For instance, the conditions of possibility for the development of epistolary communication in the Roman Imperium had to do with the construction of Roman communication networks. Written messages had as primary function the transmission of military and economic orders, related to the building of secured boundaries. A network construed for one purpose could serve as grounding for other uses and this network fell to pieces with the Imperium. Some of the pieces were re-used, of course.

Anyway, Foucault (1988) used to say that in the primitive Christianism, a religion not only confessional but also of self-salvation, two basic forms of self-revelation, of self-presentation, of self-discovery were invented: 1) exomologesis; and 2) exagoreusis, whose common characteristic was that they assumed the renunciation of one’s autonomy.

First of all, exomologesis was the public acknowledgement of the truth of one’s faith or of one’s condition of Christian. It implied the dramatic, not verbal, expression of the penitent’s condition as sinner, a practice situated in between the extreme expression of mortification and martyrdom. The penitent followed strict rules of dressing and sexual behaviour for four or five years imposed by the bishop (to whom the person had to apply for the condition of such, presenting a convincing case). This technique evolved with that name until the Middle Ages.

Secondly, exagoreusis was the continuous, detailed and systematic revelation of one’s thoughts to an external and non-contestable authority (such as the abbot, the bishop…). Of the two, exagoreusis has been the one that has survived and evolved, embodied in other practices. Exagoreusis was verbal whereas exomologesis was of another kind and was much more related to the Stoic technologies previously commented: ranging from soliciting master’s counsel in love and friendship affairs to the use of letters, diaries and writings of an autobiographic kind. The “innovative” feature of exagoreusis was the imperative to “tell the truth” as the one and only way to be at peace with oneself.

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