OPES – Oslo Papyri Electronic System

Background and Physical Properties

Material:

Papyrus

Connections:

P.Heid. 396, SB III 6944A and SB III 6944B are copies of the same text

Size:

16 x 6.7 cm.

Lines:

26

Publication side:

Recto, the Verso is blank

Palaeographic description:

–

State of preservation:

Only the beginnings of the lines have been preserved in the fragment.

Content

Date:

(Before May 31), 136 A.D.

Origin:

Unknown place (Arsinoiton polis, Arsinoite nome?), province of Egypt

Language:

Greek

Genre:

Documentary

Author:

Hadrianus, emperor

Title / Type of text:

Imperial edict

Content:

Edict issued by the emperor Hadrianus, granting facilities in the payment of rents, because of insufficient inundation of the Nile in the present and previous year.

Subjects:

Agriculture Rent Taxes Farmer Inundation Crops

Named people:

Traianus Hadrianus Augustus, emperor

Named places:

Neilos Thebaïs Hepta nomoi Kato chora (Delta)

English translation:

Proclamation of the Emperor Caesar, son of the deified Traianus Parthicus, grandson of the deified Nerva, Traianus Hadrianus Augustus pontifex maximus, holder of the Tribunician Power for the 20th time, imperator for the second time, consul thrice, father of his country:Having been informed that even now, just as last year, the Nile has risen rather decifiently ... , - even considering the fact that during the preceding years successively its rise was not only plentiful, but rather almost higher than any time before, and that, flooding all over the country, it caused the produce of abundant and beautiful crops, still I have deemed it necessary to bestow a favour on the cultivators, although I hope - this be said with God! - that in years to come any possible deficiencies will be supplied by the Nile itself and the earth, according to the revolving (?) nature of things, changing from prosperous flow and abundancy to scarcity, and from scarcity to plenty.For good luck! Know that the money tax due for this year shall be distributed, for the inhabitants of the Thebaïd who probably are most heavily impaired by the scarcity, on five annual payments, for those from the Heptanomia on four, for those from the Delta on three, the mode of paying per semester being allowed those wishing to do so, under the condition that the limits of the time granted remain for those from the Thebaïd five years, for those from the Heptanomia four years, for those from the Delta three years.

Provenance:

Unknown place, province of Egypt

Acquisition:

Purchased by S.Eitrem in Egypt 1920

Acquisition year:

–

Editions

• Eitrem S-Amundsen L, P.Oslo III, 1936, 78, picture: Plate IIIb

Further Literature

Smallwood EM, Documents illustrating the principates of Nerva, Traian and Hadrian. Cambr.1966. No. 462.Williams W, ""Individuality in the imperial constitutions: Hadrian and the Antonines"", JRS 66 (1976) 73-74.Bonneau D, Le fisc et le Nil, Paris 1971, p. 180 and notes 910-913.Metzger H, Nachrichten aus dem Wüstensand, Zürich 1974, no. 16 (German translation)Oliver JH, Greek constitutions, 1989, p. 220-226 (Photo p. 221) .