Protagonist: Sokrates son of Sarapion, praktor argyrikon, who lived in house 26-B17 at Karanis. He belonged to the well-to-do upper class of Karanis, as is also apparent from his house, which is larger than average. He was perhaps succeeded in his office by his son Sarapion. Sokrates' hand can be recognised in some texts which do not belong to his archive, e.g. P. Mich. 4 223. He is mentioned as praktor in several texts from Berlin, not belonging to the archive (BGU 2 391; BGU 15 2534) (Go to TM People)

Description: Private letters addressed to Sokrates; lease; tax receipts to Sokrates; a tomos of census declarations. Several literary papyri were found in the same house and its immediate neighbourhood (TM 58920 / LDAB 15, TM / LDAB 477, TM 61496 / LDAB 2643, TM 63555 / LDAB 4764, and perhaps TM 60345 / LDAB 1466). He may be the man who added some Kallimachean notes to a tax list, as was seen by Youtie in a famous article in Pap. Congr. XII (Ann Arbor 1968), 1970, p. 545-551.

Publication: P. Cairo Goodspeed 78; P. Mich. 3 169; 6 367-419 passim; 8 488-564 passim; 9 536; 564

Studies: Strassi Zaccaria, Prosopografia e incarichi amministrativi a Karanis nel II sec. d. C. Proposte interpretative, in ZPE 85 (1991), p. 245-262; van Minnen, House-to-house enquiries: an interdisciplinary approach to Roman Karanis, in ZPE 100 (1994), p. 237-244; Strassi, Le carte di Sokrates Sarapionos, praktor argyrikon a Karanis nel II sec. d.C., in Pap. Congr. XXII (Firenze 1998), 2001, p. 1215-1228

Works: Part of the archive is still unpublished, e.g. P.Mich. inv. 4689; 5894.

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