The history of the origins of postal services and the emergence of courier services. Features of hotels and postal service in ancient Rome What decorated the hats of postal couriers of the ancient world

Hello dear readers of the site Sprint-Response. Today we will review the game and also provide the correct answers in the game "Who want to be a millionaire?" for May 13, 2017 (13.05.2017).

The host of the show is in the studio as usual Dmitry Dibrov. And also the participants of the TV game are sitting at the gaming table: Alexey Lysenkov and Vladimir Markin. The players chose a fireproof amount of 200,000 rubles. So let's start with a brief review of the game.

1. What do you call a person who performs small, simple tasks?

uncle on a walker
aunt on romper
girl at the fly-out
errand boy

2.How should a Soviet pioneer respond to the call “Be ready!”?

"Always ready!"
"Herding Cows"
"Who are you?"
"Ivan Petrov"

3. Where is the heroine of the song performed by Lyubov Uspenskaya going to sit?

on a bike
in a convertible
in a jalopy
into a starship

4.What can you earn in many games?

glasses
pince-nez
monocles

5. Who sang ditties in the cartoon "The Flying Ship"?

water
Koshchei
goblin
Granny hedgehogs

Players took the first clue "Help from the Hall" in the fifth question.

6. What predator lives high in the mountains?

Snow Leopard
cheetah
manul

7.In addition to horsepower, what is the power of a car measured in?

in joules
in newtons
in kilowatts
in lumens

8. What was the nickname of Sir Lancelot, the Knight of the Round Table?

Ozerny
River
Nautical
Ocean

9. The melody of which song by the bard Sergei Nikitin was recorded by the Paul Mauriat Orchestra?

"Brich-Mulla"
"To the music of Vivaldi"
"Alexandra"
"Dialogue at the New Year's tree"

10. What decorated the hats of postal couriers in Ancient Rome?

lightning
wheel
wings

The players took the "Right to make mistakes" clue in the tenth question.

11.Which artist's house is one of the most famous museums in Amsterdam?

Bruegel
Rembrandt
Vermeer
Bosch

The players took the clue “Call a friend” and “50:50” when answering the eleventh question, unfortunately the players still answered incorrectly. Winning 0 rubles.

The place of the players in the studio is taken by grandfather and granddaughter: Vsevolod Shilovsky and his granddaughter Aglaya. The second part of the game begins "Who want to be a millionaire?" dated May 13, 2017. The players chose a fireproof amount of 100,000 rubles.

1. What are animal and plant organisms made of?

from the enclosures
from the paddocks
from cells
from aquariums

2. How did Ershov describe the Little Humpbacked Horse: “On his back with two humps and...”?

with square eyes
with arshin ears
with branched horns
with strict legs

3. What is used in acupuncture?

threads
needles
pins
buttons

4.Which Shakespeare play is the basis for the musical Kiss Me, Kate?

"The Taming of the Shrew"
"As You Like It"
"A dream in a summer night"
"Storm"

5.What do koalas eat?

bamboo
cacti
cane
eucalyptus leaves

6. Which country's martial arts are known as wushu?

China
Korea
Japan
Indonesia

7. From which poem by Pushkin did Vladimir Motyl take the title for his film “Star of Captivating Happiness”?

"Monument"
"To Chaadaev"
"Winter morning"
"I loved you"

When answering the seventh question, players took the clue “Help from the Hall.”

8. What letter does a rugby goal resemble?

| POSTAL SERVICES OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

Although the word "mail" appeared in ancient Rome only at the turn of our era, for convenience it is customary to call various communication services that existed earlier. The same applies to terms such as “postmaster”, “sending correspondence” and others.

Post office in the land of the pyramids. It is known that already under the pharaohs of the IV dynasty (2900 - 2700 BC) there was a post office in Egypt with foot (fast) and horse-drawn messengers plying along military roads to Libya, Abyssinia, and Arabia. The local population was obliged to provide accommodation for the messengers. The pharaohs, in the form of special privileges, exempted individual cities from this duty. Information about this is found in ancient papyri. For example, Pharaoh Piopi (Lepi) II from the VI dynasty, which ruled the Old Kingdom in 2500 - 2400. BC e., granted benefits to the cities of Koptu and Dashur: “My Majesty has commanded that for the sake of King Sneferu this city should be freed from all kinds of work and duties assigned in favor of the royal house and court, ... so that all tenants of this city will be free from housing couriers going by water or land, up or down, for eternity..."

