Letter to an exceptor
A letter concerning some property which had been seized by a certain Julianus and which the writer wished to recover. There are some traces of earlier writing which has been effaced.
One text, 3 sources · Trismegistos-Text 37868
Letter from Ioannes to the exceptor Martyrios about property seized by Julianus TM 37868Oxyrhynchus6th or 7th century
The same ancient text or artifact as recorded by 3 records across 3 independent projects, recognised as one entity by its TM-Text identifier. View on Trismegistos →
A letter from Ioannes to Martyrios, an exceptor (official stenographer), asking him to help recover property that a certain Julianus had wrongfully taken. The writer argues that things seized in war must be returned in peace. It was written at Oxyrhynchus in the 6th or 7th century AD.
In English machine translation
[recto]
From […]
I also begged your illustrious brotherliness face to face not to allow us to be deprived of what is just, which is also owed. For I know that you love a friend and cannot grieve him. And often it was possible to write to you about this matter, and expecting each day to arrive there, for this reason I did not choose to write another letter in other words. And I beg your illustrious brotherliness to write to me about this, so that, as I pray with God, it may not seem to me that I have done anything unholy. For the lord Julianus did not act well in taking what did not belong to him; but if […] and he took it, he is obliged to give it back, for things seized in war are given back in peace. And he is obliged to make the security which I made, and in addition to the security. And so that my master may know, I have made use of these letters of mine to appeal. The main point of the letter: I greatly salute my master. †
[verso]
† To my master, in all things most illustrious, worthy of all honour, patron after God, lord Martyrios, exceptor, † Ioannes Kyno[…]
An exceptor was a shorthand writer or clerk in an official bureau. The papyrus is a palimpsest with traces of earlier, effaced writing.
Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Letter to an Exceptor). 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.oxy.16.1865
[r] παρὰ καὶ κατὰ πρόσωπον παρεκάλεσα τὴν σὴν λαμπρὰν ἀδελφότητα ἵνα μὴ ἐάσῃ, ὃ καὶ ὀφειλόμενον, τοῦ δικαίου ἀπαλλαγῆναι ἡμᾶς. οἶδα γὰρ ὅτι φίλον φιλεῖς καὶ οὐ δύνῃ αὐτὸν λυπῆσαι. καὶ πολλάκις ἐξῆν γρᾶψαί σοι περὶ τοῦ κεφαλαίου τούτου, καὶ προσδοκῶν καθʼ ἑκάστην καταλαμβάνειν ἐκε…