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[German version] (σκυτάλη; skytálē) is the general term, particularly in the pre-Hellenistic period, for a staff which was principally part of the equipment of official messengers [3]. It is not until the Imperial period that the authors Plutarchus (Plut. Lysandros 19) and Gellius (17,9) describe the s. as a Spartan method of conveying secret messages (Cryptography). For this leather straps were wound round the staff, written on across the turns, unwound and dispatched. To decipher it the receiver had to have a staff of the same size. Kolb, Anne (Frankfurt/Main) Bibliography 1 T. Kell…

[German version] The term is a French coinage ( télégraphie) from the end of the 18th cent., on the basis of Greek elements (the 'long-distance writing' of communications). It includes all methods of transmission of news without the transportation of an object, as well as most of the technical means of transmission (Communications) used almost exclusively by the military in Antiquity. Based on the use of acoustic and optical signals, telegraphy reached its highest point of development in the 2nd cent. BC…

Differences between public and private building law (BL) existed already in antiquity. Especially for Roman imperial times we have knowledge of rules about private BL which govern -- within the framework of public BL -- the legal relationships of the parties involved in the planning and construction of a building [1]. Public BL limits the freedom of the builder with regard to public interest. [German version] A. Greece Ancient sources exist for classical Greece, where they aimed at securing the general use of land owned by the state. Thus, it was prohibited in …

[German version] Derived from manēre (‘to stay’), mansio is the term for a sojourn or stopover (Cic. Att. 8,15,2; 9,5,1) as well as the station on a Roman road where one stops for rest and food (Plin. HN 6,96; 6,102). It is also used in the sense of accommodation (SEG 26, 1392 l. 23; Suet. Tit. 10,1). Consequently mansio also represents the stretch between two such places (Plin. HN 12,52; Lactant. De mort. pers. 45) or the travelling time taken, a day's journey (Plin. HN 12,64; CIL V 2108 = ILS 8453). Furthermore mansio came to mean a building (CIL VI 30745 = ILS 4353; CIL VI 2158 = ILS…

[German version] At no time in antiquity did PS exist according to modern definitions. PS today are defined as institutions of public service, operating permanently and regularly, conducting the carriage of messages, small consignments of goods and passengers to and from particular traffic locations according to established conditions of use. By contrast, ancient facilities lacked the chief criteria - public access and the regular transport of correspondence and goods. Senders had to worry about the delivery of private mail themselves (Communications). For some ancient state…

[German version] Newspapers in the modern sense were unknown in antiquity. The spread of reports with political and official content was achieved orally by means of criers and in writing by ‘placards’ on whitened wooden tablets ( Album [2]; Communications; tabula ) or on specially prepared walls [1],as the inscriptions painted on the wall in Pompeii prove. The latter included programmes and proclamations for elections, announcements of games and market days, family news and notices of every kind ([2]; examples easily…

[German version] The term cursus publicus, attested from as early as the 4th cent. AD (Cod. Theod. 8,5,1), but which already appeared earlier (cf. P Panop. Beatty 2,275: 28.2.300), describes the state message and transport system of Imperium Romanum; in the 1st-3rd cent. AD offices, tasks and duties of the system were defined through links with vehicula or vehiculatio (CIL III 7251; RIC II 93). Augustus first established a courier service consisting of alternating messengers purely as a communications system. He extended the service into an efficient …

[German version] A. Safeguarding unencoded messages Even in antiquity there existed a great many ways of encoding information to keep it secret. Each form of secret writing was supposed to be accessible only to those who were initiated into it. The most detailed extant account of methods of sending secret messages is provided by the Greek specialist on warfare  Aeneas [2] Tacticus from the first half of the 4th cent. BC (Aen. Tact. 31,1-35). Most of that account is devoted to different modes of deliv…

[German version] In the Roman Empire, a tabellarius conveyed letters and written messages of all kinds ( tabellae) on behalf of private and public institutions and individuals. From the correspondence of Cicero in particular, we know of tabellarii of wealthy households and of public tax and duty contractors ( publicani ; [1. 21-27]). They generally came from the ranks of the slaves or were freedmen. In the Imperial period, most imperial messengers, the tabellarii Augusti, were freedmen who were recruited from the imperial household ( familia Caesaris). Because of their great num…

[German version] I. Ancient Orient In the ancient Orient, oral and written messages ( Letter) were transmitted by messengers. Messengers handled the supra-regional diplomatic traffic (e.g. the  Amarna letters between Egypt and Palaestine, Cyprus ( Alaschia), Syria, the Hittite kingdom, Mittani, Assyria, Babylonia and Elam), forwarded political or military news (at times gained through espionage), handled interior administrative communication, and transmitted (private) information in the area of comme…