OPES – Oslo Papyri Electronic System

Background and Physical Properties

Material:

Papyrus

Connections:

–

Size:

8.9 x 24.5 cm

Lines:

18

Publication side:

Recto (Verso: blank)

Palaeographic description:

Cursive hand of the Roman period. The scribe has formated the text into meaningful units by offsetting the beginnings of ll. 2, 5, 8 and 11 in ekthesis.

State of preservation:

Light brown papyrus with darker central discoloration due to water damage, especially towards the right margin. A visible water front covering lines 4-10 has smeared out the ink of some of the leftmost letters. Worms tracks are the cause of some irregular damage in the upper 4 cm. A vertical folding line is seen at the midline. A small rectangular fragment (about 4 x 1 cm) is broken off in the lower right corner. Top margin (including selis pagination): 2 cm. Left margin: 1 cm. Bottom margin: 7.5 cm. Vertical kollesis at ca 4 cm from the left edge. Cut on the right side, leaving no margin. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Back: blank with an ink stain and perhaps remains of writing close to the left edge.

Content

Date:

28 March 154 CE

Origin:

Possibly Alexandra, province of Egypt

Language:

Greek

Genre:

Documentary

Author:

–

Title / Type of text:

Purchase of a slave / Extract of a sales contract

Content:

Extract of a contract that was presumably filed in an Alexandrian records office (bibliothêkê), in which the 17-year old slave Harpokration is sold by Titus Aelius Serenus to Tiberius Claudius Herc(u)lanus for the price of 2.800 drachmas. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The arrangement of names and writing at the bottom of the contract are indicative of a six-witness contract. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The four letters (ΧΞΙΑ) at line 11 are not understood.

Subjects:

Contract Extract Sale Slavery Slave

Named people:

Tiberius Claudius Herculanus Titus Aelius Serenus Harpokration Herodes Serenus Serapion

Named places:

Arsinoe (street) Arsinoe Nike (street)

English translation:

[page?] 6 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Year 17 of Emperor Caesar Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius Augustus, Pharmouthi 2 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tiberius Claudius Herc(u)lanus, about 61 years old, of middle height, honey-coloured skin, long face, straight nose, a scar on his right brow, of the Arsinoe street, bought from Titus Aelius Serenus and however he is styled, former agoranomos, about 34 years old, of middle height, honey-coloured skin, long face, straight nose, no distinguishing mark, of the Arsinoe Nike street, the homebred slave Harpokration, about 17 years of age, ΧΞΙΑ (?), of honey-coloured skin, long face, straight nose, a scar on his right brow, for 2,800 silver drachmas. The seller is guarantor for what the buyer has received. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Herodes [2nd witness ?] Serenus [4th witness ?] Serapion [6th witness ?]

Provenance:

Unknown, Egypt

Acquisition:

Purchased by Samson Eitrem in Egypt in 1910 as part of his private collection, which he eventually donated to the Oslo Papyrus Collection. This papyrus was P.Eitrem 7.

Acquisition year:

1910

Editions

• Eitrem, S., Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 17(1/2), 1931, 44-47, picture: Pl.VI
  SB: V 7555

Further Literature

Catalogues

DDbDP / TM 17970 / HGV / PAPCM

Discussions

• Westermann, W. L. (1955). The slave systems of Greek and Roman Antiquity. The American Philosophical Society. Lists slave values; see p. 101 with n. 127.
• Boswinkel, Ε. (1965). 24: Emancipation οf a slave. In E. Boswinkel, P. W. Pestman, & P. J. Sijpesteijn (Eds.), Papyri selectae (pp. 71–73). Brill. On γνωστήρ l. 14; see p. 73 commentary to ll. 7–9 of P.Select. 24 (= P.Turner 19).
• Straus, J. A. (1973). Le prix des esclaves dans les papyrus d’époque romaine trouvés en Égypte. Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 11, 289–295. Lists slave values; see p. 291 (see also ANRW (1998) II, 10, 1, p. 908).
• Straus, J. A. (1977). Quelques activités exercées par les esclaves d’après les papyrus de l’Égypte romaine. Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, 26(1), 74–88. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4435543. Comparison of mortgage and real market value for a slave; see p. 88.
• Wolff, H. J. (1978). Das Recht der griechischen Papyri Ägyptens in der Zeit der Ptolemäer und des Prinzipats: Zweiter Band: Organisation und Kontrolle des privaten Rechtsverkehrs. C. H. Beck. On the legal and social status of the agoranomos in the early Roman period; see p. 17 n. 42.
• Söllner, M. A. (1995). Bemerkungen zur Datierung verschiedener Papyri. Zeitschrift Für Papyrologie Und Epigraphik, 107, 81–84. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20189553. Corrects the date from 7 April (sec. ed.pr.) to 28 March 154 CE; see p.83.
• Jakab, E. (1997). Praedicere und dicere beim Marktkauf: Sachmängel im griechischen und römischen Recht. Münchener Beiträge zur Papyrusforschung und antiken Rechtsgeschichte, vol. 87. C. H. Beck. On the lack of material defects clause (Sachmängelklausel) in some slave sales contract; see p. 212 with n. 77. Cf. Johannsen, 2017.
• Straus, J. A. (2004). L’achat et la vente des esclaves dans l’Égypte romaine: Contribution papyrologique à l’étude de l’esclavage dans une province orientale de l’Empire romain. K. G. Saur. Reads Φαρμοῦθι ιβ instead of Φαρμοῦθι β l. 4; see p. 356. NB: upon autopsy the reading should be β. Straus’ erroneous reading may be due to contrast issues in the photograph included in the ed.pr.
• Clarysse, W. (2013). Dionysos, Souchos and Sarapis as personal names?. Zeitschrift Für Papyrologie Und Epigraphik, 186, 259–266. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23850442. Suggests reading Σεράπιω[ν] or Σεράπιω(ν) l. 18 instead of Σερᾶπις ed.pr.; see p. 264.
• Gallazzi, C. & Kramer, B. (2014). Alexandrinische Ephebenurkunden aus dem Konvolut des Artemidorpapyrus (P.Alex. Epheb.). Archiv für Papyrusforschung und verwandte Gebiete, 60(1), 117–153. https://doi.org/10.1515/apf-2014-0109. On streets named after Arsinoe; see pp. 124–125 with n. 16.
• Johannsen, T. (2017). P.Euphr. 8, Beth Phouraia (Syria Coele), 27. Januar 251 n. Chr. Leder. In Das Privatrecht der griechischen Urkunden vom Mittleren Euphrat (pp. 117–148). C. H. Beck. https://doi.org/10.4000/books.chbeck.2632. There is no material defects clause because P.Eitrem 7 is not an actual slave sales contract (cf. Jakab, 1997); see commentary to edition of P.Euphr. 8.