They realized it was a mistake after they killed the first messenger to show how badass they were, and then couldn’t get any volunteers to carry that message back to the original party.
this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2026
118 points (98.4% liked)
Showerthoughts
41332 readers
470 users here now
A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- No politics
- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS
If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.
Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
It was pretty common to take the anger out on the messengers in dark ages and medieval times, even later on.
This is why it was really dangerous to be a representative for a country in the past: ambassadors were actual targets. For the same reason as messengers.
Well I guess killing the messenger is a message in itself, isn't it.
Life was a lot cheaper in the feudal era. If you weren't of the land owning ruling class then you were subservient to them and disposable. You could die any day from a simple bacterial infection, and lords were whelping a dozen bastards a year on their servant girls.
If want to pick a fight then killing the messenger is a pretty clear way to do so.
Or it could be another simple reason: "I didn't know! Your messenger never reached me!" was shot down in front of the gates
THIS. IS. SPARTA!!
Wasnt "messengers sent by one country being attacked by rival they were sent to" a source of a number of historical conflicts? I seem to recall the mongols destroying some empire in revenge over that, at the very least.
Messengers of state and embassadors were considered sacred, sacrosanct or had some kind of official immunity in most states throughout history.
It was a fairly common practise because it's just really hard to conduct affairs of state if anyone you send fears for their life.
When you want to provoke someone into war, killing their messengers is a tried and true method. I believe that was the goal of the khwarizmian shah when he killed those mongol messengers.
At least 1
A pretty substantial 113,482. Exactly.
This makes me angry. Where are you I am going to come shoot you /s
Some still are shooting the messenger. If you don't learn from history, you're doomed to repeat it.
At least one was kicked into a hole in Sparta
Well either they kicked a dude into a hole that was intended for some other purpose and then they had to fish out the remains to return it to its original purpose... or that dude had a soft landing (relative to rock) at the bottom of their "kicking people down" hole.
The hole could lead down to a ramp instead of a flat bottom. Something steep enough that anyone who falls down keeps going after the first impact.
Though my guess (if anyone ever actually used a kick to death hole) would be they had an access tunnel to get rid of the bodies so they wouldn't eventually make the kick to death hole stinky. Assuming they could even smell it over the usual classical/pre-classical age stink.
In really ancient times, before writing was common, opposing states would send items to send a message...
The problem is that the items could have different meaning.
For example, of you got a box and it had a feather, a frog, and an arrow, what do you think it means? A warning? Insult? Deceleration of war? Peace Offering?
And so, based on the interpretation of the contents, the messenger might not have been so lucky.
veggie writing
come again?
Lmao fixed the typo
Enemy messenger: “This is a little awkward, but can you send the same message with a new messenger. We shot the first one before we heard the message.”
Too many 🙏