Sion College.
Replies to Minor Queries.
Postage System of the Romans (Vol. ix., p. 350.).—Your correspondent Ardelio probably alludes to the system of posts for the conveyance of persons, established by the Romans on their great lines of road. An account of this may be seen in the work of Bergier, Histoire des Grands Chemins de l'Empire Romain, lib. iv.; and compare Gibbon's Decline and Fall, chap. xvii. Communications were made from Rome to the governors of provinces, and information was received from them, by means of these posts: see Suet. Oct. c. xlix. But the Romans had no public institution for the conveyance of private letters. A letter post is a comparatively modern institution; in England it only dates from the reign of James I. An account of the ancient Persian posts is given by Xenoph. Cyrop. VIII. vi. § 17, 18.; Herod. viii. 98.: compare Schleusner, Lex. N. T. in ἀγγαρεύω.
L.
As a proof that there is at least one eminent exception to the assertion of Ardelio, that "we know that the Romans must have had a postal system," I send the following extract from Dr. William
Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, sub voc. Tabellarius:
"As the Romans had no public post, they were obliged to employ special messengers, who were called Tabellarii, to convey their letters, when they had not an opportunity of sending them otherwise."
Ἁλιεύς.
Dublin.