WHEN THE SPLENDOR OF ANCIENT EGYPT WANED, IT BECAME ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PROVINCES IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE. AND ALSO AN IMPORTANT WINE REGION THREATENED BY GRAPE THEFT DURING HARVEST, AS A 2000 YEAR OLD FRAGMENT OF A PAPYRUS NARRATES

When the splendor of ancient Egypt was waning and after the death of Cleopatra, it was conquered by Octavian Augustus and soon became one of the most important provinces in the Roman Empire, as well as one of top wine-growing regions. But Egyptian wine growers certainly did not have an easy life, as they were threatened by grape thieves, the worst plague that could hit them during harvest season.
A fragment of a 2000-year-old 12 by 8.5 cm papyrus, which Professor Kyle Helms of the University of Cincinnati deciphered, indicates that the solution is to hire private guards to defend the vineyard. "In agreement with you, I signed a contract”, reads the fragment of the papyrus that documents an employment contract in which a man named Flavio agrees to work as guardian of the vineyard, near an Egyptian village, “that binds me to guard your vineyard, near the village of Panoouei, from now until the end of the harvest season and including transportation of the grapes, in exchange for pay for all the time I have worked, and that there shall be no negligence”.

In his article "Guarding Grapes in Roman Egypt", also printed in "Wine Searcher" (www.wine-searcher.com), Kyle Helms writes how grape theft during harvest season was quite common, and so was the use of private security guards to prevent growers from losing their year’s work. Yet, beyond what scholars have always evinced or alleged, this fragment of a papyrus is the only tangible evidence of this theory, in addition to the remains of walls erected, presumably, to defend vineyards.