The service of the royal messengers was difficult and dangerous. According to the customs of that time, a messenger who brought bad news could be executed by an angry ruler. A story about the dangers and hardships of such service was preserved in the diary of a scientist dating back to the XII Dynasty (2000 - 1788 BC): “When a messenger goes to a foreign country, he bequeaths his property to his children for fear of lions and Asians And if he returned to Egypt, as soon as he reached the garden, as soon as he reached his house in the evening, he must soon get ready for the journey again.” The author bequeaths to his son: “Become whoever you want, but not a messenger.”

Letters were most often written on papyrus, rolled into a tube, tied with twine, and sealed with a clay seal.

Egyptian fellahs in Tel el-Amarna, where Akheta-ton, the capital of the Egyptian king Amenhotep IV (Akhenaton) (1419 - 1400 BC), was located in ancient times, found his archive of foreign affairs in 1887. Several hundred clay tablets written in Babylonian cuneiform contained correspondence between the pharaoh and the kings of the Babylonian, Hittite, Mitanni and Assyrian states, as well as reports to the Egyptian king from the princes of the Syrian and Phoenician cities subordinate to him.

20 years later, in 1906, not far from Ankara, near the village of Boğazköy, the expedition of Professor G. Winkler excavated the Hittite capital Hattusas and found another huge archive (about 15 thousand clay tablets). Among various documents, many letters in Hittite, Akkadian and other languages were kept here. The letters dated mainly from the 14th to 13th centuries. BC e.

Among them was found the famous letter from the widow of the early deceased Pharaoh Tutankhamun to the Hittite king Suppilulium. “My husband is dead, I don’t have a son,” she wrote. “And you, they say, have many sons. If you give me one of them, he will be my husband. Why should I, a slave or something, take my own as a husband?” and honor him?"

On the roads of the huge Achamenid kingdom. The most advanced postal system for its time began to be created by the Persian king Cyrus II the Great (? -530 BC); it reached its highest level under Darius I (522 - 486 BC). In order to more firmly keep numerous peoples in subjection over a vast territory, it was necessary to have a powerful and developed network of roads. Persian roads not only had much in common with Assyrian military roads, but were superior to them; they can be called the predecessors of Roman roads. One of the main roads, the royal one, went from Sardis on the Aegean coast of Asia Minor through Armenia and Assyria to the south of Mesopotamia to Susa. Two other roads branched off from it: one to Tire and Sidon, the other to the borders of Bactria and India. There were many other roads.

The Greek historians Herodotus (484 -425 BC) and Xenophon (430 - 355 BC) admired the condition of the roads and the clarity of the organization of the courier service. Herodotus, who traveled in the middle of the 5th century. BC e. on the Persian state, noted that the roads gave him the opportunity to get to know the country in detail. Along the entire length of the royal road there were royal hotels with beautiful living quarters. Troops were stationed at various points to ensure the safety of mail, travelers, and merchants with goods. To cover the route from Sardis to Susa (about 2,300 kilometers), the traveler, according to Herodotus, needed about 90 days.

The royal mail was delivered much faster. The distance of 20 kilometers between the hotel stations was divided into parasangs (five kilometers), at the end of which there were pickets of couriers, always ready to hit the road. The mail was transmitted according to the principle of a relay race: the rider, having received the mail, raced at full speed to the neighboring picket, passed the package to another, who raced further. Therefore, the state mail covered the enormous distance from end to end of the royal road in six to eight days, passing 111 stations.

The Greeks called this post office "angareion", and the messengers called it "angara". “The Persians were so skillful in organizing the transmission of news,” writes Herodotus, “that no one in the world can surpass their messengers... Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor darkness will delay the messengers of King Darius, will not prevent them from rushing at the highest speed the section of the path allocated to him. . Nothing in the world is carried out as quickly as orders delivered by his couriers. Herodotus is echoed by Xenophon, who writes about the messengers of Cyrus the Younger (? - 401 BC): “No one in the world can compete with them in speed, pigeons and cranes can barely keep up with them.”

