Letter from Sarapion to his Father Dionysius (P.Oxy. 1756)
Letter from Sarapion to his Father Dionysius (P.Oxy. 1756)
PAP.000444
Papyrus
1st century AD
Oxyrhynchus, now al-Bahnasā, (Egypt)
Greek
Ink on Papyrus
8.6 × 44.7 in. (21.8 × 9.4 cm)
Not on View
In this short letter, Sarapion wrote to his father about paying his tax for the census. The full amount was 16 drachmae, which he paid in installments of 12 and 4 drachmae. He also promised his father that he would send him an olive tree if his flocks made it out to pasture.
Created by Sarapion in the 1st century AD in Egypt. Excavated in early 1900s by Bernard Grenfell (1869–1926) and Arthur Hunt (1871–1934);[1] Acquired by the Egypt Exploration Fund until 1915–1922; Ownership assumed between 1915 and 1922 by Bonebrake Theological Seminary, later renamed United Theological Seminary, Dayton, Ohio;[2] Acquired in 2009–2010 by Dirk Obbink, Oxford, England; Privately purchased in 2010 by Green Collection, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Gifted in 2013 to Museum of the Bible, Washington, DC.
Notes: [1] Bernard P. Grenfell and Arthur S. Hunt, The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, v. XIV (Egypt Exploration Society, 1920), 180. [2] Bernard P. Grenfell and Arthur S. Hunt, The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, v. XVI (Egypt Exploration Society, 1924), 279. The Egypt Exploration Fund, which sponsored Grenfell and Hunt’s work, began distributing papyri as gifts to supporting institutions in 1900. By 1922, it had gifted approximately three thousand items to 103 institutions, including United Theological Seminary. See Roberta Mazza, “Papyri Ethics, and Economics: A Biography of P.Oxy. 15.1780 (P39),” Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 52 (2015): 113–142.
Selected References:
Bernard P. Grenfell and Arthur S. Hunt, The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, v. XIV (Egypt Exploration Society, 1920).
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