Real Letters from the Roman Front Lines - What Do They Say?
Added 2023-01-26 19:33:48 +0000 UTCThis documentary explores how Roman soldiers kept in touch with their families and friends. We begin by broadly discussing literacy rates and how one would go about writing a letter in the first place. This involves looking at things like papyrus scrolls, ink pens, and scribes.
We then turn our attention to the way in which these letters were sent across the Roman Empire. This took the form of both public and private couriers. The former consisted primarily of the Cursus Publicus which used a relay of riders to deliver messages across the Empire at incredibly fast speeds. The latter relied primarily on merchants who crisscrossed the Empire at their own pace.
Finally, we look at the contents of these Roman letters. This is done by quoting select examples which have been recovered at sites such as Vindolanda in England and Oxyrhnychus in Egypt.
