OPES – Oslo Papyri Electronic System

Background and Physical Properties

Material:

Papyrus

Connections:

–

Size:

6.5 x 15.3 cm.

Lines:

20

Publication side:

Recto (Verso: blank)

Palaeographic description:

–

State of preservation:

Medium brown papyrus. Broken on three sides, the left margin is 1 1/2 cm, but broken here and there.

Content

Date:

IVth century A.D.

Origin:

Apollonopolis, Apollonopolite nome, province of Egypt

Language:

Greek

Genre:

Documentary

Author:

Aurelius, son of Hor?... and Aurelia

Title / Type of text:

Sale of a male donkey

Content:

Aurelius has sold a male donkey to Paleus, for a sum agreed upon.

Subjects:

Sale Donkey Price

Named people:

Aurelius, son of Hor?... and Aurelia Aurelius Paleus, son of Sois and Belisis, onelates

Named places:

Apollonopolis, Apollonopolite nome Alabanthis, Hermopolite nome

English translation:

Aurelius, son of Hor?... , his mother being Aurelia, from Apollonopolis of the Apollonopolite nome, to Aurelius Paleus, son of Sois, his mother being Belisis, from the village Alabanthis of the Hermopolite nome, public donkey-driver, greetings. I have sold you a male donkey, fair, born to me by the female donkey I own, for the price that we have agreed upon: 132 drachmae in silver denarii.

Provenance:

Unknown place, 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 III, 1936, 134

Further Literature

Catalogues

TM 28913 / DDbDP / HGV / BL Online

Discussions

• Adams, C. (2007). Land transport in Roman Egypt: A study of economics and administration in a Roman province. Oxford University Press. On donkey sales in the specialized Cynopolite market; see p. 96, n. 22.