OPES – Oslo Papyri Electronic System

Background and Physical Properties

Material:

Papyrus

Connections:

P.Oslo II 40b (copied on the same sheet)

Size:

32 x 31 cm

Lines:

27

Publication side:

Recto (Verso: blank)

Palaeographic description:

Practiced cursive of the Roman period. One hand (same as in P.Oslo II 40b).

State of preservation:

Medium brown colour. Two vertical kolleseis. One at ca. 8 cm from the right edge and another at ca. 30 cm from the right edge and ca. 2 cm from the left broken edge. Kollema width ca. 23.5 cm. The inferior and right edges appear to be preserved while the upper and left edges are damaged, so that between 3 and 15 letters are missing from the beginning of each of the lines of the first column, as well as 4 entire lines from the top of the first column, and 3 lines from the top of the second column. Vertical breaks along fold lines. Traces of ink have penetrated the sheet onto the upper left part of verso. The fragment contains two contracts spread over two columns. The first contract, P.Oslo II 40a occupies the initial 23 lines of col. i, the first 4 lines being entirely reconstructed on the model of P.Oslo II 40b. The latter contract occupies the remaining 23 lines of the first column, as well as the 21 extant lines in col. ii. The lacuna at the top of col. ii is thought to consist of 3 lines.

Content

Date:

April 14, 150 CE

Origin:

Bahnasa (ancient Oxyrhynchus), Egypt

Language:

Greek

Genre:

Documentary

Author:

Ptolemaios son of Apion, son of Apion

Title / Type of text:

Loan of Money / Contract (Copy of original)

Content:

Ptolemaios son of Apion borrowed 600 drachmae at the customary annual interest rate of 12 % from Apion son of Petosorapis on Pharmouthi 19th (= April 14) in the 13th year of the reign of Antoninus Pius (150 CE), to be paid back by Mesore 30th (= August 23) of the same year. The borrower pledged a slave girl, Isarous, with progeny as collateral for the loan. The document is a so-called menein-contract. In one particular year, Ptolemaios, Persian of the epigone, was obliged to borrow ready money twice from the same wealthy man, Apion son of Petosorapis, viz. 600 drachmae on Pharmouthi 1920th (= April 14) (P.Oslo II 40a), and 1400 drachmae on Mesore, epagom. 3rd (= August 26) (P.Oslo II 40b), in the thirteenth year of the reign of Antoninus Pius (= 150 CE). The rate of interest payable was that customary at the time, 12%. The first sum mentioned was loaned against security of a female slave, the second sum secured against half of a house at Oxyrhynchus.

Subjects:

Contract Copy Menein Loan Money Security Slave

Named people:

Ptolemaios son of Apion (son of Apion) and Sarapous Apion alias Petosorapis son of Petosorapis (son of Petosorapis) Isarous

Named places:

Oxyrhynchus

English translation:

Ptolemaios son of Apion, son of Apion, mother Sarapous, from the city Oxyrhynchos, Persian of the epigone, greets Apion, also called Petosorapis, son of Petosorapis, son of Petosorapis, former kosmetes of the same city. I acknowledge that I have received the capital sum of six hundred drachmas of imperial silver coinage in cash from you, to which nothing has been added, with a monthly interest of one drachma for each mina from the current month, Pharmouthi. I will pay the sum back to you with interest on the thirtieth of Mesore of the current thirteenth year of the lord Antoninus Caesar without delay. If I should not pay it back, I agree that the possession and ownership of my slave Isarous, about nine years old, unblemished but for epilepsy and leprosy, remain with you and those who will take (her) over from you in place of the sum and the interest, and (I agree) that (you) may pay, if you so choose, the taxes due on her and be the master of her and of her future children from now on, as if a sale has been made to you, and that you will obtain the profits, and that you sell her to others and dispose of her as you wish, with no claim remaining with me. I will provide the slave and her future children from now on to you and your legal successors as security with every guarantee, and it will not be possible for me, if I should not pay back the six hundred drachmas and the interest first, to sell, mortgage or otherwise dispose of the slave Isarous or her future children, while you have the choice, if you do not receive satisfaction, if you so prefer, after the time period (of the loan), to either take possession of the slave and her future children, in place of the six hundred drachmas and the interest, or to perform exaction for it all and for the interest in drachmas for the overdue time, on me, on the slave Isarous and her future children, and on all of my other property. If flight, death or injury of Isarous herself or her future children should occur, no penalty will follow for the sum mentioned, the interest, or to any part of it, since everything is insured against every risk. The document in my own hand, which I have written twice, is valid. The thirteenth year of Imperator Caesar Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pius, the 19th of Pharmouthi.

Provenance:

Cairo, Egypt

Acquisition:

Purchased by Leiv Amundsen from Maurice Nahman

Acquisition year:

1929

Editions

• Eitrem, S. and Amundsen, L., P.Oslo II, 1931, pp. 92-99 (no. 40a)

Further Literature

Catalogues

TM 21517

Translation

• Kreuzsaler, C., Lerouxel, F., Markiewicz, T, Rupprecht, H., & Vandorpe, K. (2014). Capital. In J. Keenan, J. Manning, & U. Yiftach-Firanko (Eds.), Law and Legal Practice in Egypt from Alexander to the Arab Conquest: A Selection of Papyrological Sources in Translation, with Introductions and Commentary (pp. 226-275). Cambridge University Press. On real security and menein-contracts, see p. 256; translation on p. 257.

