Ptolemy IV(?) to a governor: relief from billeting for Soli magalia.wiki — Epigraphy Matrix Hub reading text and apparatus afterC. B. Welles, Royal Correspondence in the Hellenistic Period (New Haven 1934), no. 30 (text, translation, commentary; the base followed here). magalia.wiki — Epigraphy Matrix Hub magalia.wiki — Epigraphy Matrix Hub Beijing 2026 magalia.wiki welles-ptolemy-soli Welles RC 30 (Heberdey-Wilhelm, Denkschr. Wien XLIV.6, no. 101) 30 CC-BY 4.0 — EpiDoc TEI edition for study and reuse. see provenanceWelles RC 30 (Heberdey-Wilhelm, Denkschr. Wien XLIV.6, no. 101) 30 Stone from Soli in Cilicia; the letter's opening and close lost. Stone; ~12 lines survive late 3rd century BCE Soli (Soloi/Pompeiopolis) Soli (Soloi/Pompeiopolis), Cilicia — Opening and close broken away C. B. Welles, Royal Correspondence in the Hellenistic Period (New Haven 1934), no. 30 (text, translation, commentary; the base followed here). R. Heberdey & A. Wilhelm, Denkschriften der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien XLIV.6 (1896), 42 f., no. 101 (editio princeps). F. Schroeter, De Regum Hellenisticorum Epistulis (Leipzig 1932), frag. 4. A. Wilhelm, Archäologisch-epigraphische Mitteilungen aus Österreich 20 (1897), 53. Linked data and external resources Pleiades 648781 magalia.wiki edition

Leiden conventions rendered as EpiDoc: restorations as supplied(reason=lost), gaps as gap, abbreviations as expan(abbr+ex), omitted letters as supplied(reason=omitted), surplus as surplus, corrections as corr. Critical apparatus as listApp. The facing translation is div type=translation; the historical commentary is div type=commentary.

 Ancient Greek English Ptolemy IV Philopator (?)The writer (per Welles/Wilhelm; attribution disputed)Rebukes his governor and orders relief from billeting for Soli; the attribution rests on the royal style and Soli's Ptolemaic period (217–197 BCE) — an earlier view made the letter Seleucid. The governorThe addressee (unnamed provincial official)Responsible for Soli's district; reproached for making no investigation despite a prior royal order given in person. The SoliansThe petitioning cityTheir complaint — soldiers and supernumeraries quartered through both outer and inner city — sets the letter in motion. Alexander the GreatThe precedentInvoked as the venerable standard: the inner city 'was never subject to billeting even in the time of king Alexander'.
Ptolemy IV(?) to a governor: relief from billeting for Soli — edition …τὴν δὲ πόλιν οὐ μετρίως κατὰ τοῦτο τὸ μέρος θλίβεσθαι — — — — — — — —νοι, σὲ μὲν οὖν ἐσχολακέναι οὐδε- μίαν ἐπίσκεψιν ποιήσασθαι, τὴν δὲ πόλιν οὐ με- τρίως κατὰ τοῦτο τὸ μέρος θλίβεσθαι. χωρὶς μὲν γὰρ ὑπὸ τῶν στρατιωτῶν ἀτάκτως κατε- σκηνωκότων οὐ μόνον τὴν ἔξω πόλιν ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν εἴσω κατέχεσθαι, ἣν οὐδ’ ἐπ’ Ἀλεξάνδρου τοῦ βασιλέως οὐδέποτε ἐπισταθμευθῆναι, μάλιστα δὲ ὑπὸ τῶν ἔξω τάξεων ἐνοχλεῖσθαι, τοὺς γὰρ κατέχοντας τὰ πολλὰ τῶν οἰκημάτων τούτους εἶναι. οἶμαι μὲν οὖν καὶ παρόντι σοι περὶ τούτων ἐντολὴν πεποιῆσθαι· οὐ μὴν ἀλλ’ εἴ- περ μὴ γέγονεν, σοὶ καθῆκον ἦγ πᾶσαν ἐπιμέ- λειαν ποιεῖσθαι — — — — — —
Ptolemy IV(?) to a governor: relief from billeting for Soli — translation
The city's complaint: no investigation; billeting of outer and inner city; the supernumeraries (ll. 1–9)

… that you had no time and did not even make an investigation, but that the city was oppressed in this respect in no slight manner;

(they said that) not only the outer but the inner city as well was occupied by the soldiers camping in disorder — the inner city was never subject to billeting even in the time of king Alexander — and that the burden was due particularly to the supernumeraries, for it was these who occupied the greater part of the houses.

The royal reproach: the prior order; 'you should have been very careful' (ll. 10–13)

Now I think that when you were with me I gave you an order on this subject; even if I did not, however, you should have been very careful … (the rest is lost).

Ptolemy IV(?) to a governor: relief from billeting for Soli — commentary

The surviving fragment opens in mid-report: the Solians' envoys had complained that the governor 'had no time and did not even make an investigation' while the city was crushed by billeting — disorderly soldiers in both the outer and the inner city (the latter never billeted 'even in the time of king Alexander' — the venerable precedent doing real legal work), and the supernumeraries worst of all, holding most of the houses. The king's response to his own official is strikingly sharp: he had given him an order in person, 'and even if I did not, you should have been very careful'. Welles (after Wilhelm) attributes the letter to Ptolemy IV — Soli was Ptolemaic in 217–197 BCE and the royal style fits Egyptian usage — though a Seleucid origin was argued earlier; the dispute is recorded in the apparatus. The text is the corpus's clearest royal intervention against the burdens of its own garrison (Welles 1934, 136–140).

Critical apparatus σὲ μὲν οὖν ἐσχολακέναι — so Welles's print (re-read at hi-res 2026-06-12): the accusative σέ is the subject of the petitioners' indirect discourse — hence the translation's 2nd person ('that YOU had no time'). The earlier οἱ was a transcription slip. οἶμαι μὲν οὖν καὶ — unbracketed in Welles's print — secure text, not a supplement (the earlier [νομίζω μὲν οὖν καὶ] was a back-formation). σοὶ κα[θῆκον ἦγ πᾶσ]αν ἐπιμέ|λειαν ποιεῖσθαι — the closing restoration is Wilhelm's (Welles n.12: 'At end, restored by W'); the earlier [ἐχρῆν σε — —] stood in no witness. The print preserves 13 partial lines. ἀτάκτως — 'in disorder' (so the facing translation); the by-eye letterforms could also be taken as ἰδιαίτως (no standard sense) — single-witness, flagged rather than silently chosen. κατέχεσθαι — 'occupied' (so the translation); by-eye alternatively κατήγεσθαι — flagged. οὐδ’ ἐπ’ Ἀλεξάνδρου τοῦ βασιλέως οὐδέποτε ἐπισταθμευθῆναι — the inner city never billeted 'even under king Alexander' — the precedent that grounds the exemption. (the king) — unnamed on the stone. Ptolemy IV per Welles/Wilhelm (royal usage; Soli Ptolemaic 217–197); a Seleucid origin argued earlier — recorded, not resolved.
Editions and commentary C. B. Welles, Royal Correspondence in the Hellenistic Period (New Haven 1934), no. 30 (text, translation, commentary; the base followed here). R. Heberdey & A. Wilhelm, Denkschriften der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien XLIV.6 (1896), 42 f., no. 101 (editio princeps). F. Schroeter, De Regum Hellenisticorum Epistulis (Leipzig 1932), frag. 4. A. Wilhelm, Archäologisch-epigraphische Mitteilungen aus Österreich 20 (1897), 53.