Your Day in the Ancient Greek World
October 16
October 16 in ancient Greece is represented in our source-audited archive by 2 verified records spanning AD 86 to AD 443. 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
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AD 86
Life on This Day
A Man Requests Freedom for the Slave Euphrosyne
On October 16, AD 86, Chaeremon wrote to the agoranomus of Oxyrhynchus asking that a woman named Euphrosyne be granted freedom. The Greek text identifies her as a slave aged about thirty-five who had been born in her owner’s household. The request preserves a formal step in the process of manumission.
Sources
Primary evidence
- P.Oxy. I 48 = DDbDP 20710
Modern scholarship
- Papyri.info HGV 20710
- The Oxyrhynchus Papyri I
Public links
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AD 443
Life on This Day
Nine Arouras Are Leased on a Sharecropping Basis
On October 16, AD 443, nine arouras of land at Phthochis were leased on terms that divided the produce equally. The lessees could choose what to sow while the lessor remained responsible for taxes. The Greek contract sets out the working relationship between landowner and cultivators in unusually practical terms.
Sources
Primary evidence
- P.Oxy. VI 913 = TM 20377; British Library Papyrus 2045
Modern scholarship
- British Library Archives and Manuscripts catalogue
Public links