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 short letter from Diogenes to Theodoros, a secretary, asking him to make the field-guards of the Meskanounis estate return a machine belonging to the most admirable Papnouthios. It dates to the 6th century AD and comes from Oxyrhynchus.
The machine (mechane) is most likely an irrigation device such as a waterwheel. The 'field-guards' (agrophylakes) were estate guards who watched over the fields.
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 a Secretary). It has not been reviewed by a papyrologist: check the edition before citing. Restorations follow the edition; […] marks lost text and (?) an uncertain reading.
[r] παρὰ † καταξιώσῃ ἡ σὴ ἀδελφότης παρασκεύασον τοὺς ἀγροφύλακας τοῦ κτήματος Μεσκανούνιος ἀναδοῦναι τὴν μηχανὴν τοῦ θαυμασιωτάτου Παπνουθίου, ὡς καὶ ἄλλοτε εἴρηκα τοῖς φροντισταῖς τοῦ αὐτοῦ κτήματος. ἀλλὰ πάραυτα ποίησον αὐτούς, ὡς εἶπον, ἀναδοῦναι τὴν μηχανὴν τῷ εἰρημένῳ ἀνδρί…
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