The Persians were the first to introduce a regularly operating postal service, which is now commonly called military fieldhowl mail. Behind the army on its conquest was a special service that maintained postal communications with the capital of the state. There is information that particularly important and urgent military news and orders were transmitted from picket to picket by fire signals.

Under the Hellas sky. The peculiarities of the political life of ancient Greece determined the uniqueness of its postal communications. Numerous small states and city-states did not maintain regular postal communication among themselves - they simply did not need it. If there was a need to convey important news (for example, military news), then they used sea vessels (to communicate with the islands and numerous colonies along the shores of the Mediterranean and Black Seas) or hemerodromes - “day messengers” (if necessary, they fled at night). Grammatophores (“letter carriers”) were used to transmit news over short distances. The service of both was considered responsible and honorable. Hardy and fast runners were selected for it, often Olympians - winners of the Olympic Games.

History has preserved information about Lasthenes, a hemerodrome from Thebes, who overtook fleet-footed horses over long distances. His friend Efhid accomplished a feat by sacrificing his life, like the famous marathon messenger. Efhid ran more than 200 kilometers to deliver the sacred fire from the Delphic Temple when the sacred fire in the temple on the Acropolis of Athens went out due to the oversight of the priestess. Efkhid ran so fast that, returning to Athens, he died from overwork. Another famous messenger, Philip, ran 225 kilometers in 24 hours to convey to the Lacedaemonians the Athenians' request for military assistance against the invading Persians.

In ancient Rome. In the vast expanses of the ancient Roman state and the countries conquered by Rome, from the Middle East to Britain, an extensive communication system operating according to clear regulations was created. Postal service existed even during the times of the Republic, but was streamlined by Julius Caesar (100 - 44 BC), was improved during the reign of Augustus (27 BC - 14 AD), and reached its peak under the emperors Nerva , Trajan, Hadrian (96 - 138 AD). Individual routes with a total length of about 100,000 kilometers were gradually combined into a single system. The postal service was called "cursus publis" - public mail. To be fair, we note that this name did not entirely correspond to the truth: only members of the imperial family, patricians, officials, and legionnaires could use the mail. But over time, for a certain fee, the post office began to serve wider sections of Roman free citizens. At a distance of one day's travel, there were the main postal stations - mansios, where one could change the cart, the driver, eat and spend the night. Between two mansios there were usually six to eight intermediate stations - mutacios, where horses were changed if necessary. Mail was delivered by both foot ambassadors (cursorius) and mounted messengers (veredarii). In addition to letters, passengers and cargo were transported. For this, strictly defined types of carts were used (Fig. 14, A)- from light two-wheeled ones, drawn by horses, to heavy four-wheeled ones, which were harnessed by 8-10 horses, mules, donkeys or oxen. Everything was described down to the smallest detail: the types of shipments, the carrying capacity of the carts, the categories of passengers and employees, their contents, etc.

We owe the appearance of the word “mail” to this communication system. The stations did not have special names. If it was necessary to indicate a station, they wrote or said: “the station located at the point N" or "an intermediate station located at a point NN". From the word “posita” - “located” - the word “mail” arose over time, which in the 13th century. included in most European languages. Many researchers believe that the word "mail" in medieval Europe was first used in Italian ("poeste") in 1298 in Marco Polo's famous book "Travels"

The etymological roots of the word “courier” should be sought in Poland at the end of the 17th century, where kurier first came into use, but the lexical unit itself is rather French ( courrier) or Latin (curro - “run”) origin. However, it is worth recognizing that the very fact of moving messages and cargo has existed ever since settlements remote from each other began to be built. Due to the need to exchange information in peacetime (and especially in wartime) messengers and messengers very quickly appeared and were sent on errands.

The oldest way to travel is on foot, and the history of courier delivery as a phenomenon began with it. Long before the ancient Egyptian civilization, approximately 3 thousand years BC, the legendary Semiramis conveyed her will with messengers before traveling to India.

Job foot courier was full not only of difficulties, but also of many dangers, since during his service he managed to visit not only various parts of his native state, but also foreign lands. The men understood the full responsibility of the position, so they bequeathed property to their families in advance and gave instructions in which they often noted the work of the messenger as an undesirable example to follow - “become whoever you want, but not them.”

