Your Day in the Ancient Greek World

October 4

October 4 in ancient Greece is represented in our source-audited archive by one verified record dated 255 BC. The entry below connects this calendar date with its surviving historical evidence and context.

Across the centuries

On This Day

  1. 255 BC

    Life on This Day

    Ptolemaic Egypt Society & Daily Life High

    Labourers Are Paid to Clear Brushwood Land

    On October 4, 255 BC, labourers acknowledged payment from Zenon for clearing brushwood from a plot of land. The Greek contract required them to return the land clean within twenty-one days and was executed before six witnesses. Part of the original clay seal still survives.

    Sources

    Primary evidence

    • P.Cair.Zen. II 59182 = TM 828; British Library Papyrus 2344

    Modern scholarship

    • British Library Archives and Manuscripts catalogue

    Public links