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MILITARY HEALTH WISHES IN THE GREEK LETTERS OF CAESAR AND OCTAVIAN
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 October 2022
Abstract
This article examines and contextualizes a health wish formula found at the opening of eight Roman official letters inscribed in Greek, one of Caesar and seven of Octavian. In each letter the sender mentions that he is well ‘with the army’ (μετὰ τοῦ στρατεύματος), hence the term ‘military’ health wish. The health wish was borrowed from Latin letters into Roman letters written in Greek by means of phraseological imitation. The formulation employs appropriate Koine Greek. It was optional during the Republic for the wish to be used in letters either from or to a Roman holding imperium and commanding an army. Because Caesar and Octavian were in such positions, their use of the wish is conventional. The use of this health wish demonstrates that epistolographers working for Caesar and Octavian not only drafted letters that met the conventions of Hellenistic chanceries but also were proficient enough in the medium to incorporate Roman elements with effectiveness. Attestations of the military health wish declined during the Imperial period. The requirement that the sender or the recipient hold imperium would have restricted usage during the Republic but even more so under the Empire through administrative changes to the command of armies and the increasing centrality of the princeps.
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- Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association
Footnotes
This research was facilitated by a 2017 Australia Awards Endeavour Research Fellowship (Department of Education and Training, the Australian Government), the Macquarie–Gale Graeco-Roman Travelling Scholarship, and a Macquarie University Postgraduate Research Fund grant. The research was conducted at the Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents, Faculty of Classics, Oxford. I am grateful to Nicholas Purcell, who sponsored my visit and discussed the paper with me. It is a pleasure to thank Trevor Evans, Ellen Ryan, Lea Beness, Tom Hillard, Alison Cooley, Hilla Halla-aho and Andreas Willi for their close reading of, and incisive comments on, earlier versions of this material. I am grateful to the organizers and participants of research seminars, especially James Clackson of the Cambridge Philology seminar (who also arranged my trip to Cambridge); Andreas Willi and Philomen Probert of the Oxford Philology Seminar; and Charles Crowther, Peter Thonemann, Jonathan Prag, Gregory Hutchinson, Robert Parker and Irad Malkin from the Oxford Epigraphy Seminar. Thanks are also due to my Endeavour Award manager Laveena Lobo. Finally, I am grateful to the editors, reviewers and administrative staff of CQ for their tireless efforts. All of you enriched the article with your expertise and assistance. All remaining errors and infelicities are my own.
References
1 Letter 1, Caesar to Mytilene, 48–47 b.c.e. = Sherk, R.K., Roman Documents from the Greek East (Baltimore, 1969), no. 26a.2Google Scholar; Letter 2, Octavian to the Plaraseans and Aphrodisians, 39–38 b.c.e. = IAph2007 no. 8.25 (= Sherk [this note], no. 28), fr. A.11–14; Letter 3, Octavian to Ephesus primum, early 38 b.c.e. = IAph2007 no. 8.31.2–3; Letter 4, Octavian to Rhosus primum, 35 b.c.e. = Raggi, A., ‘The epigraphic dossier of Seleucus of Rhosus: a revised edition’, ZPE 147 (2004), 123–38Google Scholar, at 128, Doc. I = SEG 54.1625.4; Letter 5, Octavian to Mylasa, 31 b.c.e. = Sherk (this note), no. 60 A.4–6 (cf. IMylasa 602 and De Rossi, F. Canali, ‘Tre epistole di magistrati romani a città d'Asia’, EA 32 [2000], 163–81, at 172–8)Google Scholar; Letter 6, Octavian to Rhosus iterum, 31 b.c.e. = Raggi [this note], 132–3, Doc. III = SEG 54.1625.75–6; Letter 7, Octavian to Rhosus tertium, 30 b.c.e. = Raggi [this note], 133–4, Doc. IV = SEG 54.1625.86–7; Letter 8, Octavian to Ephesus iterum, 29 b.c.e. = Knibbe, D., Engelmann, H., Iplikçioğlu, B., ‘Neue Inschriften aus Ephesos XII’, JÖAI 62 (1993), 113–50, at no. 2.8–9Google Scholar.
