3 ms·

Everyone, please read the letter in full. It's great, and not too long. Of course it's a translation of an ancient language, but assuming it's fairly accurate,

Everyone, please read the letter in full. It's great, and not too long. Of course it's a translation of an ancient language, but assuming it's fairly accurate, it's awesome to think someone wrote something like that almost 4,000 years ago. I think sometimes we forget that at their core, people in 1750 BCE were just like people today. > What do you take me for, that you treat somebody like me with such contempt? I have sent as messengers gentlemen like ourselves to collect the bag with my money (deposited with you) but you have treated me with contempt by sending them back to me empty-handed several times, and that through enemy territory. Is there anyone among the merchants who trade with Telmun who has treated me in this way? You alone treat my messenger with contempt! Love it.

avtar 9y ago
> I think sometimes we forget that at their core, people in 1750 BCE were just like people today. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_graffiti https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_graffiti http://www.pompeiana.org/Resources/Ancient/Graffiti%20from%20Pompeii.htm http://www.pompeiana.org/Resources/Ancient/Graffiti%20from%2...
pjmlp 9y ago
That is why I love reading ancient books that have survived to our days.
- peterburkimsher 9y ago
  You've probably already read it, but here's a mobile-friendly PlinyPedia: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15668314 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15668314
wpietri 9y ago
I'm fascinated by how much of modern business practice already existed 4 millennia ago. With minor changes, this could have been written today. Although now that I think about it, maybe I shouldn't be surprised. This is basically the age of the code of Hammurabi [1], and a good chunk of that is about commerce. E.g. the section on giving receipts: "104. If a merchant give an agent corn, wool, oil, or any other goods to transport, the agent shall give a receipt for the amount, and compensate the merchant therefor. Then he shall obtain a receipt form the merchant for the money that he gives the merchant. 105. If the agent is careless, and does not take a receipt for the money which he gave the merchant, he can not consider the unreceipted money as his own. 106. If the agent accept money from the merchant, but have a quarrel with the merchant (denying the receipt), then shall the merchant swear before God and witnesses that he has given this money to the agent, and the agent shall pay him three times the sum. 107. If the merchant cheat the agent, in that as the latter has returned to him all that had been given him, but the merchant denies the receipt of what had been returned to him, then shall this agent convict the merchant before God and the judges, and if he still deny receiving what the agent had given him shall pay six times the sum to the agent." From http://avalon.law.yale.edu/ancient/hamframe.asp http://avalon.law.yale.edu/ancient/hamframe.asp [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Hammurabi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Hammurabi

avtar 9y ago

> I think sometimes we forget that at their core, people in 1750 BCE were just like people today. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_graffiti https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_graffiti http://www.pompeiana.org/Resources/Ancient/Graffiti%20from%20Pompeii.htm http://www.pompeiana.org/Resources/Ancient/Graffiti%20from%2...

pjmlp 9y ago

That is why I love reading ancient books that have survived to our days.

peterburkimsher 9y ago
You've probably already read it, but here's a mobile-friendly PlinyPedia: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15668314 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15668314

wpietri 9y ago

I'm fascinated by how much of modern business practice already existed 4 millennia ago. With minor changes, this could have been written today. Although now that I think about it, maybe I shouldn't be surprised. This is basically the age of the code of Hammurabi [1], and a good chunk of that is about commerce. E.g. the section on giving receipts: "104. If a merchant give an agent corn, wool, oil, or any other goods to transport, the agent shall give a receipt for the amount, and compensate the merchant therefor. Then he shall obtain a receipt form the merchant for the money that he gives the merchant. 105. If the agent is careless, and does not take a receipt for the money which he gave the merchant, he can not consider the unreceipted money as his own. 106. If the agent accept money from the merchant, but have a quarrel with the merchant (denying the receipt), then shall the merchant swear before God and witnesses that he has given this money to the agent, and the agent shall pay him three times the sum. 107. If the merchant cheat the agent, in that as the latter has returned to him all that had been given him, but the merchant denies the receipt of what had been returned to him, then shall this agent convict the merchant before God and the judges, and if he still deny receiving what the agent had given him shall pay six times the sum to the agent." From http://avalon.law.yale.edu/ancient/hamframe.asp http://avalon.law.yale.edu/ancient/hamframe.asp [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Hammurabi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Hammurabi