The Letters of Claudius Terentianus: A 2nd-Century Roman Soldier’s Life

Claudius Terentianus (imagined above) was a Roman soldier who lived almost two thousand years ago, but what did it take to become a part of the Roman legions?  Well, for a start, it was a hard life but because he couldn’t get a good enough letter of recommendation, poor old Claudius couldn’t get in except as an auxiliary – and then he had to write a begging letter to his father asking for equipment.  Amazingly, this letter - and others from the son - still survives to this day. 

The letters of Claudius Terentianus survived because they were written on papyrus and preserved by the unusually dry conditions of Roman Egypt (he was a Greek speaking Egyptian, not uncommon at the time).  They tell a story of a fairly miserable time, but because he could read and write, this was the key to his advancement.  His letters to his father were probably discarded at some point, buried in a rubbish heap among dry sands where the conditions allowed them to survive for almost two thousand years.

What's particularly interesting is that Terentianus' letters contain numerous spelling and grammatical mistakes, which gives historians evidence of how ordinary people actually wrote Latin, as opposed to the polished Latin found in literature.  And yes, he would have been called Terentianus rather than Claudius by his friends.  In the Roman naming system, Claudius was his nomen (clan or family name), while Terentianus was his cognomen (the more personal identifier). In everyday life, Romans were often known by their cognomen, especially when the nomen was very common.

His friends, when calling him would have cried Terentiane! (it’s the vocative form of his name, don’t you know).  Perhaps close friends would call him Tere – whether they did is certainly lost to history.  However, as many people who gained citizenship in Egypt were given the Latin name Claudius, we don’t know anything else about him except for the things he mentions (like getting himself a woman) in his letters.  Well, almost...

The video below is by the British Museum and features curators Richard Abdy and Carolina Rangel de Lima, who walk us through the life of Claudius Terentianus – and give some wonderful insight into what life was like as a Roman soldier at that time – as well as what ultimately happened to poor old Tere!