Peter Van Minnen
The Theognostos Archive (see P. J. Sijpesteijn, “Theognostos alias Moros and His Family,” ZPE 76, 1989, 213–218, and the introduction to P.Bagnall 56) is a set of documents from Hermopolis in Middle Egypt from the late second and early third century. The “membership card” of the imperial organization of athletes once belonging to Hermeinos, an older brother of Theognostos, is the best known (Pap.Agon. 6). The rest is concerned with the “gymnasial” status of the members of his family (including substantial unpublished epikrisis documents) or with their property (declarations, sales, and leases).
The unpublished P.Lond. 947 includes six tax receipts, all for laographia paid by Theognostos, that will be presented in this paper along with an unpublished declaration of birth, which is also included among the unpublished P.Lond. 947. The receipts are for each successive year from 231 to 236. The one published receipt from the Theognostos Archive (P.Lond. III 944) is from the same period but for another tax. Its reading (and interpretation) will be improved upon as well. The receipts for laographia are among the latest such receipts we have, the latest on papyrus.
The years 231-236 are among the most intriguing in the life of Theognostos, the protagonist of the archive. The recently published receipt (contract) for wet nursing a son of Theognostos and his sister Dioskorous (both getting on in years) dates from 234/5 (P.Pintaudi 42), as does the unpublished declaration of birth for a son mentioned above. As recently as 231, Theognostos had reported only himself and his wife Dioskorous as belonging to his household (P.Lond. III 946).