Roman soldier's life unfurls: Princeton grad helps bring ancient writings to light

The Cincinnati Enquirer ^ | Monday, January 26, 2004 | Sue Kiesewetter

[nickcarraway]

SHARONVILLE - Nearly 2000 years ago a young Roman soldier wrote home, asking his father's permission to marry his girlfriend.

In another letter, he asks for boots and socks to keep his feet warm during a cold winter. And he tells how he must violently put down those who revolt and riot in Alexandria.

All this - and more - about life for Tiberianus, who lived in Roman Egypt, is being advanced through the work of a Princeton High School graduate now attending the University of Michigan.

Last fall, Robert Stephan (Class of 2001) found some papyri - ancient writings on papyrus, made from the reed plant - stored but forgotten in the university's vault. The papyri had been collected during UM excavations at Karanius, southwest of Egypt's Nile River delta, in the 1920s and '30s.

Unbeknown to today's scholars, 15 papyri collected from the original excavation had been catalogued by the university but never examined or translated. The works may never have been discovered had Stephan not begun an independent study project last fall.

Many archaeologistscall his discovery a breakthrough.

"The significance of this is that the world (did not) know that these existed,'' said Arthur Verhoogt, a UM assistant professor of papyrology and Greek. "It's an important contribution to our understanding of the Roman Empire at large.''

Stephan is spending much of his free time working with professors to translate the papyri and put the writings in context with other archaeological findings. His work will be published next year in Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists. Stephan also is putting together an exhibit of papyri and artifacts from Karanius for the university's museum in October.

"This is a revision of what we know,'' said Traianos Gagos, president of the American Society of Papyrologists.

"This collection of fragments is hard to read - private letters are the hardest to translate because there's not much background. The approach Rob has taken is broader. He's bringing the archaeologist into it - the way it should be studied.''

The work, Stephan said, is fascinating and unusual for an undergraduate to be doing.

"I'm trying to find out what life was like for the average Joe of this society," Stephan said. "I want to find the guy's social status and what his life was like.''

[John Beresford Tipton]

"he must violently put down those who revolt and riot in Alexandria.
Alexandria quagmire."

Could he be talking about Tribune Jameus Moranis?

[SwinneySwitch]

The Vikings attacked Paris with over 1,000 ships, according to the History Channel! (I've been watching the "Barbarians" instead of the modern demonrats.)

[martin_fierro]

True dat!

De clunibus magnis amandis oratio

[BluH2o]

'Why on earth did you name me Tiberianus'?"

Born on the butt end of the Tiber? That's way up stream ... near the source.

[richardtavor]

If you ever read about Masada, that is a classic case. It took the Romans 3 years in seige to get to the top of the fortress (where 1000 Jews committed suicide.) This delayed the ultimate destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple in 70 c.e. (The Masada attack began in 67 c.e.) The Romans had posts (for Fresh water, food and military) all up and down the valley from Masada to Jericho. I have seen evidence of Roman encampments (including catapult stones and first century skelatons) at Qumran, which overlooked the passage down to Masada (about 50 miles from Jericho.) So the people could always see the movement of the Romans and their Jewish slaves.

[Pharmboy]

Looks like an L calibre cannon...

[Rome2000]

Be interesting if his girlfriend turns out to be a Mongol.

[seowulf]

Pax Superiore Vi Telarum

[archy]

Looks like an L calibre cannon...

You're presumably familiar with the designations of the magazine types for the Thompson submachinegun? Particularly the drum magazines?

[archy]

The Vikings attacked Paris with over 1,000 ships, according to the History Channel! (I've been watching the "Barbarians" instead of the modern demonrats.)

Scared me! I was afraid you'd been watching an adult channel, and was talking about Paris Hilton. A thousand boatloads of Vilkings might even be a bit much for her...

[Enterprise]

Be interesting if his girlfriend turns out to be a Mongol.

Dear Dad:

I met this really wonderful and cute mongol girl named Jasmine. She says her parents were going to make her marry some tribal chief named Genghis somethingorother. Anyway she is really afraid of him. He made wild statements about how he would pursue her across all nations and would kill millions to have her. Yeah, you know the drill. Just another Mongol blowhard. Anyway, I really want to marry her and I am sure our religious differences won't amount to much. Write me soon.

Love - Tibby

[vbmoneyspender]

He should be happy they didn't name him 'Biggus Dickus'

[archy]

The thing that strikes me is that it sounds like a letter a GI would write home to his father today....

Indeed, though I'd suspect more likely that today's troops would have sent back a letter telling dad after the fact of a kinda sudden wedding. But would indeed be askiung for the socks....

I wonder what Tiberanius would have thought of Captain Kimbo Hampton? Maybe there's something to the Viking ideas about Valhalla, and the two of them are having a chat even now....

[TalBlack]

"The thing that strikes me is that it sounds like a letter a GI would write home to his father today...."


And the socks would take about as long to get there too!

[steveo]

Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?

[steveo]

began in 67 c.e.

I'd have changed that to read AD

[San Jacinto]

Uva uvam vivendo varia fit

[SwinneySwitch]

Credo nos in fluctu eodem esse.

[archy]

Uva uvam vivendo varia fit

Yep, I read Lonesome Dove too. I don't rent pigs neither.

[SoCal Pubbie]

Did you catch the part about the French king bribing the Vikings rather than fighting, and how it just lead to more attacks? I guess the cheesy eating surrender monkey tradition goes way back!