Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for May 28, 1974
May 27, 1974
May 29, 1974
Transcript:
Mailman: What're you doin' out here, Zonk? Zonker: Waitin' for you, Slim! I'm Joanie's distant early warning system... Mailman: Well, there's no word yet. Luckily! If I deliver a rejection, she's never going to forgive me! It won't be my fault, but the bad news man always takes the rap! It's been the same since Rome, where they used to kill the bearers of ill tidings! Zonker: They did?! Mailman: Absolutely. Say, for instance, Pompey had applied to law school, see... Zonker: Yes, go on...
never heard Romans doing this. Only references I found for “killing the messenger” are: 1) Tigranes king of Armenia, hearing that the Roman army was approaching 2) Spartan rulers killing the Persian ambassadors 3) “The Megarians committed against him a most wicked deed, for when he had come as a herald to forbid them to encroach upon the land in future they put him to …”, from Pausanias, I hadn’t the patience to search who was this “he”