Egyptian soldier's 1,800-year-old letter finally decoded

[Desert Fox]

Found this extremely interesting

http://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/1.581345
Grad student translates the missive, written mostly in Greek, which was first discovered by archaeologists in 1899 and had never been decoded.

 

[hgc]

Wow. That's quite a letter. The writer chose one theme, and hammered it relentlessly.

 

[Craig B]

Wow. That's quite a letter. The writer chose one theme, and hammered it relentlessly.

Did the Romans have a military postal service? This person claims to have written repeatedly to members of his family.

 

[pakeha]

Thanks, Craig B.
That's a nice little item to mull over during my daily session with RL.

From the linked article

"Polion was literate, and literacy was rarer then that it is now, but his handwriting, spelling and Greek grammar are erratic. He likely would have been multilingual, communicating in Egyptian or Greek at home in Egypt before he enlisted in the army and then communicating in Latin with the army in Pannonia."

Why assume the man was literate?
Wasn't letter writing for the unschooled a stock profession, even for someone with erratic grammar and an unpractised hand?

...besides inconsistency of spelling there are morphological irregularities, and the hand is not practiced. It can be categorized as an “alphabetic” personal hand comparable, for instance, to P. K ö l n 1.56 (private letter, first/second century), although it is not quite so unpracticed.

http://news.rice.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/2014-03-14-AdamsonPaper.pdf

 

[Senex]

Wow. That's quite a letter. The writer chose one theme, and hammered it relentlessly.

I think that guys great-great-great-grandson posts here.

No wonder his family never wrote back to him. All he does is complain and say he prays on their behalf.

 

[Cylinder]

Did the Romans have a military postal service? This person claims to have written repeatedly to members of his family.

The Romans established a kind of ad hoc postal system (cursus publicus) that used stations along the roads to route official dispatches. This infrastructure also made possible more mundane correspondence.

The British Museum holds some great examples of Roman era correspondence -- probably the most notable being the Vindolanda Tablets which are available online in image form, with Latin text, English translations and some background notes.

"... the Britons are unprotected by armour (?). There are very many cavalry. The cavalry do not use swords nor do the wretched Britons mount in order to throw javelins."​

 

[Craig B]

The Romans established a kind of ad hoc postal system (cursus publicus) that used stations along the roads to route official dispatches. This infrastructure also made possible more mundane correspondence.

The British Museum holds some great examples of Roman era correspondence -- probably the most notable being the Vindolanda Tablets which are available online in image form, with Latin text, English translations and some background notes.

"... the Britons are unprotected by armour (?). There are very many cavalry. The cavalry do not use swords nor do the wretched Britons mount in order to throw javelins."​

I was thinking about Vindolanda, but the correspondence there was mostly local, not with family members in a distant province, so I wondered if there might have been a service specifically operated by the army, or by the cursus publicus for serving legionaries.

 

[Cylinder]

I was thinking about Vindolanda, but the correspondence there was mostly local, not with family members in a distant province, so I wondered if there might have been a service specifically operated by the army, or by the cursus publicus for serving legionaries.

I don't know of an official dedicated office where a lowly legionary could take his mail for posting or an Iron Age equivalent to the APO/FPO addressing system. My understanding is that the cursus publicus served as the infrastructure that was also used for private correspondence that could span the empire and was a kind of one of the perks that was subject to graft/influence peddling by the local commander/governor. I suspect this is one of those areas of ancient history that is gleaned as much through interpretation as actual contemporary narratives. Of course, being largely a commercial empire (in my view, at least) the trade routes would have served as post as well.

 

[BenBurch]

I don't know of an official dedicated office where a lowly legionary could take his mail for posting or an Iron Age equivalent to the APO/FPO addressing system. My understanding is that the cursus publicus served as the infrastructure that was also used for private correspondence that could span the empire and was a kind of one of the perks that was subject to graft/influence peddling by the local commander/governor. I suspect this is one of those areas of ancient history that is gleaned as much through interpretation as actual contemporary narratives. Of course, being largely a commercial empire (in my view, at least) the trade routes would have served as post as well.

In more modern history I have read accounts of missives being entrusted to a sailor who was heading to the port the letter was bound for.

 

[dudalb]

And the guy was in a hot spot.....The Danube Frontier. Probably took part in one of the endless campaigns in Dacia (now called Romania).

 

[SpuriusMaximus]

I don't know of an official dedicated office where a lowly legionary could take his mail for posting or an Iron Age equivalent to the APO/FPO addressing system. My understanding is that the cursus publicus served as the infrastructure that was also used for private correspondence that could span the empire and was a kind of one of the perks that was subject to graft/influence peddling by the local commander/governor. I suspect this is one of those areas of ancient history that is gleaned as much through interpretation as actual contemporary narratives. Of course, being largely a commercial empire (in my view, at least) the trade routes would have served as post as well.

There was also a dedicated logistics system just to get those legions fed and supplied. In fact, it took up IIRC about three quarters of the government budget.

ETA: and Egypt was a major supplier of that food for the legions.

So I'm thinking that with all the wagon trains coming and going, finding someone to take your letter wouldn't really be a problem in any case.