OPES – Oslo Papyri Electronic System

Background and Physical Properties

Material:

Papyrus

Connections:

–

Size:

10 x 19 cm.

Lines:

27 + 2 in the left margin

Publication side:

–

Palaeographic description:

–

State of preservation:

Light brown papyrus

Content

Date:

IInd century A.D.

Origin:

Unknown place, province of Egypt

Language:

Greek

Genre:

Documentary

Author:

Aphrodisios

Title / Type of text:

Private letter

Content:

Letter from Aphrodisios to Harpalos, mostly concerning irrigation.

Subjects:

Letter Irrigation Food

Named people:

Aphrodisios Harpalos Hareus Herakleides

Named places:

–

English translation:

Aphrodisios to Harpalos, greetings. I came back from you in good health, thanks to the gods. If you cared about what I told you, i.e. about the irrigation of the cultivated land of Hareus, to irrigate it after the cultivated land located higher up, did you take care of the matter or not? You did not see to it. It is/ I am not going to ... But I also told you not to neglect the other cultivated lands, if the great farm at the foot of the mountain needed irrigation I am staying/will stay (?). Whether you are in town or not, have good fortune! And concerning the cultivated land in the north if it will be watered, take care of that and the other things that I told you to do, do them yourself. If I need to come on the 20th of Pachon on account of the reaping, get me one artaba of wheaten flour and mix it (sc. with another sort of flour) and take (the bread) out (of the oven) on the 15th of Pachon. But if there is no need of me until the 20th of Pachon, but on the 4th of Pauni, take the small loaves out on the 30th of Pachon ... that you see. And dry the hundred arourae of cultivated land of Hareus and the land of Ps... but ... the chaff ... do not neglect.(Left margin) If you fail to find Herakleides (look out for?) the son; the wood ...

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, 155, picture: Pl. XI
  ▾ Corrections:

  • Wilcken U, APF 12 (1937) p. 228 (l.4)Crönert W, P.Oslo III (1936) p. 280 (l.6)Olson B, Deutsche Literaturzeitung 59 (1938) p. 518 (l.6)Schmidt KFW, Phil.Woch. 58 (1938) p. 303 (l.6, 21)Crönert W, P.Oslo III (1936) p. 303 (l.25-26)

Further Literature

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