Soldier and Eunuch Messengers

Carriers of administrative mail are usually called simply "messengers" (mār šipri) in the letters. But sometimes they are identified more specifically, and invariably in those cases various types of soldiers (chariot-fighters, mercenaries, mounted scouts) are in question. The purpose of this can only have been to make sure that the mail would arrive safely at its destination, and hence it appears likely that at least all important messages were delivered by soldiers, even when that is not explicitly stated.

Royal messages were carried and delivered by members of the Imperial guard (ša-qurbūti), an elite corps corresponding to the Roman Praetonan Guard and largely if not exclusively composed of eunuchs. Only occasionally do other kinds of military people figure as royal messengers, and even then they consistently appear to have been eunuchs. This implies that royal mail was considered so important that it could only be entrusted to the most reliable and trustworthy men imaginable - eunuchs. The arrangement is paralleled by the use of eunuchs as provincial governors and commanders of large contingents of armed forces and reflects the common belief that eunuchs were men totally devoted to their masters.[[9]]



9 Cf. Herodotus VIII 105 ("Among the barbarians, eunuchs are, in respect to their uncompromising fidelity, held in higher esteem than the uncastrated") and the long discussion of the prominent role of eunuchs in the Persian royal bodyguard in Xenophon's Cyropaedia, VII 60ff. For the Assyrian evidence see Parpola LAS II p.20f, and note LAS 190 r.12f ("the bodyguard Marduk-šarru-uṣur [a eunuch name!] is a reliable and trustworthy man, he should go...") and no. 124:10f of the present edition. - It may be noted that members of the Praetorian Guard also functioned as carriers of imperial messages in the Roman empire.

Simo Parpola

Simo Parpola, 'Soldier and Eunuch Messengers', The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part I: Letters from Assyria and the West, SAA 1. Original publication: Helsinki, Helsinki University Press, 1987; online contents: SAAo/SAA01 Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2020 [http://oracc.org/saao/saa01/administrativecommunication/soldierandeunuchmessengers/]

 
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