Your Day in the Ancient Greek World

January 3

January 3 in ancient Greece is represented in our source-audited archive by one verified record dated AD 171. The entry below connects this calendar date with its surviving historical evidence and context.

Across the centuries

On This Day

  1. AD 171

    Life on This Day

    Syene or Elephantine, Roman Egypt Economy & Trade High

    A Tax Payment Is Recorded on Broken Pottery

    On January 3, AD 171, a Greek ostracon from the Syene and Elephantine region recorded a tax payment in kind. The modest receipt shows how routine fiscal transactions could be preserved on inexpensive pottery sherds.

    Sources

    Primary evidence

    • O.Wilck. 297

    Modern scholarship

    • Heidelberger Gesamtverzeichnis der griechischen Papyrusurkunden Ägyptens

    Public links