OPES – Oslo Papyri Electronic System

Background and Physical Properties

Material:

Papyrus

Connections:

–

Size:

11.6 x 24.8 cm

Lines:

14

Publication side:

Recto (Verso: P.Oslo inv. 1023v)

Palaeographic description:

The text of the document is written in a clerc's big and wellformed upright letters, but after l.10: ides, the rest is added in the writer's own cursive hand-writing.

State of preservation:

–

Content

Date:

May 3, 214 CE

Origin:

Memphis, Memphite nome, province of Egypt

Language:

Greek

Genre:

Documentary

Author:

Dioscorus alias Xenon, royal scribe

Title / Type of text:

Letter concerning the 5 days' corvée / Letter

Content:

Cover letter to a list of people exempt from the penthemeros

Subjects:

Administration Agriculture Forced labour: Scribe

Named people:

Dioscorus alias Xenon, royal scribe of the Memphite nome Aurelius Arrianus Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Pius Augustus, emperor

Named places:

Memphite nome

English translation:

(2. hand) 22 (A.D. 214) Payni 30 (June 24).(1. hand) Dioscorus, also called Xenon, royal scribe of the Memphite nome, to mighty Aurelius Arrianus, greeting. I have sent to you (the names of) the persons exempted by me from five days' corvée of the embankment and canal works in the month of Pharmouthi of the present twenty-second year of the Imperator Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Pius Augustus. I write, my lord, that you may know. (2. hand) I pray for your health, my lord.The 22nd year of the Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Parthicus Maximus Britannicus Maximus Germanicus Maximus Pius Augustus, Pachon 8 (May 3, A.D. 214).

Provenance:

Unknown place, 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. 45-46
  SB: VI 9626
• Sijpesteijn, P. J., Symbolae Osloenses 58, 1983, pp. 129-132
  SB: XVI 12989

Further Literature

Catalogues

TM 16335

Discussions

• de Kat-Eliassen, Martha H. (1965). Six Documents Concerning Penthemeros from the Oslo Papyrus Collection (see p. 48: corr. l. 9). Symbolae Osloenses, Vol. 40, pp. 39-48.
• de Kat-Eliassen, Martha H. (1979). Substitution of Strategus and Royal Scribe in the Roman Period. In J. Bingen and G. Nachtergael, Actes du XVe Congrès International de Papyrologie, Bruxelles - Louvain, 29 août - 3 septembre 1977, pp. 116-123, Bruxelles.
• Hagedorn, D. (1988). Keine Befreiung von der Penthemeros: Eine Bemerkung zu SB VI 9626 = SB XVI 12989 (corr. ll. 3, 5, 6-7, 7, 9-10, 10f.). Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 73, pp. 201–203.
• Kruse, T. (2002). Der Königliche Schreiber und die Gauverwaltung: Untersuchungen zur Verwaltungsgeschichte Ägyptens in der Zeit von Augustus bis Philippus (see pp. 317-319). Vol. 1. Leipzig.