What were the main missions of ancient couriers? First of all, this is the connection of troops: detachments located at a great distance from each other had to regularly learn the news, otherwise it was not possible to act together.

The most famous messengers, mentioned in ancient literature, are the Greeks. Hemerodromes, as they were then called, received orders and moved between cities. Basically, they were in the service of the government, and they were described only as delivering news as quickly as possible. The young men who went to the hemerodromes moved very quickly and lightly - they did not take weapons on the road except a bow, arrows and slings, so as not to lose speed under the weight of the ammunition.

The most famous couriers of ancient times are Philonides, who served Alexander the Great and covered 90 km in 9 hours, and Phillipides, who brought the good news of the victory at Marathon to Athens, but, alas, died from exhaustion.

During ancient Roman times, foot couriers were also popular. They received the name cursorius (that is, fast-running) or tabelarii (in Latin “table” - tablet) - depending on the functions they performed. As a rule, they were at the courts of wealthy patricians or were in public service, but they were forbidden to take correspondence and things for transfer from private individuals. Often the prohibition was violated, and the messengers were punished, although, however, this was a common thing for them: they recruited cursorii from among freedmen or slaves.

The tablearii, which were supported by the ruling elite, tried to increase their material wealth. So, for example, one day they asked Vespasian for a little more money for shoes, but he refused them the money altogether. Messengers began to dress richly only with the advent of the next emperor, who allowed them to wear feathers on their headdress. Subsequently, peculiar wings appeared on their shoulders - a sign of the speed of delivery.

It is known that in ancient times there was such a phenomenon as messenger relay. So, on the outskirts of the villages there were tents, in which messengers waited their turn to set off. Each one had a stick with bells, by the ringing of which the population of the next village recognized the messenger and prepared to meet him. There, the previous messenger was replaced by the next one - with the same “ringing” stick. Couriers not only traveled by land, they sometimes had to swim, and were given special belts to cross.

Interestingly, the Incas and Aztecs also used courier services, and the most important cargo that was delivered throughout Mexico and Peru was fresh fish to the table of the ruling person. In these countries, couriers were called by the mysterious word “chaski”.

Chinese courier mail originated in the Zhou dynasty, with both pedestrian messengers and those on horseback. During the Tang Dynasty, a hierarchy could already be observed in the ranks of postmen: the head of state personally appointed postmaster generals. As a result, imperial orders were transmitted with lightning speed. Engravings from those years depict couriers on the road with wide umbrellas at the ready.

Foot mail passed from ancient times to feudal times, proving to be a reliable way to move documents and things. City, monastery and university messengers were supported by managers and wore a special uniform with a badge, which was a kind of distinctive sign.

Meanwhile, in countries such as India and China, foot messengers gave way to mounted ones. Slaves built new roads, and letters and parcels were now delivered overland to the most secluded and distant corners. Thus, the reign of Emperor Octavian is directly associated with the strengthening of equestrian courier associations.

The year 1464 was significant for Europe, hungry for postal connections: by order of Louis XI, a state post office with couriers was established.

Mounted messengers were also common in England at that time, but they carried out only royal commissions. Under Edward I, postal stations began to be organized where horses could be hired.

The work of courier lines was improved largely due to the fact that they punished people for being late very severely. So, for example, a messenger could be hanged for failure to fulfill his duties on time.

In the Middle Ages in Germany, the main courier lines were maintained by the Hanseatic League. Continuous communication was maintained with cities such as Venice, Prague, Vienna and Amsterdam. It is interesting that butchers also became couriers, who had to travel many hundreds of kilometers to purchase raw materials. It was they who signed contracts with the authorities, pledging to hand over the mail. This type of courier services has become very popular in Southern Germany. As soon as the herd drivers (cattle transporters) entered the city, they blew the horn, and people gathered in the square.

Carriage mail, with the help of which it was possible to transport large cargo and even people, also comes from ancient times, when horses and chariots were obliged to be delivered to the imperial court by commoners, for whom this, by the way, was a heavy duty. In Rus', this type of crossing was called the Yamskaya chase. The postal station, where there were horses that could be needed for transportation at any time, was called a pit. Such an inn usually consisted of a couple of huts and, of course, stables, and the coachman lived there and looked after the household. He was elected from among the peasants or townspeople. The distance between stations could reach from 40 to 100 versts.

