Posted on 03/07/2014 12:05:46 PM PST by Red Badger
A newly deciphered letter home dating back around 1,800 years reveals the pleas of a young Egyptian soldier named Aurelius Polion who was serving, probably as a volunteer, in a Roman legion in Europe.
In the letter, written mainly in Greek, Polion tells his family that he is desperate to hear from them and that he is going to request leave to make the long journey home to see them.
Addressed to his mother (a bread seller), sister and brother, part of it reads: "I pray that you are in good health night and day, and I always make obeisance before all the gods on your behalf. I do not cease writing to you, but you do not have me in mind," it reads. [In Photos: Gladiators of the Roman Empire]
"I am worried about you because although you received letters from me often, you never wrote back to me so that I may know how you ..." (Part of the letter hasn't survived.)
Polion says he has written six letters to his family without response, suggesting some sort of family tensions.
"While away in Pannonia I sent (letters) to you, but you treat me so as a stranger," he writes. "I shall obtain leave from the consular (commander), and I shall come to you so that you may know that I am your brother …"
Found in an ancient Egyptian town
The letter was found outside a temple in the Egyptian town of Tebtunis more than a century ago by an archaeological expedition led by Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt. They found numerous papyri in the town and did not have time to translate all of them.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
“Dear Dad,” read the young soldier’s first letter home. “I cannot tell you where I am, but yesterday I shot a polar bear...”
Several months later came another letter: “Dear Dad, I still cannot tell you where I am, but yesterday I danced with a hula girl...”
Two weeks later came yet another note: “Dear Dad, I still cannot tell you where I am, but yesterday the doctor told me I should have danced with the polar bear and shot the hula girl...”
Cleopatra was the first Ptolemy to actually speak Egyptian. Can you imagine running an country and not speaking the native tongue. We cannot even imagine life in Egypt.
Dear Mum,
Hope this letter finds you as it leaves me, in the pink.
The trenches are cushy enough except when it rains,
although there is a rumor that the British Fleet may
come to our rescue, even the cooties wear lifebelts.
Send me anything but bully beef, or plum Jam.
thanks your son.
1st century Rome had Christians. Nero enjoyed killing them. Rome didn’t have to be Christian to have them.
With Nero the persecution of the Christians was more about having a convenient scapegoat than any concern for theology. Now Diocletian genuinely hated Christianity. Most of the persecutions in between were not based on the fact that Christians worshipped Christ or His Father (the Romans couldn’t have cared much) but on the fact that Christians did *NOT* make sacrifices to the gods and the Emperor.
Not sacrificing to to Emperor and Roman gods was considered treason, risking the wrath of the gods on the entire population. Professing Christ wasn’t the issue.
The Jews had a special place as the Romans let them make offerings to their God *for* the emperor and Empire (the Jews originally came into the Roman sphere as allies and the Romans respected that which was OLD, and Judiasm was old.)- that’s why the question of if followers of Christ were Jews or not was so important- if they were Jews then they did not have to sacrifice, if they claimed to not be Jews and still did not sacrifice then they were traitors and were dealt with thusly.
Winner.
Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate.
***
That would be equivalent to the feeling of sexual attraction. But a love between a man and a woman that has endured for decades is much sturdier treasure.
As for my love for my children and my grandchildren and for my siblings, also wealth beyond measure.
Just amazing. Thanks.
Awesome.
Tell it to the Chaplin troop...now get back on point !
I have a vague memory of some significant climatic event in Roman areas around 180 ad. Significant climate upheaval gets the barbarians moving. That area faced significant “barbarian” pressure for 2 or 3 centuries before the old Roman empire ceased to be significant. For further history, check out Visigoths, Ostrogoths, and Vandals.
From Allan Sherman - Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXabAszMisY
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