Angareuo

Angareuo (ἀγγαρεύω, to impress; Vulg. angario; Mt 5:41; Mr 15:21), translated "compel" (q.v.) in the Auth. Vers., is a word of Persian, or rather of Tatar origin, signifying to compel to serve as an ἄγγαρος or mounted courier (Xenoph. Cyrop. 8, 6, 17 and 18; Athen. 3, 94, 12; AEsch. Agam. 282; Pers. 217; Plut. De Alex. p. 326). The word ankarie or angharie, in Tatar, means compulsory work without pay. Herodotus (8, 98) describes the system of the ἀγγαρεία. He says that the Persians, in order to make all haste in carrying messages, have relays of men and horses stationed at intervals, who hand the dispatch from one to another without interruption either from weather or darkness, in the same way as the Greeks in their λαμπαδηφορία. This horse-post the Persians called ἀγγαρήϊον. In order to effect the object, license was given to the couriers by the government to press into the service men, horses, and even vessels (comp. Es 8:14). Hence the word came to signify "press," and ἀγγαρεία is explained by Suidas (Lex. s.v.) as signifying to extort public service. Persian supremacy introduced the practice and the name into Palestine; and Lightfoot (On Mt 5:41) says the Talmudists used to call any oppressive service אִנגִּריָא (see Buxtorf, Lex. Talm. col. 131). Among the proposals made by Demetrius Soter to Jonathan the high- priest, one was that the beasts of the Jews should not be taken (ἀγγαρεύεσθαι) for the public use (Josephus, Ant. 13, 2, 3). The system was also adopted by the Romans, and thus the word "angario" came into use in later Latin. Pliny (Ep. 10, 14,. 121, 122) alludes to the practice of thus expediting public dispatches. Chardin (Travels, p. 257) and other travelers (e.g. Colossians Cambell, Trav. pt. 2, p. 92 sq.) make mention of it. The ἄγγαροι were also called άστάνδαι (Stephens, Thesaur. Gr. p. 379). The word is also applied to the imposition of our Savior's cross upon Simon the Cyrenian (Mt 27:32). See Kuinol, Comment. on Mt 5:41, and the literature there referred to; Rawlinson's Herodotus, 4, 285.