At first, horses carried messengers in carts and wagons, which was not entirely convenient, then in the 18th century Viennese carriages and carriages replaced them. In winter, messengers traveled in sledges and carts, but the most famous, perhaps, was the troika, which was later sung by Russian poets.

If we talk about air communications, then its most ancient type is pigeon mail. For military, as well as peaceful and commercial purposes, many states used these birds as couriers, and this was especially common in Egypt.

During the years 1870-1871, pigeons carried more than one hundred and fifty thousand official dispatches during the Franco-Prussian War. In Paris, special rooms were even created where microletters extracted from capsules on the paws of birds were deciphered. In the twentieth century, pigeons served more peaceful purposes - they delivered fresh correspondence faster than others.

In 1890 it appeared pneumatic mail, in the conditions of which the “post office-exchange” communication was established using pipes and trailers. Speed - 250 thousand per hour. Later, by analogy with pneumatic mail, electric lines began to appear, for example, the London postal underground, the construction of which began in 1916, implied movement through tunnels located 50–80 feet underground. Correspondence was delivered by trains with small carriages that could move in two directions. The automatic control system made it possible to do without conductors.

However, pneumatic mail is not the most interesting way to deliver papers to recipients. Palan and Nadine are islands in Indonesia whose residents still use bottles to send correspondence. Interestingly, every letter sealed in a “capsule” has an address and eventually reaches the person waiting! The secret of accuracy is that the Java Sea has special circular currents, so the bottle floats to its destination, it is caught and delivered to the address. Yes, it’s a little risky, but no one will force you to pay customs duty!

As you can see, at all times a person is looking for the most convenient ways of moving for himself and transporting goods and documents. Within the framework of modern realities, the most reasonable method is courier mail, and how people came to this conclusion, you had the opportunity to read above.

The mark of a criminal: from Ancient Rome to the present day

It is possible that the criminals of our day would have broken the law if they had found themselves in Ancient Rome or Ancient Greece. After all, there they branded criminals - they burned letters on their shoulders, and in Ancient Egypt they knocked out their front teeth in a special way.

The Middle Ages hardened judges and jailers. Criminals are subject to real injuries depending on the severity of the offense. In medieval Europe, a thief is left without ears, a robber is left without a nose, a perjurer’s finger or hand is cut off, a deceiver’s ears are cut... If the criminal is caught a second time, he will face execution.

In the novel by the French writer A. Dumas “The Three Musketeers” there is a character who caused a lot of trouble to the musketeer friends. This is Lady Winter - my lady. Dumas describes how the Comte de la Fère was amazed to see a mark in the shape of a lily on her shoulder. This lily is not an invention of Dumas, but a historical fact. In France, this is how thieves were branded, and the lily signified the coat of arms of the head of state. In England, a “shameful spot” was burned onto a thief’s hand with a hot iron.

In 1789, French legislation briefly abolished cruel punishments, but Napoleon reintroduced them in 1799. Now a thief is marked with the letter “V”, a repeat offender bears the mark “VV”, “TF” means forced labor. "G" or "GAL" means that the owner of this mark is a prisoner of the galleys. What is a galley?

A galley is an ancient ship, low and long in shape, on which both the ancient Romans and the troops of the French king Louis XIV sailed. Moreover, the Romans used slaves for rowing, and Louis XIV used all people of other faiths, all non-Catholics. After the 18th century, some of the galleys were used as floating prisons. This is where the criminal, marked with the mark “GAL,” was sent.

The French laws of that time did not spare petty swindlers; they also wore a special mark on their bodies. And in Austria, until the end of the 18th century, criminals had various letters burned onto their backs. Using these letters, it was possible to determine where the crime was committed and what kind of crime it was.

It was only in 1832 that the barbaric method of marking lawbreakers was permanently abolished in France. Criminals were branded for the longest time in China - until 1905. And in Thailand, even in 1940, the guilty were punished in a similar way, although the red-hot iron was replaced by a tattoo.

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A thousand words about the history of Ancient Rome in the middle of the 8th century BC. e. (or maybe a little earlier or later; the traditional date of the founding of Rome is April 21, 753 BC) several tribes of central Italy chose a piece of land at the intersection of river and land roads and

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Technology of Our Days Global radio interferometric network Matveenko L.1996, No. 12, p. 8. XXI century - the century of globalization and personalization of communications Bulgak V. 1997, No. 5, p. 5. Radio observations from satellites of earthquake harbingers Larkina V. 1999, No. 1, p. 55. Geotronics: electronics in geodesy.

