Writing a letter home and the logistics implied

It sounds like the most obvious thing to do for a soldier, writing a letter home. But I find it quite remarkable that the Macedonian troops travelling with Alexander wrote letters to their family in their homeland because it implies that the average soldier could actually read and write! Maybe they didn’t all carry pen and ink in their backpack but papyrus or some kind of parchment – even though that seems to have been implemented only in the days of Cleopatra – was easy to take along.

The letters home are rarely mentioned in our literature but they become subject to close scrutiny when the Macedonians are divided after the plot and the execution of Philotas in 330 BC. Many were distressed by the murder of Parmenion, Philotas’ father. The army no longer stood unanimously behind the king’s decisions and policies. Alexander, however, could not let this group of discontent troops sow havoc in his ranks. He had to make sure to find the traitors and those who dared to criticize him. This was a serious matter and he decided to open and censor the army’s letters home. This was the only way for Alexander to locate the unruly elements. He removed the culprits from their own units and transferred them to a separate body, the ataktoi, a disciplinary unit that was specially created for the occasion. These men were sent on particularly dangerous or suicidal missions where they could and would redeem themselves – if they were not killed that is.

The courier service between the troops on the march and their homeland must have involved an incessant flow of riders and seafarers – not only for the common soldiers but also for official business that must have followed another channel.

The most frequent mail exchanges were undoubtedly Alexander’s official correspondences with his Regent, Antipater, and with foreign ambassadors and representatives. It was the task of his secretaries Eumenes of Cardia, who occupied that position previously under his father, and of Callisthenes of Olynthus, the nephew of Aristotle. There must have been an entire “office” of scribes of all kinds, including people who were familiar with the does of don’ts at foreign courts and a number of qualified translators and copyists to keep track of the documents.

Alexander certainly wrote his private letters to his mother Olympias personally for I doubt he would have entrusted these to anyone else. He may have employed a number of private and trustworthy couriers because the content of those documents was highly sensitive.

We are also aware of Hephaistion’s correspondence with Aristotle but it seems evident that he maintained a vivid correspondence with many scholars and high ranking officials spread all over the conquered territories and even beyond.

Also, the incoming mail had to be checked, sorted and distributed. The royal mail had priority and was opened, checked and sorted by the scribes in Alexander’s tent supervised, I assume by Eumenes who had to decide what had to be prioritized and what not.

The matter of correspondence, on whatever level, implies a huge logistic machinery of its own. It has been suggested that initially Parmenion was responsible for the army’s logistics, which may have included the mail services. However, once he was assigned as keeper of the immense Persian treasury in Ecbatana, we don’t know who replaced him to become the trusted brain behind those operations.