OPES – Oslo Papyri Electronic System

Background and Physical Properties

Material:

Papyrus

Connections:

Belonging to the Heroninos archive

Size:

10.5 x 9.5 cm.

Lines:

Verso - 11;Recto - 2

Publication side:

Verso; Recto published as P.Oslo II 27

Palaeographic description:

The handwriting is very neat and tidy, but the spacing is rather irregular

State of preservation:

–

Content

Date:

247-259 A.D.

Origin:

Probably village of Euhemeria, Themistou meris, Arsinoite nome, province of Egypt

Language:

Greek

Genre:

Documentary

Author:

Ninnos

Title / Type of text:

Private letter

Content:

Letter from Ninnos to Eirenaios, Neres, and Theodoros concerning labour carried out for the Nile concervancy.

Subjects:

Letter Labour Public work Taxation

Named people:

Ninnos Eirenaios Neres Theodoros

Named places:

–

English translation:

From Ninnos to Eirenaios, Neres and Theodoros. Greetings! From the letter sent to me by Eirenaios through the workers employed by the Nile concervancy (concerning the transportation expenses?) I have been informed that ninety naubia (cubits) of labour have been carried out and ... (which) you (i.e. Eirenaios) undertook (to carry out) in addition to the due sum and to require from the others and ... to sail upstream ... have paid (?) to the ... the salary, because ...

Provenance:

Probably village of Euhemeria, Themistou meris, Arsinoite nome, province of Egypt

Acquisition:

Purchased by S. Eitrem in Egypt 1920

Acquisition year:

–

Editions

• Eitrem S-Amundsen L, P.Oslo II, 1936, 57
  ▾ Corrections:

  • Wilcken U, APF 10 (1932) p. 86 (l. 3/4, 4)Rathbone DW, Economic rationalism and rural society (1991), p. 72 (date), p. 226-227 and n. 24 (l. 12/13)

Further Literature

Rathbone Dominic, Economic rationalism and rural society in third-century A.D. Egypt. Cambridge 1991, p. 67 n.51 , 72, 166 n.16, 226, 227 n.24, 413;Sherman LeRoy Wallace, Taxation in Egypt from Augustus to Diocletian. Princeton 1938, p. 60 n. 63.