2 F. Ziemann, ‘De epistularum Graecarum formulis sollemnibus quaestiones selectae’ (Diss., Halle, 1910), 302–17; F.X.J. Exler, ‘The form of the ancient Greek letter: a study in Greek epistolography’ (Diss., Catholic University of America, 1923), 103–7; Koskenniemi, H., Studien zur Idee und Phraseologie des griechischen Briefes bis 400 n. Chr. (Helsinki, 1956), 138Google Scholar; R. Buzón, ‘Die Briefe der Ptolemäerzeit: ihre Struktur und ihre Formeln’ (Diss., Heidelberg, 1984), 9; White, J.L., Light from Ancient Letters (Philadelphia, 1986), 200–2Google Scholar.
3 Ziemann (n. 2), 302–17; Buzón (n. 2), 9–14, 23–5, 51–3, 102–8, 112–14, 163–6, 171–2, 240–3.
4 Ziemann (n. 2), especially 267 n. 1, 305–13; Koskenniemi (n. 2), 131, 133; Buzón (n. 2), 9–10, 13.
5 For example Exler (n. 2), 106.
6 Buzón (n. 2), 241 (ref. administrative letters, comparable to official letters); Koskenniemi (n. 2), 131; Welles, C.B., Royal Correspondence in the Hellenistic Period (Chicago, 1934), 248Google Scholar.
7 Welles (n. 6), 248, 291; Sherk (n. 1), 190.
8 Cugusi, P., Evoluzione e forme dell'epistolografia latina (Rome, 1983), 48Google Scholar; Halla-aho, H., The Non-Literary Latin Letters: A Study of their Syntax and Pragmatics (Helsinki, 2009), 45Google Scholar.
9 Plaut. Persa 502–3 si ualetis, gaudeo. ego ualeo recte ‘if you are well, I rejoice. I am very well.’ The Persa is dated after 191 b.c.e. by de Melo, W.C.D., Plautus: The Merchant, The Braggart Soldier, The Ghost, The Persian (Cambridge, MA, 2011), 448Google Scholar. When drawing conclusions based on Plautine evidence we must keep in mind that his works are metrical and that we do not possess contemporaneous documentary letters for corroboration. On the evidence for pre-Ciceronian Latin epistolography, Cugusi, P., Studi sull'epistolografia latina, I. L'età preciceroniana (Cagliari, 1970)Google Scholar, passim; Cugusi (n. 8), 151–7 with discussion of Plautine letters at 152.
10 See Halla-aho (n. 8), 45; T.Vindol. 52.2 si uales b[ene e]sṭ uero ego ualeo; CEL 10.1 s(i) u(ales) b(ene est). The latter is from the Augustan period.
11 Laidlaw, W.A., ‘S.V.B.E.’, CPh 34 (1939), 251–2Google Scholar, at 251.
12 There is a probable example of Type 3 in a fragmentary letter of Augustus to Samos, sent between 2–1 b.c.e. and 8–9 c.e. = Kienast, H.J. and Hallof, K., ‘Ein Ehrenmonument für Samische Scribonii aus dem Heraion’, Chiron 29 (1999), 205–23Google Scholar, at 216.5–6: εἰ ἔρρω[σθε] κ̣[α]λ̣ῶ[ς] ἂ̣ν [ἔχοι, καὶ αὐτὸς δὲ μετὰ τοῦ] | στρατ[ε]ύ̣μ̣α̣[τος ὑγ]ίαιν[ον] ‘if you are well, [it] would [be] good, [and I myself with the] army was well [too].’
13 SIG 3 700.42–3 καὶ συνχαρέντες | ἐπὶ τῶι ὑγιαίνειν αὐτόν τε καὶ τὸ στρατόπεδον ‘and rejoiced together because of him and the army being healthy’. See Reynolds, J., Aphrodisias and Rome (London, 1982), 45Google Scholar.
14 Military health wishes in Latin have been noted by a number of scholars, for example J. Babl, ‘De epistularum Latinarum formulis’ (Diss., Bamberg, 1893), 24; Laidlaw (n. 11), 252; D.R. Shackleton Bailey, Epistulae ad familiares (Cambridge, 1977), 2 vols., 1.438, 2.547; Reynolds (n. 13), 45; Cugusi (n. 8), 48; J.-L. Mourgues, ‘Imperial correspondence preserved in inscriptions and papyri’ (Diss., Oxford, 1990), 2 vols., 2.93–4 n. 58. On the political context and the delicate construction of Cicero's defence of himself in the letter to Metellus Celer (Fam. 5.2.1), see J. Hall, Politeness and Politics in Cicero's Letters (Oxford, 2009), 156–60. I thank Tom Hillard for discussing this example with me.
