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One text, 2 sources · Trismegistos-Text 38738

Letter from Theophilos to Kalatos about a linen-weaver's debt TM 38738unbekanntVII - VIII

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 Christian-era letter from Theophilos to his "brother" Kalatos. He asks him to track down Perses, a linen-weaver who holds 2 pounds of worked linen, and make him hand over either the linen or 4 keratia before he leaves the estate. It dates to the 7th or 8th century AD.

In English machine translation

[recto] † Please search out Perses the linen-weaver, because he has 2 pounds of worked linen threads. So get him either to give such linen threads or the 4 keratia. But as I said, do this, your brotherliness, since they told me that he wants to withdraw from the estate. So then, get these things from him. [verso] To be delivered to my brother Kalatos, (from) Theophilos.

A keration was a small fraction of a gold solidus. The ousia ("estate") is probably a large landed estate on which the weaver lived or worked; "your brotherliness" is a polite form of address.

Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Letter of Theophilos). 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.brookl.19

Papyri.info — DDbDP (Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri) — text · VII - VIII

[r] † θέλησον ψηλαφῆσαι τὸν Πέρσον τὸν λινόυφον ὅτι ἔχει δύο λίτρας λιναρίων εἰργασμένων· παρασκεύασον οὖν αὐτὸν ἢ δῶσαι τὰ τοιαῦτα λινάρια ἢ τὰ τέσσερα κεράτια· ἀλλὰ ὡς εἶπον τοῦτο ποίησον ἡ ἀδελφότης σου, ἐπειδὴ εἶπάν μοι ὅτι θέλει ἀναχωρῆσαι ἐκ τῆς οὐσίας· λοιπὸν ταῦτα λάβῃς ἐ…