Cursus publicus
Encyclopedia
The cursus publicus was the state-run courier and transportation service of the Roman Empire
, later inherited by the Byzantine Empire
. It was created by Emperor Augustus
to transport messages, officials, and tax revenues from one province to another. The service was still fully functioning in the first half of the sixth century in the Byzantine Empire, when the historian Procopius charges Emperor Justinian with the dismantlement of most of its sections, with the exception of the route leading to the Persian border.
and Trajan
write about the necessity of those who wish to send things via the imperial post to keep up-to-date licenses.
Another term, perhaps more accurate if less common, for the cursus publicus is the cursus vehicularis, particularly in the period before the reforms of Diocletian
. As Altay Coskun notes in a review of Anne Kolb’s work done in German, the system “simply provided an infrastructure for magistrates and messengers who traveled through the empire. It consisted of thousands of stations placed along the main roads; these had to supply fresh horses, mules, donkeys, and oxen, as well as carts, food, fodder, and accommodation.” Thus, there was no “department of postal service” with employees paid by the emperor. The one sending a missive would have to supply the courier, and the stations had to be supplied out of the resources of the local areas through which the roads passed. As seen in several rescripts and in the correspondence of Trajan and Pliny, the emperor will sometimes pay for the cost of sending an ambassador to Rome along the cursus publicus, particularly in cases where the cause is just.
Following the reforms of Diocletian and Constantine I, the service was divided in two sections: the fast and the regular . The "fast road" provided horses (divided into veredi, "saddle-horses", and parhippi, "pack-horses") and mules, while the latter only oxen.
reports, the Persians had a remarkably efficient means of transmitting messages important to the functioning of the kingdom, namely - Royal Road
. Riders would be stationed at certain intervals along the road, and the letters would be handed from one courier to another as they made a journey of a day’s length, which allowed messages to travel with good speed. Augustus at first followed the Persian method of having mail handed from one courier to the next, but he soon switched to a system whereby one man made the entire journey with the parcel. Although it is possible that a courier service existed for a time under the Roman republic, the clearest reference to the establishment of the Roman postal system by Augustus is by Suetonius
:
Tacitus
says that couriers from Judea
and Syria
brought news to Vitellius
that the legions of the East had sworn allegiance to him, and this also shows that the relay system was displaced by a system in which the original messenger made the entire journey. Augustus modified the Persian system, as Suetonius notes, because a courier who travels the whole distance could be interrogated by the emperor upon arrival, in order to receive additional information orally. This may have had the additional advantage of adding security to the post, as one man had the responsibility to answer for the successful delivery of the message. This does not come without a cost, because the Romans could not relay a message as quickly as they could if it passed from one rider to the next.
and one in Asia Minor
, as Pliny's letters to Trajan attest. It was common for a village to exist every 12 miles (19 km) or so, and there a courier might rest at large, privately owned mansiones. Operated by a manceps, or a business man, the mansiones provided food and lodging, and care and a blacksmith for the horses. The cursus also used communities located along the imperial highways. These towns very often provided food and horses to messengers of the Legion
s, theoretically receiving reimbursement, and were responsible for the care of their section of the Roman roads. Disputes arose naturally, and for a time the central administration participated more directly.
, in the late first century, the general cost was transferred to the Fiscus
(treasury). Further centralization came during the reign of Hadrian
, who created an actual administration under a prefect, who bore the title praefectus vehiculorum. Provinces were always in touch with Rome and one another. The Imperial Post gave the legions the capacity to summon reinforcements and provide status reports before any situation deteriorated too badly. The average citizen sent letters and messages to friends across the sea through slaves and travelling associates. Most news reached its destination eventually. Julian the Apostate
restricted the granting of passes to the Praetorian Prefect
. Notwithstanding its enormous costs, in the Eastern Roman Empire
the service was still fully functioning in the first half of the sixth century, when the historian Procopius charges Emperor Justinian with the dismantlement of most of its sections, with the exception of the route leading to the Persian border (Secret History 30.1–11). The dromos continued to exist throughout the Byzantine period, supervised for much of it by the logothetēs tou dromou
, although this post is not attested before the mid-eight century and a revival of the service may then have occurred after a substantial gap. Too, it was by then a much reduced service, restricted essentially to the remains of the old oxys dromos. In the west, it survived under the Ostrogoths in Italy, as Cassiodorus
reports Theodoric the Great
's correspondence.
