OPES – Oslo Papyri Electronic System

Background and Physical Properties

Material:

Papyrus

Connections:

–

Size:

7.5 x 14 cm

Lines:

24

Publication side:

Recto (Verso: unpublished)

Palaeographic description:

Practiced semi-cursive hand of the Roman period, written along the fibres.

State of preservation:

Medium brown papyrus. The top and left edges appear to be partly preserved, but frayed. Top margin: 2.5 cm. Left margin: 1.5 cm. The papyrus is broken off at the right and at the bottom, so that the right ends of the lines are missing, as well as an unknown number of lines below the last extant line. Parts of the upper seven lines are more difficult to read than the rest of the fragment because of damage in an area that exhibits increased pigmentation of the papyrus and effacement of the letters.

Content

Date:

Probably 177-192 CE

Origin:

Tebtynis, Polemonos meris, Arsinoite nome, province of Egypt

Language:

Greek

Genre:

Documentary

Author:

Thermouthis

Title / Type of text:

Request for parathesis / Document

Content:

Request, submitted by Thermouthis to Sarapion and NN, the keepers of the property record office (bibliotheke enkteseon) of the Arsinoite nome for the provisional registration (parathesis) of some property she has bought, either to ensure the priority of her claim, or to reassert the prevailing rights of a creditor in the case of a sale of previously secured real property (see Alonso 2010).

Subjects:

Administration Archive Property record office House ownership Sale Price Personal status Woman Parathesis

Named people:

Thermouthis daughter of Orsenouphis Sarapion alias Agathos Daimon Andronikos son of Eutychi[…] NN daughter of Proklos

Named places:

Tebtynis Syriake (quarter) Storehouses (quarter) Theogonis

English translation:

To Sarapion, alias Agathos Daimon, and NN, ex-exegetai, keepers [of the property record office of the Arsinoite nome,] from Thermouthis, daughter of Orsenouphis, [one of the residents] of the village of Tebtynis, [acting with her guardian] Andronikos, son of Eutychi[...], of the quarter of Syriake. [I have bought,] in virtue of a public deed drawn up on the present day [through the notary office] here in the village of Theogonis, one half of a third part, [that is the sixth] part - which was owned in common and undivided - of a catoecic [holding], consisting of 8 (?) aruras, [or however many they may be, in one] area, at a cession price of seven hundred [silver] drachmae, [from NN, daughter] of Proklos, of the quarter of the Storehouses, who made the annotation through you. [Wherefore] I present this application in order that the annotation may be made in conformity with [the copy] of the cession which I have deposited. [For when] I make the declaration of the property, [I will show that] it belongs to me and is free (of claims); but if another person [should be proved] to have a right to it or a hold upon it recorded through the property record office, [the present notification shall not stand in the way of this claim.] (The rest is broken off.)

Provenance:

Presumably Tebtynis, Polemonos meris, Arsinoite nome, province of Egypt

Acquisition:

Purchased by L. Amundsen from M. Nahman, Cairo, Feb. 18, 1929.

Acquisition year:

1929

Editions

• Eliassen, M., Symbolae Osloenses 36, 1960, pp. 40-44
  SB: VI 9625

Further Literature

Catalogues

TM 14272

Discussions

NB: Due to a typographical error originating in the ed.pr., some have erroneously identified the fragment as inventory number 1052.

• Lewis, N. (1966). A Note on the recruitment of bibliophylakes enkteseon. Symbolae Osloenses, 41, 81-82. On the recruitment of bibliophylakes enkteseon exclusively from ex-gymnasiarchs prior to 161-169 CE, then also from ex-exegetai; see also BASP, 1975, 12(4), p. 111.
• Maehler, H. (1966). Urkunden römischer Zeit [= BGU XI, Pt. I]. Verlag Bruno Hessling. Reads ἐξηγ(ητεύσασι) l. 2, IF the addressee of BGU XI 2031, l. 5, can be identified with Sarapion, alias Agathos Daimon (= BL VI, p. 156).
• Browne, G. M. (1971). Late Roman papyri from the Michigan Collection. Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 75, 177-190. Ed. pr. of a ‘request for parathesis’ [= P. Mich. XII 627, reedited 1975]; see p. 180, commentary to ll. 4-5.
• Wolff, H. J. (1978). Das Recht der griechischen Papyri Ägyptens in der Zeit der Ptolemaeer und des Prinzipats: Organisation und Kontrolle des privaten Rechtsverkehrs. C. H. Beck. On whether the ἀρχεῖον l. 8 should be localized to Krokodilopolis rather than Tebtynis, see p. 21; on parathesis as a temporary registration of real estate acquisition, see pp. 238-242.
• Sijpesteijn, P.J. & K.A. Worp. (1995). Ein Hausverkauf aus Soknopaiu Nesos (P. Lond. inv. 1976). In R. Feenstra, A.S. Hartkamp, P.J. Sijpesteijn and L.C. Winkel (Eds.), Collatio iuris Romani. Études dédiées à Hans Ankum à l'occasion de son 65e anniversaire, II (pp. 513-532). J. C. Gieben. List of bibliophylakes enkteseon in Roman Egypt; see p. 528.
• Kramer, B & D. Hagedorn. (1998). Griechische Papyri der Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg [= P. Hamb. IV]. B. G. Teubner. List of Egyptian exegetai; very tentative reading of Ἡ]|ρακλίδῃ ll. 1-2; see no. 306 p. 263 with n. 171. (= BL XI, p. 209).
• Blouin, K. (2009). La branche Agathos Daimôn du Nil et le culte de l'Agathos Daimôn dans l'Égypte romaine: réponse cultuelle à une menace environnementale ? In E. Hermon (Ed.), Société et climats dans l'Empire romain : pour une perspective historique et systémique de la gestion des ressources en eau dans l'Empire romain (pp. 469-494). Editoriale Scientifica. On the popular cult of Agathos Daimon; see p. 488.
• Alonso, J. L. (2010). The bibliotheke enkteseon and the alienation of real securities in Roman Egypt. The Journal of Juristic Papyrology, 40, 11-54. On the safeguard clause (εἰ δὲ φανείη ... ll. 21ff) in the parathesis-system, as safeguard for previously registered rights to property; see p. 27 n. 56.
• Ast, R. & J. Cowey (Eds.). (2013). Bulletin of Online Emendations to Papyri 2.1. https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeumdok.00005514. Emendations by D. Hagedorn (from photo) to ll. 3, 6, 9 & 13-14; see p. 3.
• Litinas, N. (2013). A short note on SB XXII 15793. Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 186, 255-257. Re-edition of SB XXI 15793 as request for provisional registration (parathesis); see pp. 255, & 256 commentary to ll. 6-7.
• Stolk, J. V. (2018). Encoding linguistic variation in Greek documentary papyri. The past, present and future of editorial regularization. In N. Reggiani (Ed.), Digital Papyrology II. Case Studies on the Digital Edition of Ancient Greek Papyri (pp. 119-138). De Gruyter. On the inconsistent regularization of spelling in editions of papyri exemplified through βιβλιοφυλακείου l. 23; see p. 126.