A recently deciphered letter home dating back to the time of Hadrian and Antinous reveals the homesickness 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.
This
image of a plaintive young Egyptian in Roman toga dates from the era
and was found at Antinoopolis, not far from where this letter was
discovered.
In
the letter, Polion says that he is going to request leave to make the
long journey home to see his family and the Nile which he misses so
much.
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.
"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.
"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 …"
The letter was found outside a temple in the Egyptian town of Tebtunis over 100 years 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.
Recently
Grant Adamson, a doctoral candidate at Rice University, took up the
task of translating the papyrus, using infrared images of it, a
technology that makes part of the text more legible.
His translation was published recently in the Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists.
Adamson
isn't sure if the soldier's family responded to his pleas, or if Polion
got leave to see them (it's unlikely), but it appears this letter did
arrive home.
"I
tend to think so. The letter was addressed to and mentions Egyptians,
and it was found outside the temple of the Roman-period town of Tebtunis
in the Fayyum not far from the Nile River," Adamson wrote in an email
to Live Science.
Polion, who lived at a time when the Roman Empire controlled Egypt, was part of the legio II Adiutrix legion stationed in Pannonia Inferior (around modern-day Hungary).
Polion, who lived at a time when the Roman Empire controlled Egypt, was part of the legio II Adiutrix legion stationed in Pannonia Inferior (around modern-day Hungary).
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