A widow, Aurelia Helene of Oxyrhynchus, applies to the systates (ward official) Aurelius Horion to have her 13-year-old son Aurelius Ammon, of gymnasial and twelve-drachma status, entered for the first time in the register of minors of the Poimenike quarter. She swears the Roman oath that her statement is true; dated 5 August 297.
In English machine translation
In the consulship of our lords Imperator Maximianus Augustus for the 5th time and Maximianus the most noble Caesar for the 2nd time.
To Aurelius Horion son of Theon, systates of the glorious and most glorious city of the Oxyrhynchites, for the current 13th and 12th and 5th year,
from Aurelia Helene daughter of Horion, her mother being Thermouthion, from the same city, acting without a guardian by the right of children. I wish my son Aurelius Ammon, born to me by my former and deceased husband Aurelius Silvanus son of Besammon, his mother being Isis, from the same city, a twelve-drachma person of gymnasial status, aged 13 in the current 13th and 12th and 5th year, to be registered for the first time at the station of the Poimenike quarter. Therefore I submit the memorandum, asking that he be placed, through the list of minors filed by you, in the rank of those of his age, as is proper, and I swear the oath customary to the Romans that I have not lied. Year 13 and year 12 of our lords the Imperators Diocletian and Maximian Augusti and year 5 of our lords Constantius and Maximian the most noble Caesars, Mesore 12.
I, Aurelia Helene, have submitted this and sworn the oath as stated above. I, Aurelius […], wrote on her behalf because she does not know letters.
[…]
A systates was a local official responsible for a city quarter; 'twelve-drachma' refers to the privileged poll-tax rate of Oxyrhynchite metropolites. The consular date in the heading (Maximian Caesar, i.e. Galerius) differs from the regnal formula usual for 297, but the text is preserved so.
Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Application to Register a Child). It has not been reviewed by a papyrologist: check the edition before citing. Restorations follow the edition; […] marks lost text and (?) an uncertain reading.