One text, 2 sources · Trismegistos-Text 8767

Petition of a goldsmith about beating and seizure of silver and a necklace TM 8767Arsinoite nome, Egyptca. 194 B.C.

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 petition, probably by the goldsmith Menches to an official, complaining that although he had paid his monthly dues of 1,300 drachmas through Pachon, Ptolemaios and Menelaos seized him in a silversmiths' workshop at Krokodilopolis, had him whipped, and took a lump of silver and a necklace worth 108 drachmas. He asks that both men be summoned so he can obtain justice and recover his property. It dates to around 194 BC in the Arsinoite nome.

In English machine translation

[…] […] I having paid each month 1,300 drachmas and having been regular in my payments up to Pachon, for which I have the receipts. But on the 5th of Pauni Ptolemaios, finding me in the silversmiths' workshop in Krokodilopolis, brought me before the bank and handed me over to Menelaos, the city official (?), and when I said that I owed nothing, he ordered whips to be applied to me, and when I had been seized they found that I had a lump of silver and a necklace, all of which Menelaos took from me, worth 108 drachmas, and moreover he led me off (to custody) until morning, and he is depriving me of the aforesaid things. I therefore ask you to summon both Menelaos and Ptolemaios, so that through you I may obtain justice and recover what is claimed. Farewell.

The beginning, with the names of petitioner and addressee, is lost; the attribution to Menches and the official Protarchos rests on a related papyrus. The meaning of Menelaos' title "the one in the city" is uncertain.

Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Complaint). It has not been reviewed by a papyrologist: check the edition before citing. Restorations follow the edition; […] marks lost text and (?) an uncertain reading.

APIS-papyrus Full record →

Complaint

Papyri.info — APIS (Advanced Papyrological Information System) — papyri · P.Mich.inv. 6960 · ca. 194 B.C. · Arsinoite nome, Egypt

Complaint (hypomnema), probably addressed by the goldsmith Menches to the epimeletes Protarchos (or his agent Asklepiades) (see P.Mich. XVIII, 774), because, after being whipped and searched by Ptolemaios and Menelaos, he has been deprived by them of a lump of silver and a neckla…

DDbDP-text Full record →

p.mich.18.773

Papyri.info — DDbDP (Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri) — text · ca. 194 B.C. · Arsinoite nome, Egypt

[1] [… ? lines lost …] […]λωι […]καταβαλόντος μου κατὰ μῆνα δραχμὰς Ατ καὶ εὐτακτηκότος μου ἕως Παχὼν ὧν τὰ σύμβολα ἔχω. τῆι δὲ ε τοῦ Παῦνι εὑρών με ὁ Πτολεμαῖος ἐν τῶι ἀργυροκοπίωι ἐν Κροκοδίλων πόλει κατέστησέ με ἐπὶ τὴν τράπεζαν καὶ παρέδωκεν Μενελάωι τῶι κατὰ πόλιν καί μου λέ…