Poste publique, renseignement militaire et citernes à sec

les lettres de Diourdanos à Archibios, curator Claudiani

Abstract

 dition of nine letters on ostraca, addressed by the commander of Raima (last stop on the via Claudiana before the Mons Claudianus) to Archibios, curator Claudiani, around 150 CE. Besides a letter of   ecommendation, they refer to the delivery of official post and the lack of personnel for drawing water at Raima, a problem that apparently strained the relationship between the two military men: Diurdanos seems to have told the procurator (metallorum) and the princeps that Archibios did not tend to sending him the recalcitrant μονομάχαι with the necessary zeal (the princeps is probably the centurion, who, from the Nile valley, had authority over the metalla of the area of Porphyrites-Claudianus). The highlight of the dossier is a letter in which Diurdanos summarizes a circular letter by the princeps, which relays a note on military intelligence from the Dodekaschoinos. This note reveals that the military presence on the western bank of the Nile south of Syene – known from the Antonine Itinerary, which lists the names of the forts – was conceived as a ripa (ῥίπα in the ostracon), from which the Roman army, entrenched behind the river, watched every movement of the βάρβαροι of the Arabian Desert (which were referred to as Blemmyes from the end of the 3rd century).