Oxyrhynchus Papyrus Fragment (Payment of Lentils)
Oxyrhynchus Papyrus Fragment (Payment of Lentils)
Place of OriginEgypt, excavated at Al-Bahnasa (ancient Oxyrhynchus)
DateRoman Period, 280 CE
Dimensionsmaximum: 2 7/8 × 6 1/2 in. (7.3 × 16.5 cm)
MediumIndia ink on papyrus
ClassificationManuscripts
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1915.21
Not on View
DescriptionThis papyrus, written in Greek, preserves a complete administrative order dated to the sixth year of the Emperor Probus (280 A.D.). The text is a directive from Chaeremon, a secretary (grammateus) of the public records, to Isidorus, an agent (pronoetes) at the village of Episemou. Chaeremon orders the measuring out of 6 ½ artabae of lentils to two collectors of the annona (grain tax), Apollonius and Herminus. The payment, specified to be measured by the "tenth measure," was likely remuneration for their service in collecting the annona for the "fourth period of six months" on behalf of an estate or district (Ammonion). The document concludes with a standard epistolary closing praying for health and the specific date, Choiak 3 (November/December). Published as P. Oxy. IX 1192, it serves as primary evidence for the bureaucratic hierarchy and in-kind payment systems of late Roman Egypt.
Label TextEven in 280 A.D., government work required paperwork. This scrap of papyrus preserves an official order from a secretary named Chaeremon to a local agent, Isidorus. It authorizes a payment of lentils—six and a half artabae (roughly 200 liters)—to two tax collectors, Apollonius and Herminus. In the Roman period, officials collecting the annona (the annual grain tax destined for Rome or the army) were often paid in kind, receiving food rations rather than coins. Recovered from the rubbish mounds of the ancient city of Oxyrhynchus, documents like this provide a rare, intimate glimpse into the administrative machinery that powered the Roman Empire in Egypt.Published ReferencesHunt, Arthur S., The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, London, 1912. vol. IX, pp. 211-212, no. 1192.
Early to mid-1st century CE
Late 1st century BCE to early 1st century CE
Late 1st century BCE to early 1st century CE
Late 1st century BCE to early 1st century CE
Probably 4th century
Late 1st century BCE to early 1st century CE
6th to early 7th century
Late 1st century BCE to early 1st century CE
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