If we knew the distance between stages, we would know how much distance there is between five stages or eight stages, and we would know the average rate at which correspondence moved along the cursus publicus. This is calculated by A. M. Ramsey in the following way: “It appears from the Jerusalem Itinerary that the mansiones, or night quarters on the roads, were about twenty-five miles apart, and, as Friedlander points out, the distance between Bethlehem and Alexandria (about 400 Roman miles) was reckoned to be sixteen mansiones, that between Edessa and Jerusalem (by Antioch nearly 625 miles) twenty-five mansiones. Although no Itinerary gives a complete list of mutationes and mansiones for any road, the general rule seems to have been two mutationes between each two mansiones. This would make the ‘stage’ about eight and a third Roman miles.” With a little multiplication, one can deduce that the typical trip was made at the rate of between forty-one and sixty-seven miles per day.
There are several cases in which urgent news or eager officials traveled at a faster rate. There is the journey of Tiberius
mentioned by Valerius Maximus, the news of the mutiny of Galba
as recorded by Tacitus, and the news of the death of Nero
as described by Plutarch
. In the last two cases, it is worth keeping in mind that bad news traveled faster than good news, and quite explicitly: a laurel was attached to the correspondence with news of victory, but a feather, as indicating haste, was fixed to the spear of a messenger carrying bad news. In all three cases, as A. M. Ramsey points out, the journey is especially urgent, and the time of travel may be recorded because of its exceptional rapidness. Such cases could not be used to find an average speed of the Roman post for carrying the vast majority of items.
Ramsey, following Wilcken, illustrates the speed of the Roman post over land with examples of the amount of time it would take a message to travel from Rome to Egypt about the accession of a new emperor (in a season other than summer, when the message would travel by sea from Rome to Alexandria). In the case of Pertinax, news of the accession, which took place on January 1 of 193 CE
, took over sixty-three days to reach Egypt, being announced on March 6 in Alexandria. Since the route that would be taken over land consisted of about 3,177 kilometers (1,400 kilometers from Rome to Byzantium, including the sea crossing and almost 1,800 kilometers from Byzantium to Alexandria) or almost 2000 miles and since it took about sixty-three days or a little more for the message to arrive in Alexandria, this confirms an average rate of about 32 miles per day for this journey Roman post.
Another example, based on a Latin inscription, is cited by Ramsey. Gaius Caesar
died in A.D. 4 on February 21 in Limyra, which is on the coast of Lycia
. The news about his death is found on an inscription dated April 2 at Pisa. The amount of time that the message took to arrive at Pisa is not less than thirty-six days. Since a voyage by sea would be too dangerous at this time of year, the message would be sent over land, a distance of about 1345 miles (2,165 km). This again confirms the calculation of an average rate of about fifty miles per day.
In his article “New Evidence for the Speed of the Roman Imperial Post,” Elliot agrees with A. M. Ramsey that the typical speed was about fifty miles per day and illustrates this with another instance, the time that it took news of the proclamation of the emperor Septimius Severus to reach Rome from Carnuntum
.
These estimates are for journeys that took place over land, making use of the cursus publicus (or, cursus vehicularis). Lionel Cassons, in his book on ancient sea travel, gives statistics for the amount of time that sixteen voyages took between various ports in the Roman Empire. These voyages, which were made by and recorded by the Romans, are recorded specifically as taking place under favorable wind conditions. Under such conditions, when the average is computed, a vessel could travel by sail at a speed of about five knots or 120 miles per day. Cassons provides another table of ten voyages made under unfavorable conditions. With these voyages, the average speed is about two knots or 50 miles per day.
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, later inherited by the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
. It was created by Emperor Augustus
Augustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
to transport messages, officials, and tax revenues from one province to another. The service was still fully functioning in the first half of the sixth century in the Byzantine Empire, when the historian Procopius charges Emperor Justinian with the dismantlement of most of its sections, with the exception of the route leading to the Persian border.
