Post

(courant) is the rendering of רָוֹ, râts (Sept. βιβλιοφόρος. Vulg. cursor, 2Ch 30:6,10; Es 3:13,15; Es 8:10,14; Job 9:25; Jer 51:31), a runner, or "glard," as elsewhere rendered; a courier or carrier of messages, such as is common in Oriental countries. SEE ANGAREUO. The term post is used to indicate primarily the person who conveyed with speed any message; and subsequently the means of regular postal communications. Some writers have thought that the use of posts as a system originated with the Persians. Diodorus Siculus observes that the kings of Persia, in order to have intelligence of what was passing through all the provinces of their vast dominions, placed sentinels at eminences at convenient distances where towers were built. These sentinels gave notice of public occurrences from one to another, with a very loud and shrill voice, by which news was transmitted from one extremity of the kingdom to another with great expedition. But as this could not be practiced except in the case of general news, which it was expedient that the whole nation should be acquainted with, Cyrus, as Xenophon relates, appointed couriers and places for post-horses, building for the purpose on all the high-roads houses for the reception of the couriers, where they were to deliver their packets to the next, and so on. 'This they did night and day, so that no inclemency of weather was to stop them: and they are represented as moving with astonishing speed. Herodotus owns that nothing swifter was known for a journey by land. Xerxes, in his famous expedition against Greece, planted posts from the AEgean Sea to Shushan or Susa, to send notice thither of what might happen to his army; he placed also messengers from station to station, to convey his packets, at such distances from each other as a horse might easily travel. 'The regularity and swiftness of the Roman posts were likewise admirable. Gibbon observes, "The advantage of receiving the earliest intelligence, and of conveying their orders with celerity, induced the emperors to establish throughout their extensive dominions the regular institution of posts. Houses were everywhere erected at the distance only of five or six miles; each of them was constantly provided with forty horses; and by the help of these relays it was easy to travel a hundred miles a day along the Roman roads." In the time of Theodosius, Cesarius, a magistrate of high rank, went by post from Antioch to Constantinople. He began his journey at night, was in Cappadocia (165 miles from Antioch) the ensuing evening, and arrived at Constantinople the sixth day about noon. The whole distant was 725 Roman, or 665 English miles. This service seems to have been very laxly performed till the time of Trajan, previous to whose reign the Roman messengers were in the habit of seizing for the public service any horses that came in their way. Some regularity was observed from this time forward, as in the Theodosian code mention is made of post-horses, and orders given for their regulation. Throughout all this period posts were only used on special occasions. Letters from private persons-were conveyed by private hands, and were confined for the most part to business of sufficient urgency. Yet the correspondence of ancient times, if we may judge from the immense number of Egyptian, Babylonian, and Persian seals still in existence, must have been far from inconsiderable. The institution of posts disappeared from Europe with the breaking up of the Roman Empire, and its re-establishment is generally attributed to Louis XI of France, in the middle of the 15th century.