for having 'rotted' (exasperated) him.

Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Letter). 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.amh.2.153

Papyri.info — DDbDP (Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri) — text

[r] † τοὺς κρατηθέντας δύο ἀνθρώπους ἀπὸ τοῦ ἐποικίου Λεισκανάχου μὴ πέμψῃς εἰς Βαβυλῶνα ἀλλὰ ἀπόκλεισον αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸν ὅρμον σου καὶ γράψον μοι. τὰ δὲ γαιδάρια παρασκεύασον δοθῆναι τῷ πλ[…]τικῳ ὑπὲρ ἀποτροφῆς ἑκάστου γαιδαρίου τριμήσιν ἓν καὶ ἃς λάβωσιν οἱ ὀνηλάται μίαν ἀρτάβην …