Sion College.
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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 [Greek: angareuô].