15 See Shackleton Bailey (n. 14), 1.280.
16 Laidlaw (n. 11), 252.
17 The examples are as follows: (1) Fam. 15.1.1 (Cicero to the Senate, 51 b.c.e.): s.u.u.b.e.e.q.u. = si uos ualetis, benest; ego exercitusque ualemus ‘if you are well, it is good; I and my army are well’; see Shackleton Bailey (n. 14), 1.438. (2) Fam. 15.2.1 (Cicero to the Senate iterum, 51 b.c.e.): s.u.u.b.e.e.q.u. = si uos ualetis, benest; ego exercitusque ualemus ‘if you are well, it is good; I and my army are well’; cf. Shackleton Bailey (n. 14), 1.438. (3) Fam. 5.9.1 (Vatinius to Cicero, 45 b.c.e.): s.u.b.e.e.u. = si uales, benest; ego exercitusque ualemus ‘if you are well, it is good; I and my army are well’; see Shackleton Bailey (n. 14), 2.424 (cf. Mourgues [n. 14], 2.93–4 with his n. 58). (4) Fam. 5.10a.1 (Vatinius to Cicero iterum, 44 b.c.e.): s.u.b.e.e.q.u. = si ualetis, bene est; ego exercitusque ualemus ‘if you are well, it is good; I and my army are well.’ (5) Fam. 10.35.1 (Lepidus to the Senate, 43 b.c.e.): si u. liberique uestri u.b.e.e.q.u. = si uos liberique uestri ualetis, bene est; ego exercitusque ualemus ‘if you and your children are well, it is good; I and my army are well’; cf. Shackleton Bailey (n. 14), 2.547. I thank Gregory Hutchinson for bringing this example to my attention and for discussing it with me.
18 For example, see Joseph. AJ 14.306–7 Μᾶρκος Ἀντώνιος αὐτοκράτωρ Ὑρκανῷ ἀρχιερεῖ καὶ ἐθνάρχῃ καὶ τῷ Ἰουδαίων ἔθνει χαίρειν. εἰ ἔρρωσθε, εὖ ἂν ἔχοι, ἔρρωμαι δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς μετὰ τοῦ στρατεύματος ‘Marcus Antonius, imperator, to Hyrkanos chief priest and ethnarkh, and to the race of the Jews, greetings! If you are well, it would be good, and I myself am well with the army too.’
19 Dio Cass. 69.14.3 πολλοὶ μέντοι ἐν τῷ πολέμῳ τούτῳ καὶ τῶν Ῥωμαίων ἀπώλοντο⋅ διὸ καὶ ὁ Ἁδριανὸς γράφων πρὸς τὴν βουλὴν οὐκ ἐχρήσατο τῷ προοιμίῳ τῷ συνήθει τοῖς αὐτοκράτορσιν, ὅτι “εἰ αὐτοί τε καὶ οἱ παῖδες ὑμῶν ὑγιαίνετε, εὖ ἂν ἔχοι⋅ ἐγὼ καὶ τὰ στρατεύματα ὑγιαίνομεν” ‘Many of the Romans, however, perished in this war; so much so that even Hadrian when writing to the Senate did not use the letter opening customary for the imperatores, that “if both you and your children are well, it would be good; the army and I are well too”.’ This was noted also by Millar, F., A Study of Cassius Dio (Oxford, 1999 2), 69Google Scholar (and see Millar's n. 6 on the date); Birley, A.R., Hadrian: The Restless Emperor (London, 2009 2), 272Google Scholar.
20 See Millar (n. 19), 36–7 (on Dio's general use of sources), 62 (on the likelihood that Dio consulted Hadrian's reports to the Senate) and 69 (on Hadrian's letter).
21 CIL 6.40776.1–12 imp(erator) Caes(ar) Fl(auius) Constantinus [8 lines] senatui suo salutem dicunt si uos liberique | uestri ualetis bene est nos exercitusque | nostri ualemus ‘imperator Caesar Flauuius Constantinus [et al.] … say “greetings!” to their Senate. If you and your children are well, it is good; we and our armies are well.’ See Corcoran, S., ‘State correspondence in the Roman empire: imperial communication from Augustus to Justinian’, in Radner, K. (ed.), State Correspondence in the Ancient World (Oxford, 2014), 172–209, at 193Google Scholar.
