Thought this interesting. From a site called Archaeology and ancient worlds.
Real letter from a Roman soldier
Written in the second century by a kid named Apion from a small town in Egypt.
He enlisted in the Roman army at Alexandria, got on a big government ship, and sailed to Italy. The ship made it through a terrible storm.
As soon as he landed and got his new uniform and pay, he went to have his picture painted for his family and sent it home along with this letter:
"Apion to his father and lord Epimachos: Many good wishes!
First of all I hope you are in good health and that things are going well for you and my sister and her daughter and my brother. I thank the Lord Serapis [an Egyptian god] for saving me right off when I was in danger at sea.
When I arrived at Misenum [the Roman war harbor, near Naples], I received three gold pieces from the Emperor [Trajan?] as road money, and I’m doing just fine.
Please write me a line, my lord father, about your own well-being, second about that of my brother and sister, and third so that I may devotedly greet your hand, because you brought me up well and I may therefore hope for rapid promotion, the gods willing. Give my regards to Capiton [some friend] and my brother and sister and Serenilla [a family slave?] and my friends. I’m sending you my little portrait through Euktemon. My [new]Roman name is Antonius Maximus.
All my best!"
Here is the actual letter, beautifully written in Greek on papyrus, not by the boy himself but by a hired public letter-writer.
Two of Apion’s friends who enlisted with him added their greetings in the left-hand margin.
The letter was folded and sealed.
It went by the very efficient Roman military post and made it safely all the way to the little village in Egypt, where the boy’s father and family read it almost two thousand years ago. After the father died, the letter got lost in the household rubbish and archaeologists found it not too long ago under the fallen walls of the house. With it was another letter written by Apion years later to his sister after he had long been stationed somewhere on the Roman frontier and had a wife and children of his own. That is all we know.
I would like to add a comment; In the first place, love and respect for his father and family are inferred from the boy, founding concepts of the Mos Maiorum in its first assertion: the Pietas.
Furthermore, his pride in enlisting in the Roman army is clearly perceived, arriving to defend the most distant and dangerous borders.
All this demonstrates Rome's extraordinary inclusive capacity even in the most peripheral provinces.
Contrary to what many detractors claim, Rome was not just wars, massacres and abuses of power but the bearer of well-being, modernity ,shared culture and religious tolerance.
"Hae tibi erunt artes, pacisque imponere morem.
Parcere subiectis et debellare superbos" Virgil
Real letter from a Roman soldier
Written in the second century by a kid named Apion from a small town in Egypt.
He enlisted in the Roman army at Alexandria, got on a big government ship, and sailed to Italy. The ship made it through a terrible storm.
As soon as he landed and got his new uniform and pay, he went to have his picture painted for his family and sent it home along with this letter:
"Apion to his father and lord Epimachos: Many good wishes!
First of all I hope you are in good health and that things are going well for you and my sister and her daughter and my brother. I thank the Lord Serapis [an Egyptian god] for saving me right off when I was in danger at sea.
When I arrived at Misenum [the Roman war harbor, near Naples], I received three gold pieces from the Emperor [Trajan?] as road money, and I’m doing just fine.
Please write me a line, my lord father, about your own well-being, second about that of my brother and sister, and third so that I may devotedly greet your hand, because you brought me up well and I may therefore hope for rapid promotion, the gods willing. Give my regards to Capiton [some friend] and my brother and sister and Serenilla [a family slave?] and my friends. I’m sending you my little portrait through Euktemon. My [new]Roman name is Antonius Maximus.
All my best!"
Here is the actual letter, beautifully written in Greek on papyrus, not by the boy himself but by a hired public letter-writer.
Two of Apion’s friends who enlisted with him added their greetings in the left-hand margin.
The letter was folded and sealed.
It went by the very efficient Roman military post and made it safely all the way to the little village in Egypt, where the boy’s father and family read it almost two thousand years ago. After the father died, the letter got lost in the household rubbish and archaeologists found it not too long ago under the fallen walls of the house. With it was another letter written by Apion years later to his sister after he had long been stationed somewhere on the Roman frontier and had a wife and children of his own. That is all we know.
I would like to add a comment; In the first place, love and respect for his father and family are inferred from the boy, founding concepts of the Mos Maiorum in its first assertion: the Pietas.
Furthermore, his pride in enlisting in the Roman army is clearly perceived, arriving to defend the most distant and dangerous borders.
All this demonstrates Rome's extraordinary inclusive capacity even in the most peripheral provinces.
Contrary to what many detractors claim, Rome was not just wars, massacres and abuses of power but the bearer of well-being, modernity ,shared culture and religious tolerance.
"Hae tibi erunt artes, pacisque imponere morem.
Parcere subiectis et debellare superbos" Virgil