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All rulers of the past paid great attention to mail.

The Roman state is no exception to this rule.

Rome Post reached its peak under Emperor Augustus. It was called cursus publicum (public, public). In fact, the mail was not very public. The post office of Rome served Augustus and his entourage. As for citizens who did not have wealth and nobility, it is appropriate to recall the caustic remark of the famous Roman orator Cicero:

“Although writing letters is an excellent way to talk and maintain relationships with distant friends, unfortunately, there is no way to deliver these letters to their intended destination.”

Emperor Augustus, the founder of the Roman post office, which served primarily him and his entourage, was cruel and treacherous.

The philosopher Seneca’s note to his friend Luculus is colorful: “I received your letter many months after it was sent. I was therefore forced to question the bearer of the letter in detail about your affairs...”

The testimonies of prominent people of Rome are puzzling: what was the post office doing that delivered letters so leisurely? Alas, her duties were not very honorable. It formed part of the police intelligence and punitive service.

Caesar's message

Like other rulers of antiquity, Emperor Augustus, the nephew of Julius Caesar, was cruel and treacherous. He was nineteen years old when the conspirators killed Julius Caesar. Hiding behind the name of his noble relative as a shield, Octavius (Augustus bore this name in his youth) called himself Caesar Octavian and boldly fought with his political rivals.

In this struggle, Octavian spared no expense. He even attracted fugitive slaves to his side, giving them forgiveness and freedom. This policy was not slow to bear fruit, and Octavian celebrated his first victories.

Only the marble of the walls heard the order that Octavian gave to his postmaster. But stones are silent, and government officials knew how to keep secrets. No one except the scribes knew the words written on the small wax-covered tablets. Each tablet was carefully wrapped in linen and sealed with a wax seal. On the linen envelope they marked the day when it was to be opened - the same day on all envelopes. The Roman post office had to fulfill the duties of a lever of state power. It was for such cases that she existed...

Roman soldiers sometimes drew their weapons, obeying the orders of the Caesars. These orders were carried throughout the country by veredarii - the fastest messengers of the Roman state.

Roman roads

The roads of the Roman state stretched over 76,000 kilometers. And what roads! They inspire admiration even today, almost two thousand years after they were built.

These roads were created at great cost, their stones are abundantly watered with blood. Tens of thousands of slaves died in this hellish construction. Roads were built wherever the Roman legions stopped. They surrounded a huge territory: modern England, all of Eastern Europe to the Rhine and the Danube, the Balkans, Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, North Africa from Tangier to Alexandria with Egypt. Rome ruled all these lands, and they had roads and a post office.

From different ends of the vast empire, all roads led to Rome (hence the famous saying). The roads converged at a majestic structure - a mile column installed in the middle of the forum at the foot of the Temple of Saturn. From here they rode to all ends of the state veredarii- the fastest couriers in Rome.

Mail delivery in the Roman Empire

From station to station (using the same system that Cyrus had hundreds of years before the Romans) the veredarii rushed, delivering Caesar's secret order. They were ahead of the passenger mail, whose horses carried urgent letters and passengers who received a “diplomat” - special permission for such a trip. They overtook the veredarii and heavy mail, carrying letters of ordinary urgency on oxen and mules.

The horsemen's path led to military camps. On the same day, Octavian's letters were opened in all camps. The order came into effect without delay. All the warriors from the runaway slaves (and there were about 30,000 of them), who already considered themselves free people, were captured and taken into custody.

Roman heavy mail.

The slaves were returned to their masters. Those who remained unclaimed were executed in the cities from which they fled. They executed them to intimidate them, so that no one would dare to undermine the foundations of the slave state.

But it is not in the power of man to stop the course of history. Even the rulers of Rome were unable to cope with this task. Another four centuries passed, and the Roman Empire perished.

Feudalism replaced the slave society. Humanity has entered the next stage of its history. Of course, this did not go without consequences for the post office. The first bricks of her great building had already been laid, and time, that tireless mason, continued its work.

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