22 Nou. Val. 1.3 idem [sc. imperatores Theodosius et Valentinianus] aa. (= Augusti) consulibus, praetoribus, tribunis plebis, senatui suo salutem dicunt. si uos liberique uestri ualetis, bene est: nos exercitusque nostri ualemus ‘(the imperatores Theodosius and Valentinian) Augusti, say “greetings!” to the consuls, praetors, tribunes of the plebs and their Senate. If you and your children are well, it is good; we and our armies are well.’ We should keep in mind that there is disagreement in the manuscripts, with the military clause omitted in MS S; see T. Mommsen and P. Meyer (edd.), Theodosiani libri XVI cum Constitutionibus Sirmondianis et Leges Nouellae ad Theodosianum pertinentes, vol. 2 (Berlin, 1905), 74.
23 C. Pharr, in collaboration with Davidson, T. Sherrer and Pharr, M. Brown, The Theodosian Code, and Novels, and the Sirmondian Constitutions (Union, NJ, 1952), 515Google Scholar with his n. 14.
24 M. Whitby, ‘The army, c. 420–602’, in A. Cameron, B. Ward-Perkins and M. Whitby (edd.), The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. 14. Late Antiquity: Empire and Successors, AD 425–600 (Cambridge, 2001), 288–314, at 296–7.
25 Collectio Auellana 113.1 si uos liberique uestri ualetis, bene est; ego exercitusque meus ualemus ‘If you and your children are well, it is good; I [sc. Anastasius I] and my army are well.’ See Corcoran (n. 21), 193. For the Collectio Auellana, see O. Guenther (ed.), Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, vol. 35 (Leipzig, 1898).
26 On this letter and the Doctrinal Schism, see F.K. Nicks, ‘The reign of Anastasius I, 491–518’ (Diss., Oxford, 1998), 132–4; Richards, J., The Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages, 476–752 (London, 1979), 102–5Google Scholar. For the revolt of Vitalian, see Nicks (this note), 63–5.
27 See Hock, H.H. and Joseph, B.D., Language History, Language Change, and Language Relationship (Berlin and New York, 2009 2), 241–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar (borrowing) and 354–8 (interference).
28 On the borrowing of collocations, see Hock and Joseph (n. 27), 244. See also Adams, J.N., Bilingualism and the Latin Language (Cambridge, 2003), 25–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
29 Buzón (n. 2), 9–14, 51–3, 102–8, 163–6, 240–3.
30 Mourgues (n. 14), 2.93–4 with his n. 58.
31 Shackleton Bailey (n. 14), 2.424.
32 The EKP of Greek covers the years from the third to the first centuries b.c.e. in the periodization of Lee, J.A.L., “Ἐξαποστέλλω”, in Joosten, J. and Tomson, P.J. (edd.), Voces biblicae: Septuagint Greek and its Significance for the New Testament (Leuven, 2007), 99–113Google Scholar, at 113 n. 31.
33 On imitation, see Adams (n. 28), 422–4. See also Coleman, R., ‘Greek influence on Latin syntax’, TPhS (1975), 101–56Google Scholar, at 126.
34 Parsons, P.J., ‘Latin letter’, in Festschrift zum 100-jährigen Bestehen der Papyrussammlung der österreichischen Nationalbibliothek: Papyrus Erzherzog Rainer (P. Rainer Cent.) (Vienna, 1983), 483–9Google Scholar, at 488–9 (= P.Rain.Cent. 164, TM 78737); see also Adams (n. 28), 79–80.
35 Cuvigny, H., ‘Remarques sur l'emploi de ἴδιος dans le praescriptum épistolaire’, BIFAO 102 (2002), 143–53Google Scholar; see also Dickey, E., ‘The Greek address system in the Roman period and its relationship to Latin’, CQ 54 (2004), 494–527, at 508CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
36 Dickey, E., ‘Latin influence and Greek request formulae’, in Evans, T.V. and Obbink, D.D. (edd.), The Language of the Papyri (Oxford, 2010), 208–20Google Scholar.
