Your Day in the Ancient Greek World

September 8

September 8 in ancient Greece is represented in our source-audited archive by 2 verified records spanning 255 BC to AD 147. Together, the entries below connect this calendar date with different moments in the ancient Greek world through historical and documentary evidence.

Across the centuries

On This Day

  1. 255 BC

    Life on This Day

    Ptolemaic Egypt Society & Daily Life High

    Two Brothers Make Another Payment to the Royal Treasury

    On September 8, 255 BC, the brothers Teos and Zminis made the third recorded payment to the royal treasury after acquiring a priestly office and part of a plot of land. The transaction survives on a bilingual wooden tablet with Greek text and a Demotic summary. It offers a precise glimpse of how religious office, landholding and royal finance could intersect in Ptolemaic Egypt.

    Sources

    Primary evidence

    • Add MS 56489 = UPZ II 155 = TM 3556

    Modern scholarship

    • British Library catalogue record for Add MS 56489

    Public links

  2. AD 147

    Life on This Day

    Roman Egypt Law & Civic Life High

    A Roman Prefect Responds to a Victim of Serious Violence

    On September 8, AD 147, the prefect of Egypt Petronius Honoratus issued a written response to an earlier petition from Ptolemaios, who described having suffered serious violence. Honoratus instructed him to summon Sarapammon and return when the relevant judicial proceedings were heard. The surviving dossier shows how provincial subjects could seek intervention from the highest Roman official in Egypt.

    Sources

    Primary evidence

    • P.Wisc. I 33, prefectural subscriptio

    Modern scholarship

    • Anna Dolganov, re-edition and analysis of P.Wisc. I 33 in Archiv für Papyrusforschung

    Public links