Petition of beekeepers about hives sabotaged at Toka TM 78614Oxyrhynchos14. - 27. Sept. 16

To Herostratos, strategos, from Herakleios and Onnophris, both sons of Sarapion, beekeepers from the city of Oxyrhynchus. We and the sons of Herakleios possess 487 beehives, of which we had in the village of Toka in the middle toparchy, in the place called Petne, in the house of Diogenes, 87 hives, in accordance with the return we made in the past year 2 of Tiberius Caesar Augustus. On the 17th of the present month Sebastos of year 3 of Tiberius Caesar Augustus, when we came to the said place for the inspection of the hives, we found part of the hives destroyed, and the remaining hives in such a weak state as to be in danger of being lost. And at once we questioned the owner of the house, Diogenes, about these things, and he told me that by Sarapion son of Theon, gymnasiarch, with those whom he brought with him, secretly by night all the hives had been [blocked up inside with mud] for many days, [and that] the hives [had no] outlet for […] and it has happened that parts of the […] […] [… lines lost …]