The world’s oldest surviving letter by an actual Christian contains a request for fish sauce.
By Aaron Robertson
July 16, 2019, 11:46am
Sometimes the greatest secrets are right under our noses, in shuttered backrooms or buried beneath layers of decades-old junk.
One researcher at the University of Basel, in Switzerland, has discovered a treasure likely to appeal to epistolary and classical fanatics alike. Sabine Huebner, a professor of ancient history who specializes in ancient Roman social life, has researched and dated what is believed to be the world’s oldest surviving letter written by a Christian.
The papyrus letter, which Huebner dates to 230 AD, came from the village of Theadelphia in central Egypt, just southwest of Cairo, and was written in Ancient Greek by a man named Arrianus to his brother, Paulus. ...
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