37 Letter 1.9–12 ἐγὼ δὲ τούς τε ἄνδρας ἐπῄνε||[σα διὰ τὴν προθυμίαν αὐτῶν καὶ φιλοφρόν]ως ἀπεδεξάμην, ἡδέως τε τὴν πόλιν | [ὑμῶν εὐεργετεῖν πειράσομαι καὶ κατὰ τ]οὺς παρόντας καιροὺς καὶ ἐν τοῖς μετὰ ταῦ|[τα χρόνοις] ‘And I commended the men [on account of their zealousness and] I approved of [them in a friendly manner], and with pleasure [I shall endeavour to benefit] the polis [both in] the present time and in the future.’ On the Hellenistic Benefaction formula, see Ma, J., Antiochos III and the Cities of Western Asia Minor (Oxford, 2002 2), 101–2Google Scholar (with his n. 178), 187, 202–3; Hofmann, V., ‘Mimesis vel aemulatio? Die hellenistischen Anfänge der offiziellen römischen Epistolographie und ihre machtpolitischen Implikationen’, ZSav 131 (2014), 177–215Google Scholar, at 195–6, 211, 213.
38 Letter 2.33–45 ἐφ’ οἷς ἐπαινέ|σας τὸν Σόλωνα μᾶ[λ]||λον ἀπεδεξάμην ἔσ|χον τε ἐν τοῖς ὑπ’ ἐμοῦ | γεινωσκομένοις | ᾧ καὶ τὰ καθήκοντα | ἀπεμέρισα φιλάν||θρωπα, ἄξιον ἡγη|σάμενος τὸν ἄν|δρα τῆς ἐξ ἡμ<ῶ>ν ⟦τει⟧|τειμῆς, ὑμεῖν τε συ[ν]|ήδομαι ἐπὶ τ<ῷ> ἔχειν || τοιοῦτον πολείτην ‘After I commended Solon on account of these matters I approved of him exceedingly and I held him among my acquaintances, to whom I also awarded the appropriate privileges, because I considered the man worthy of honour from us; and I rejoice with you on account of possessing such a citizen.’
39 For example, in Letter 4 Roman citizenship and tax exemption are granted for Seleukos, his family and his descendants (lines 19–22); then the right to vote (lines 24–6); and it is probable that freedom from military service was also bestowed (lines 22–3).
40 Sherk (n. 1), no. 59 with his comments at 309 and 312.
41 Letter 5.B.10–12 ἐφ’ οἷς πᾶσιν συνε[ῖ|δον παθόντας] ταῦτα πάσης τειμῆς καὶ χάρι|[τος ἀξίους ἄνδρας γενομέν]ους ὑμᾶς ‘on account of which [I was] able [to see that] you, [who suffered] these hardships, [are men worthy] of all honour and favour’.
42 See Sherk, R.K., ‘Senatus consultum de agris Mytilenaeorum’, GRBS 4 (1963), 217–30Google Scholar; Sherk (n. 1), 152.
43 A search on ORBIS returned a distance of 62 km and a travel time of around half a day on 5 June 2020: <http://orbis.stanford.edu/>.
44 See Cic. Fam. 5.2.1 with Hall (n. 14), 156–60.
45 Laidlaw (n. 11), 251 with Sen. Ep. 15 and Plin. Ep. 1.11.
46 See Halla-aho (n. 8), 45 with TVindol. 52.2 and CEL 10.1.
47 See A. Momigliano and T.J. Cornell in OCD 4 728–9 s.v. imperator. After Augustus, only the princeps is attested with the title of αὐτοκράτωρ imperator in Roman official letters written in Greek. It is found both before the name of the princeps (in the manner of Caesar and Augustus) and also after it in the long lists of titles. The earliest extant epistolary post-Augustan example appears to be in a letter of imperator Gaius to the Koinon of the Achaeans, Boeotians, Locrians, Phocaeans and Euboeans from 37 c.e.; see Oliver, J.H., Greek Constitutions of Early Roman Emperors from Inscriptions and Papyri (Philadelphia, PA, 1989), no. 18.21Google Scholar: [Αὐτο]κράτωρ Σεβαστὸς Καῖσαρ. Magistrates tended to be named with the title of their magistracies, such as ἀνθύπατος proconsul or πρεσβευτής legatus.
48 See Beard, M., The Roman Triumph (Cambridge, MA and London, 2007), 68–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
49 See Dio Cass. 51.24.4, Livy 4.20.5–11.