Dear Mom, Please Write...

...so wrote ancient Egyptian soldier Polion while serving with a Roman army unit in Hungary some 1,800 years ago.

 We don't know if his family received the letters, or if they replied, or if they did reply, that Polion ever received their letters in return.  No instant messaging or email back then and no U.S. Postal Service or FEDEX.  Did the Romans have a form of postal service for its soldiers scattered all over the known world at that time?  Yes, they did!  This is what a sidebar in the article says:

The back of the letter contains instructions for the carrier to deliver it to a military veteran whose name may have been Acutius Leon who could forward it to Polion's family. Although the Roman Empire had a military postal system, Polion appears not to have used it, entrusting the veteran instead.

Article at Live Science

Ancient Egyptian Soldier's Letter Home Deciphered

By Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor   |   March 05, 2014 10:18pm ET

 

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.

 

"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.)