Posted on 08/18/2018 10:37:29 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
A certain Valerius and a certain Athanasius lived during the 5th century AD in Egypt. 1500 years ago, the certain Valerius wrote a letter to Athanasius in Ancient Greek.
The letter contained insults and threats of lashing and burning.
A fragment of the letter, written on a Papyrus was translated by scientists.
"You trickster, you traitor, you son of a b**** ..." Valerius writes to Athanasius.
However, the reason why Valerius was fuming so much remains unknown as the rest of the papyrus is missing.
An x-rated papyrus? 'Valerius to Athanasius: You trickster, you traitor, you son of a b**** ...'
This 1500-year old letter comes from Oxyrhynchus (Papyrus 2105). The rest is missing so we don't know why Valerius was fuming so much.
Only a 70-215mm fragment of the papyrus has been saved and has been displayed in British Library in the British Museum.
(Excerpt) Read more at keeptalkinggreece.com ...
It’s all Greek to me.
All I know is that the plural of rhinoceros is rhinoceroces.
“Anger has a deep wallet...”
I like that!
But I might change it to “deep pockets” or “thick wallet”. Although when you’re mad I can see how you can confuse the two. :)
Those same pottery shards were used to cast votes to exclude undesirables from a community, and is from whence we get the word, "ostracize."
“You trickster, you traitor, you son of a b**** ...”
Tagline material.
No, it’s obvious that he was a member of the Greek media writing to the first Republican leader of Athens.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostracon
"Voting ostraca (for ostracism, Ancient Greece) An ostracon (Greek: ὄστρακον ostrakon, plural ὄστρακα ostraka) is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In an archaeological or epigraphical context, ostraca refer to sherds or even small pieces of stone that have writing scratched into them. Usually these are considered to have been broken off before the writing was added; ancient people used the cheap, plentiful and durable broken pieces of pottery around them as convenient places to place writing for a wide variety of purposes, mostly very short inscriptions, but in some cases surprisingly long."
OSTRACISM
http://theconversation.com/lessons-from-ancient-athens-the-art-of-exiling-your-enemies-68983
One such unlucky winner was Aristides the Just, an aristocratic statesman and renowned general. The biographer Plutarch recounts a story of his ostracism (which is probably fanciful, but a good yarn nonetheless):
"Now at the time of which I was speaking, as the voters were inscribing their ostraka, it is said that an unlettered and utterly boorish fellow handed his ostrakon to Aristides, and asked him to write ‘Aristides’ on it. He, astonished, asked the man what possible wrong Aristides had done him."
"‘None whatever,’ was the answer, ‘I don’t even know the fellow, but I am tired of hearing him everywhere called 'The Just.“ On hearing this, Aristides made no answer, but wrote his name on the ostrakon and handed it back."
:^) I love that story. Aristides of the Open Mind may have been a better nickname, but he should have written some other guy’s name on the ostracon and told the guy he was all set.
Thst’s the one. :^)
Or maybe a very early rap lyric.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1001719/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/1434606/posts
:^)
"Damn it, I didn't mean to hit 'Send'!"
"Hey, come back!"
That was an odd, and anti-democratic, and rather stupid practice in Athens. There was just a subthread discussion about it the other day, danged if I can find it. So, instead, an ostraca-related topic from yesteryear:
Trash Talk [ Monte Testaccio, imperial Roman landfill ]
Archaeology, Volume 62 Number 2 | March/April 2009 | Jarrett A. Lobell
Posted on 5/5/2012 11:34:47 PM by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2880425/posts
There’s an old Roman fort east of the Nile in Egypt, out in the hinterlands, it doesn’t seem to have been a plum assignment, just a cruel necessity. A pile of such letters from home (and other stuff thrown out as rubbish) was excavated there. Given the length of time travel took, even in Roman times (the Romans basically eliminated piracy for centuries around the time they established their five major naval bases, including one in the Black Sea), I’d be surprised if some of the letters, maybe many or most, never got to their addressee, because they’d be reassigned, or even had died.
Cicero must have been a lawyer!!!
haha!
:^)
Feel free to do so, my friend.
Nah, he couldn’t. You or me would write: “Here you go, George the Swineherd, you’re all set! (You illiterate bumbler, snicker, snicker!)”
He wouldn’t have been Aristides the Just any more.
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