OPES – Oslo Papyri Electronic System

Background and Physical Properties

Material:

Papyrus

Connections:

P.Col. VIII 209

Size:

13 x 29.5 cm.

Lines:

Recto - 32;Verso - 4

Publication side:

Recto and Verso

Palaeographic description:

–

State of preservation:

–

Content

Date:

1 A.D.

Origin:

Theadelphia, Themistou meris, Arsinoite nome, province of Egypt

Language:

Greek

Genre:

Documentary

Author:

–

Title / Type of text:

Sub-lease of public land

Content:

Two cultivators of public land, Harthotes and Marsisouchos, both sons of Marres, concede six arourae of their holding to Batrachos for one year.

Subjects:

Contract Lease Cultivators Land

Named people:

Harthotes, son of Marres Marsisouchos, son of Marres Batrachos, son of Artemidoros Caesar (Augustus), emperor

Named places:

Theadelpheia Apias

English translation:

2nd hand: Harthotes, ca. 40 years of age with a mole on his left cheek.Marsisouchos, ca. 35 years of age with a scar in the middle of his forehead over the eyebrow. Both sons of Marres.3rd hand: This contract has been registered by the (notary?) of Apias, the 30th year of Caesar, on the 4th of Mesore. Contract concerning the sowing of six arourae of pasture land around Theadelphia.1st hand: We, Harthotes and Marsisouchos, both sons of Marres, public farmers from Theadelphia in the Themistos district, declare to have conceded to Batrachos, son of Artemidoros, six arourae of the public land that we farm around the same village, in two parcels or as many (arourae of land) as have been allotted (/set apart by the measurement of schoinion) to be sown with grass as pasture for cattle (sheep) for the thirty-first year of Caesar. Batrachos will furnish the seed for the land, while the construction of dykes, irrigation, digging of canals, everything that is needed for the cultivation falls on us. We shall do the sowing ... in the month of Hathyr of the same year, ... if ... Batrachos wants ... and ... the ... grass (?) ... the pasture. We shall cede the six said arourae of pasture land by the measurement of schoinion calculated by the krepis, while Batrachos shall pay [x] silver drachmas for every aroura, with a surplus of x drachmas. We have received this price/fee in its entirety, i.e. 200 drachmas of silver ... [X, I have signed on their behalf] as they are illiterate. Verso:200 drachmae have been paid in the 30th year of the Caesar ... through Aphr... and ???

Provenance:

Theadelphia, Themistou meris, Arsinoite nome, province of Egypt

Acquisition:

Purchased 1923 through British Museum, with M. Nahman as the dealer. Cf. the reports and the inventory list by H. I. Bell

Acquisition year:

–

Editions

• Eitrem S-Amundsen L, P.Oslo II, 1931, 32, picture: Pl. IVa,b
  ▾ Corrections:

  • Wilcken U, APF 10, p. 85 (l. 4)Schmidt KFW, Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen 194 (1932) p. 281f (l. 4, 11, 12, 17, 21f)Bell HI, CR 46 (1932) p. 24 (l. 4)Youtie HC, CPh 27 (1932) p. 89-94 (l. 4, 7-8, 12, verso)P.Oslo III, p. 275 (17: Schmidt
  • 35: Youtie)Wegener EP, JEA 23 (1937) p.211 (l. 36)

Further Literature

Wolff HJ, Z.Sav. 73 (1956) p. 329