Letter 471: Terentianus describes money trouble, family conflict, and a failed trip to Alexandria.

The first nine lines are lost. I said to him, "Give me a little money. I will go to my father's friends." He handed over a needle and some linen to me, but he did not give me a single as. Even so, I scraped together a little money here and there, went to the damaged place-name in the papyrus, and bought a few things I needed. If there had been a good opportunity, he said, he would go to Alexandria; but again he gave me no money, except an aureus for my mother for clothing. "This," he said, "is what your father told me to do." When I arrived, everything was available, including wool, but I found my mother pregnant and unable to do anything. A few days later she gave birth, and she could not help me. At the same time my father Ptolemaeus had a quarrel about my clothes, and then he had to go to Alexandria with the recruits, leaving me behind with my mother. Alone, we could do nothing. Since he was away and we were about to leave that place, my mother said, "Let us wait for him until he comes. Then I will go with you to Alexandria and take you all the way to the ship." Saturninus was already ready to leave on the very day when such a serious quarrel broke out. I said to him, "Come, step in, if you can, and help my father Ptolemaeus." He cared no more for me than for a sponge-stick [a cheap cleaning tool], but was absorbed in his own business and his own affairs. As he was leaving, I said to him, "Give me a little money so that I can bring my things to Alexandria and cover the expenses." He denied that he had any. "Come to Alexandria," he said, "and I will give it to you." I did not go. My mother, since we did not have a single as, sold the linen so that I could come to Alexandria. Address: to Claudius Tiberianus, his father, from Claudius Terentianus.

Traces 9 lines. Dico illi: da mi, di[c]o, ạ[e]s paucum; ibo, dico, ad amicos patris mei. Item ac̣u lentiaminaque mi mandavit; nullum assem mi dedit. Ego tamen hinc ebinde collegi paucum aes et ivi ad [lacuna] et emi pauca que ẹp̣ẹdivi. Si aequm tempus eṣset, se exiturum alexandrie ṣ[i]luị[t]. Item non mi dedit aes quam aureum matri mee in vestimenta: hoc est, inquid, quod pater tus mi mandavit. Quo tempus autem veni omnia praefuerunt, et lana, et matrem meam autem praegnatam imveni; nil poterat facere. Dende pos paucos dies parit et non poterat mihi succurrere. Item litem abuit Ptolemes pater meu sopera vestimenta mea, et factum est illi venire alexandrie con tirones, et me reliquid con matrem meam. Soli nihil poteramus facere. Absentia illim abituri, mater mea: spectemus illum dum venit et venio tequm alexandrie et deduco te usque ad nave. Saturninus iam paratus erat exire illa die quando tam magna lites factam est. Dico illi: veni, interpone te, si potes aiutare Ptolemaeo patri meo. Non magis quravit me pro xylesphongium, sed sum negotium et circa res suas attonitus. Exiendo dico illi: da mi pauqum aes, ut possim venire con rebus meis alexandrie im inpendia. Negabit se abiturum: veni, dicet, alexandrie, ed dabo tibi. Ego non abivi. Mater ma nos assem vendedi lentiamina ut veniam alexandrie. Claudio Tiberiano [pat]ṛ[i a Cla]ụḍ[io] Teren[tiano].