Structure of the service
A series of forts and stations were spread out along the major road systems connecting the regions of the Roman world. These relay points (or stationes) provided horses to dispatch riders, usually soldiers, and vehicles for magistrates or officers of the court. The vehicles were called clabulae, but little is known of them. A diploma or certificate issued by the emperor himself was necessary to use the roads. Abuses of the system existed, for governors and minor appointees used the diplomata to give themselves and their families free transport. Forgeries and stolen diplomata were also used. PlinyPliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
and Trajan
Trajan
Trajan , was Roman Emperor from 98 to 117 AD. Born into a non-patrician family in the province of Hispania Baetica, in Spain Trajan rose to prominence during the reign of emperor Domitian. Serving as a legatus legionis in Hispania Tarraconensis, in Spain, in 89 Trajan supported the emperor against...
write about the necessity of those who wish to send things via the imperial post to keep up-to-date licenses.
Another term, perhaps more accurate if less common, for the cursus publicus is the cursus vehicularis, particularly in the period before the reforms of Diocletian
Diocletian
Diocletian |latinized]] upon his accession to Diocletian . c. 22 December 244 – 3 December 311), was a Roman Emperor from 284 to 305....
. As Altay Coskun notes in a review of Anne Kolb’s work done in German, the system “simply provided an infrastructure for magistrates and messengers who traveled through the empire. It consisted of thousands of stations placed along the main roads; these had to supply fresh horses, mules, donkeys, and oxen, as well as carts, food, fodder, and accommodation.” Thus, there was no “department of postal service” with employees paid by the emperor. The one sending a missive would have to supply the courier, and the stations had to be supplied out of the resources of the local areas through which the roads passed. As seen in several rescripts and in the correspondence of Trajan and Pliny, the emperor will sometimes pay for the cost of sending an ambassador to Rome along the cursus publicus, particularly in cases where the cause is just.
Following the reforms of Diocletian and Constantine I, the service was divided in two sections: the fast and the regular . The "fast road" provided horses (divided into veredi, "saddle-horses", and parhippi, "pack-horses") and mules, while the latter only oxen.
Persian influence
The Romans adapted their state post from the Persians. As HerodotusHerodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
reports, the Persians had a remarkably efficient means of transmitting messages important to the functioning of the kingdom, namely - Royal Road
Royal Road
The Persian Royal Road was an ancient highway reorganized and rebuilt by the Persian king Darius the Great of the Achaemenid Empire in the 5th century BC. Darius built the road to facilitate rapid communication throughout his very large empire from Susa to Sardis...
. Riders would be stationed at certain intervals along the road, and the letters would be handed from one courier to another as they made a journey of a day’s length, which allowed messages to travel with good speed. Augustus at first followed the Persian method of having mail handed from one courier to the next, but he soon switched to a system whereby one man made the entire journey with the parcel. Although it is possible that a courier service existed for a time under the Roman republic, the clearest reference to the establishment of the Roman postal system by Augustus is by Suetonius
Suetonius
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, commonly known as Suetonius , was a Roman historian belonging to the equestrian order in the early Imperial era....
:
- To enable what was going on in each of the provinces to be reported and known more speedily and promptly, he at first stationed young men at short intervals along the military roads, and afterwards post-chaises. The latter has seemed the more convenient arrangement, since the same men who bring the dispatches from any place can, if occasion demands, be questioned as well.
Tacitus
Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...
says that couriers from Judea
Judea
Judea or Judæa was the name of the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel from the 8th century BCE to the 2nd century CE, when Roman Judea was renamed Syria Palaestina following the Jewish Bar Kokhba revolt.-Etymology:The...
and Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
brought news to Vitellius
Vitellius
Vitellius , was Roman Emperor for eight months, from 16 April to 22 December 69. Vitellius was acclaimed Emperor following the quick succession of the previous emperors Galba and Otho, in a year of civil war known as the Year of the Four Emperors...
that the legions of the East had sworn allegiance to him, and this also shows that the relay system was displaced by a system in which the original messenger made the entire journey. Augustus modified the Persian system, as Suetonius notes, because a courier who travels the whole distance could be interrogated by the emperor upon arrival, in order to receive additional information orally. This may have had the additional advantage of adding security to the post, as one man had the responsibility to answer for the successful delivery of the message. This does not come without a cost, because the Romans could not relay a message as quickly as they could if it passed from one rider to the next.
Area of operation
The cursus operated in Italy and the more advanced provinces. There was only one in EgyptEgypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
and one in Asia Minor
Asia Minor
Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...
