P.Mich.inv. 5391

About this Item

Related Views

unspecified | summary (1 items)

Record Details

Inventory Number

P.Mich.inv. 5391

Processing Number

2445

Section/Side

Recto

Background and Physical Properties

Publ./Side

Recto; Verso described

Connections

archive of Claudius Tiberianus

Material

Pap

Size

22 X 23 cm

Items

1

Lines

Recto - 37

Verso - 2

Mounted

No

Negative

No

Negative in Copenhagen

yes (+verso)

Conservation Status

many holes, with considerable losses along the folds; - a few scattered and illegible remnants of the address, which was written in two lines are preserved on the verso

Palaeographic Description

See electronic version of PMich VIII, 467

Status

published

Library

Cairo

Contents

Date

(Early) IInd century A.D.

Origin

probably Alexandria, province of Egypt

Provenance

Karanis, Herakleidou meris, Arsinoite nome, province of Egypt

Acquisition

28-B167D2-C

Language

Latin

Genre

Documentary

Author

Claudius Terentianus

Type of Text/Title of Work

Private Letter

Content

Letter from Claudius Terentianus to his father(?) Claudius Tiberianus, acknowledging receipt of certain articles of clothes, requesting military equipment, relating a petty quarrel about something borrowed and not returned, and referring to his enlistment in the (Alexandrian) fleet

Subject Headings

Army (fleet, equipment)

Clothing

Family

Citizenship--Rome.

Recommendation

Ship

Soldiers--Rome.

Persons

Claudius Terentianus (see P. Mich. VIII, 467-481 introd.);

his father(?) Claudius Tiberianus (see P. Mich. VIII, 467-481 introd.);

his father(?) Ptolemaios (see P. Mich. VIII, 467-481 introd.);

his mother and brothers (unnamed);

Nepotianus (Nephotianos);

Kalabel;

Deipistus (Deipistos?);

Marcellus (bis?);

Valerius;

Aphrodisia;

Isityche;

Serenus;

Terentius

Geographica

Syria; Delta

Translation

Claudius Terentianus to Claudius Tiberianus, his lord and dearest father, very many greetings. Before all else, I pray that you be strong and cheerful and well, together with our entire family, and I am pleased whenever I have news from you. Know, father, that I have received . . . a cloak, a tunic, and the girdled lothes, and from Nepotianus . . . . But you gave him rough ones. Do you come . . . . You know very well how much he has lied to his comrades(?). Know that I am being sent off to Syria and am about to leave with a detachment. [I asked him] to give [them] to me, but [he] denied that he had the rough ones. He said to me: “If you do not return(?) . . . to me, I shall tell your father.” If I did not need to . . ., I would have returned it to him gladly, so that you might recover from him our . . . . Both Kalabel and Deipistus have enlisted in the Augustan fleet [of Alexandria] . . . no one has reckoned up the chances of his life . . . nor do I hate Marcellus on this account. Since they were nothing to me - (I say this) in the presence of the gods - but words, I conceived a hatred(?) of no one. I went . . . by boat, and with their help I enlisted in the fleet lest I seem to you to wander like a fugitive, lured on by a bitter hope. I ask and beg you, father, for I have no one dear to me except you, after the gods, to send to me by Valerius a battle sword, a . . ., a pickaxe, a grappling iron, two of the best lances obtainable, a cloak of beaver skin(?), and a girdled tunic, together with my trousers, so that I may have them, since I wore out my tunic before I entered the service and my trousers were laid away new. And if you are going to send anything, put an address on everything and describe the distinguishing features to me by letter lest any exchange be made en route. And if you write me a letter, address it: “on the liburnian of Neptune.” Know that everything is going well at home, through the beneficence of the gods. I sent you 2 jars of olives, one in brine and one black. These jars are the same as those . . . [that] I sent; from them you can identify these too. I ask and beg you, father, to go to the Delta on a trading boat, so that you may buy and send three breeders . . . . My mother(?), my father Ptolemaios, and all my brothers [salute] you. Salute Aphrodisia, Isityche, . . . Serenus the clerk, your colleague Marcellus, your colleague(?) Terentius, and all your comrades. I pray that you enjoy good health for many years, together with your family. Farewell.

Papyri.info Link

https://papyri.info/apis/michigan.apis.2445

Information on Publications

Publications

Series and Volume	Editor	Year	Pg/Nr	Photo	SB	Preferred Citation	Corrections
PMich VIII	Winter JG-Youtie HC	1951	467	Winter JG-Youtie HC, PMich VIII, 467, 1951 -- BL VII, 111 (bibliography); BL VIII, 215 (bibliography); BL IX, 161 (bibliography)	BL VII, 111 (bibliography); BL VIII, 215 (bibliography); BL IX, 161 (bibliography)
CPL	Cavenaile R	1957	250	Cavenaile R, CPL, 250, 1957

Information on Publications--Further Republications

Further Republications

Rep Editor - Pighi G. B.; Rep Ser. - Lettere latine d'un soldato di Traiano; 1964; Rep_Pg_No 4;

Rep Editor - Cugusi P.; Rep Ser. - C.Epist.Lat.; 1992; Rep_Pg_No 141;

Rep Editor - Dorandi T; Rep Ser. - Ch.L.A. XLII; 1994; Rep_Pg_No 1218 (photo: p. 41-42)

Information on Publications--Bibliography

Bibliography

E. Grassi, PP 11 (1956) p. 206-207; J.P. Wild, Antiquity 37 (1963) p. 193; R.W. Davies, BASP 10 (1973) p. 21-25; J.N. Adams, The Vulgar Latin of the Letters of Claudius Terentianus (P. Mich. VIII, 467-72) (Manchester, 1977); J.N. Adams, ZPE 31 (1978) p. 135-137; M. Reddé, Mare nostrum. Les infrastructures, le dispositif et l'histoire de la marine militaire sous l'empire romain (Rome, 1986) p. 685-687; Chr. Lehmann, Cuadernos de filologia classica 21 (1988) p. 11-23; G. Calboli, Latin vulgaire - latin tardif II. Actes du IIe Colloque international sur le latin vulgaire et tardif (Tuebingen, 1990) p. 23-44; S. Daris, ZPE 85 (1991) p. 275.

Cataloging

Cataloger

PH

Year Begin

100

Year End

199

Technical Details

Collection

Advanced Papyrological Information System (APIS UM)

Record

2445

Link to this Item

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/a/apis/x-2445/1 content_copy