Certificate of Sacrifice from Theadelphia (P.Mich. inv. 262)
A papyrus certificate issued in Egypt in June 250, in the first year of the emperor Decius. A man and his two children declare that they have always sacrificed to the gods and have now done so before the commissioners, who countersign.
See the object at apps.lib.umich.edu ↗Catalogue record with an image of the papyrus (University of Michigan, APIS) ↗A second certificate from the same village in the same collection, P.Mich. inv. 263 ↗
The papyrus comes from the village of Theadelphia in Egypt. It is a petition addressed to “the superintendents of sacrifices” by Inarous son of Akis and his two children. They state that they have always sacrificed to the gods and that now, in the officials’ presence and “in accordance with the order”, they have sacrificed, poured libations and tasted the offerings, and they ask for this to be certified. In a second hand two officials, Aurelius Serenus and Hermas, add that they saw them sacrificing. The date is 23 Pauni in the first year of Decius, which falls in June 250.
It is one of the certificates that Christian writers of the time call libelli, and it is direct evidence, from the government’s side, of what Decius’s order required: a personal act of sacrifice, witnessed and recorded. The petitioners describe themselves as lifelong worshippers of the gods, and nothing in the text suggests that they were suspected of being Christians. It shows the order being applied to an ordinary village family.
Cited in
- AD 250, firm date