, as Pliny's letters to Trajan attest. It was common for a village to exist every 12 miles (19 km) or so, and there a courier might rest at large, privately owned mansiones. Operated by a manceps, or a business man, the mansiones provided food and lodging, and care and a blacksmith for the horses. The cursus also used communities located along the imperial highways. These towns very often provided food and horses to messengers of the Legion
Roman legion
A Roman legion normally indicates the basic ancient Roman army unit recruited specifically from Roman citizens. The organization of legions varied greatly over time but they were typically composed of perhaps 5,000 soldiers, divided into maniples and later into "cohorts"...
s, theoretically receiving reimbursement, and were responsible for the care of their section of the Roman roads. Disputes arose naturally, and for a time the central administration participated more directly.
Financial costs and the fate of the service
Costs for the cursus publicus were always high, and its maintenance could not always be guaranteed. Around the time of NervaNerva
Nerva , was Roman Emperor from 96 to 98. Nerva became Emperor at the age of sixty-five, after a lifetime of imperial service under Nero and the rulers of the Flavian dynasty. Under Nero, he was a member of the imperial entourage and played a vital part in exposing the Pisonian conspiracy of 65...
, in the late first century, the general cost was transferred to the Fiscus
Fiscus
Fiscus, from which comes the English term fiscal, was the name of the personal treasury of the emperors of Rome. The word is literally translated as "basket" or "purse" and was used to describe those forms of revenue collected from the provinces , which were then granted to the emperor...
(treasury). Further centralization came during the reign of Hadrian
Hadrian
Hadrian , was Roman Emperor from 117 to 138. He is best known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Roman Britain. In Rome, he re-built the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma. In addition to being emperor, Hadrian was a humanist and was philhellene in...
, who created an actual administration under a prefect, who bore the title praefectus vehiculorum. Provinces were always in touch with Rome and one another. The Imperial Post gave the legions the capacity to summon reinforcements and provide status reports before any situation deteriorated too badly. The average citizen sent letters and messages to friends across the sea through slaves and travelling associates. Most news reached its destination eventually. Julian the Apostate
Julian the Apostate
Julian "the Apostate" , commonly known as Julian, or also Julian the Philosopher, was Roman Emperor from 361 to 363 and a noted philosopher and Greek writer....
restricted the granting of passes to the Praetorian Prefect
Praetorian prefect
Praetorian prefect was the title of a high office in the Roman Empire. Originating as the commander of the Praetorian Guard, the office gradually acquired extensive legal and administrative functions, with its holders becoming the Emperor's chief aides...
. Notwithstanding its enormous costs, in the Eastern Roman Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
the service was still fully functioning in the first half of the sixth century, when the historian Procopius charges Emperor Justinian with the dismantlement of most of its sections, with the exception of the route leading to the Persian border (Secret History 30.1–11). The dromos continued to exist throughout the Byzantine period, supervised for much of it by the logothetēs tou dromou
Logothetes tou dromou
The logothetēs tou dromou , in English usually rendered as Logothete of the Course/Drome/Dromos or Postal Logothete, was the head of the department of the Dromos, the Public Post , and one of the most senior ministers of the Byzantine Empire.- History and functions :The exact origin and date of...
, although this post is not attested before the mid-eight century and a revival of the service may then have occurred after a substantial gap. Too, it was by then a much reduced service, restricted essentially to the remains of the old oxys dromos. In the west, it survived under the Ostrogoths in Italy, as Cassiodorus
Cassiodorus
Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator , commonly known as Cassiodorus, was a Roman statesman and writer, serving in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. Senator was part of his surname, not his rank.- Life :Cassiodorus was born at Scylletium, near Catanzaro in...
reports Theodoric the Great
Theodoric the Great
Theodoric the Great was king of the Ostrogoths , ruler of Italy , regent of the Visigoths , and a viceroy of the Eastern Roman Empire...
's correspondence.