Discussions

• Bell, H. I. (1932). The Oslo Papyri [Review of Papyri Osloenses, Fasc. II, by S. Eitrem & L. Amundsen]. The Classical Review, 46(1), 23-24. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009840X00057619. Alternative interpretation of the phrase μὴ δικαιοπραγουμένῳ on l. 18; see p. 24 = BL II, 211 & BL III, 122.
• Schwarz, A. B. (1935). Zum Papyrus Osloensis 40. Symbolae Osloenses, 14(1), 77-81. https://doi.org/10.1080/00397673508590288. On the varying interpretations of the phrase μὴ δικαιοπραγουμένῳ on l. 18.
• Schwarz, A. B. (1937). Sicherungsübereignung und Zwangsvollstreckung in den Papyri (Aus Anlass von Stud. Ital. XII). Aegyptus, 17(3), 241–282. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41214595. On the legal framework for Greco-Egyptian secured loans and their execution, see pp 247-250, 253-254, 259-265, 271, 277.
• Schönbauer, E. (1941). Rechtshistorische Urkundenstudien. Die katagraphe-Lehre von Andreas B. Schwarz in kritischer Beleuchtung. Archiv für Papyrusforschung und verwandte Gebiete, 14, 60-98. https://doi-org.ezproxy.uio.no/10.1515/apf.1941.1941.14.60. Discussion of legal terms in the contracts; see pp. 90-92.
• Pringsheim, F. (1950). The Greek law of sale. Hermann Böhlaus Nachfolger. On proofs of acquisition as secure evidence of ownership; see p. 183 n. 7. On the risk clause ll. 22-25; disputes the restoration of [σί]νος on l. 23; see p. 458-460 w/ n. 8 & n. 10 [= BL III, 122] and p. 460.
• 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. On pledging slaves as security for loans, see p. 81; comparison of slave mortgage and real market value, see p. 88.
• Christiansen, E. (1984). On Denarii and Other Coin-Terms in the Papyri. Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 54, 271–299. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20184001. On the use of ἀργυρίου σεβαστοῦ νομίσματου (40a l. 4; 40b l. 31), see list 3, p. 289.
• Nielsen, B. E., & Worp, K. A. (2002). New papyri from the New York University collection: III. Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 140, 129–150. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20191485. Comparison of legal wording with P. NYU II 29; see pp. 139-140.
• Bammer, A. (2007). Erwählung inmitten einer multikulturellen Gemeindesituation. Protokolle zur Bibel, 16(2), 103-118. On ἐκλογῆς (l. 18), see p. 111 n. 35.
• Alonso, J. L. (2008). The alpha and omega of hypallagma. The Journal of Juristic Papyrology, 38, 19-51. On legal obligations in menein and hypallagma-securities, see p. 26 n. 22.
• Nielsen, B. E., & Worp, K. A. (Eds.). (2010). Papyri from the New York University Collection II (P.NYU II). Harrassowitz Verlag. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvbd8kff. Same as published in Nielsen & Worp (2002); see pp. 72-73.
• Alonso, J. L. (2012). Fault, strict liability, and risk in the law of the papyri. In J. Urbanik (Ed.), Culpa. Facets of liability in ancient legal theory and practice (pp. 19-81). The Raphael Taubenschlag Foundation. https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-143364. On ἀκίνδυνα παντὸς κινδύνου l. 25, see p. 37 n. 49.
• Alonso, J. L. (2016). One en pistei, guarantee sales, and title-transfer security in the papyri. In D. F. Leão & G. Thür (Eds.), Symposion 2015: Vorträge zur griechischen und hellenistischen Rechtsgeschichte (Coimbra, 1.-4. September 2015) (pp. 121-192). Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1v2xvqm. On the applicability of the term Sicherungsübereignung, see p. 126; discussion of menein-contracts, see p. 139-146.
• Lerouxel, F. (2016). Le marché du crédit dans le monde romain. Publications de l’École française de Rome. https://doi.org/10.4000/books.efr.31320. Catalogue of papyri pertaining to the credit market; see pp 349-354.
• Skarsouli, E. (2021). Unterer Teil einer Sechszeugenurkunde. In C. Armoni, T. Backhuys, S. Lippert, E. O.D. Love, E. Skarsouli, N. V. Navarrete, & R. Vecchiato (Eds.), Kölner Papyri, Band 17 (pp. 28-38). Brill. On the phrase πρᾶξιν ποιεῖσθαι (l. 21), see p. 34 note to l. 3. NB: The author mistakenly refers to P.Oslo II 41.
• Mauer, Q. (2022). Application, adaptation and rejection: the strategies of Roman jurists in responsa concerning Greek documents. Meijers-reeks. Boom juridisch. https://hdl.handle.net/1887/3295802. On Greek legal documents and Roman law, see p. 55 n. 55.
• Pudsey, A., & Vuolanto, V. (2022). Enslaved children in Roman Egypt: Experiences from the papyri. In C. De Wet, M. Kahlos, & V. Vuolanto (Eds.), Slavery in the Late Antique World, 150 – 700 CE (pp. 210-223). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108568159.012. On the ‘value’ of enslaved children in Roman Egypt, see p. 218 n. 26.