Speed of the Post
Procopius provides one of the few direct descriptions of the Roman post that allows us to estimate the average rate of travel overland. In the sixth century, but describing an earlier time, he writes:If we knew the distance between stages, we would know how much distance there is between five stages or eight stages, and we would know the average rate at which correspondence moved along the cursus publicus. This is calculated by A. M. Ramsey in the following way: “It appears from the Jerusalem Itinerary that the mansiones, or night quarters on the roads, were about twenty-five miles apart, and, as Friedlander points out, the distance between Bethlehem and Alexandria (about 400 Roman miles) was reckoned to be sixteen mansiones, that between Edessa and Jerusalem (by Antioch nearly 625 miles) twenty-five mansiones. Although no Itinerary gives a complete list of mutationes and mansiones for any road, the general rule seems to have been two mutationes between each two mansiones. This would make the ‘stage’ about eight and a third Roman miles.” With a little multiplication, one can deduce that the typical trip was made at the rate of between forty-one and sixty-seven miles per day.
There are several cases in which urgent news or eager officials traveled at a faster rate. There is the journey of Tiberius
Tiberius
Tiberius , was Roman Emperor from 14 AD to 37 AD. Tiberius was by birth a Claudian, son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla. His mother divorced Nero and married Augustus in 39 BC, making him a step-son of Octavian...
mentioned by Valerius Maximus, the news of the mutiny of Galba
Galba
Galba , was Roman Emperor for seven months from 68 to 69. Galba was the governor of Hispania Tarraconensis, and made a bid for the throne during the rebellion of Julius Vindex...
as recorded by Tacitus, and the news of the death of Nero
Nero
Nero , was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death....
as described by Plutarch
Plutarch
Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
. In the last two cases, it is worth keeping in mind that bad news traveled faster than good news, and quite explicitly: a laurel was attached to the correspondence with news of victory, but a feather, as indicating haste, was fixed to the spear of a messenger carrying bad news. In all three cases, as A. M. Ramsey points out, the journey is especially urgent, and the time of travel may be recorded because of its exceptional rapidness. Such cases could not be used to find an average speed of the Roman post for carrying the vast majority of items.
Ramsey, following Wilcken, illustrates the speed of the Roman post over land with examples of the amount of time it would take a message to travel from Rome to Egypt about the accession of a new emperor (in a season other than summer, when the message would travel by sea from Rome to Alexandria). In the case of Pertinax, news of the accession, which took place on January 1 of 193 CE
Common Era
Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...
, took over sixty-three days to reach Egypt, being announced on March 6 in Alexandria. Since the route that would be taken over land consisted of about 3,177 kilometers (1,400 kilometers from Rome to Byzantium, including the sea crossing and almost 1,800 kilometers from Byzantium to Alexandria) or almost 2000 miles and since it took about sixty-three days or a little more for the message to arrive in Alexandria, this confirms an average rate of about 32 miles per day for this journey Roman post.
Another example, based on a Latin inscription, is cited by Ramsey. Gaius Caesar
Gaius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar , most commonly known as Gaius Caesar or Caius Caesar, was the oldest son of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia the Elder...
died in A.D. 4 on February 21 in Limyra, which is on the coast of Lycia
Lycia
Lycia Lycian: Trm̃mis; ) was a region in Anatolia in what are now the provinces of Antalya and Muğla on the southern coast of Turkey. It was a federation of ancient cities in the region and later a province of the Roman Empire...
. The news about his death is found on an inscription dated April 2 at Pisa. The amount of time that the message took to arrive at Pisa is not less than thirty-six days. Since a voyage by sea would be too dangerous at this time of year, the message would be sent over land, a distance of about 1345 miles (2,165 km). This again confirms the calculation of an average rate of about fifty miles per day.
In his article “New Evidence for the Speed of the Roman Imperial Post,” Elliot agrees with A. M. Ramsey that the typical speed was about fifty miles per day and illustrates this with another instance, the time that it took news of the proclamation of the emperor Septimius Severus to reach Rome from Carnuntum
Carnuntum
Carnuntum was a Roman army camp on the Danube in the Noricum province and after the 1st century the capital of the Upper Pannonia province...
.
These estimates are for journeys that took place over land, making use of the cursus publicus (or, cursus vehicularis). Lionel Cassons, in his book on ancient sea travel, gives statistics for the amount of time that sixteen voyages took between various ports in the Roman Empire. These voyages, which were made by and recorded by the Romans, are recorded specifically as taking place under favorable wind conditions. Under such conditions, when the average is computed, a vessel could travel by sail at a speed of about five knots or 120 miles per day. Cassons provides another table of ten voyages made under unfavorable conditions. With these voyages, the average speed is about two knots or 50 miles per day.