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Marcus Caelius

Lindsey Davis' "See Delphi and Die"

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I don't know whether I'm losing my taste for Falco, or that I'm just turned off by travel agencies existing in ancient Rome, but I was only able to get halfway through the second chapter of the book before putting it down.

 

So, did travel agencies exist in the ancient world?

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I don't know whether I'm losing my taste for Falco, or that I'm just turned off by travel agencies existing in ancient Rome, but I was only able to get halfway through the second chapter of the book before putting it down.

 

So, did travel agencies exist in the ancient world?

 

I'm pretty sure that there was some form of travel agents in ancient Rome, there will have been kind of merchant who specialized in arranging travel to different parts of the empire and he would of course charge a fee for this service, so I suppose you could call him a travel agent.

 

There were shipping associations that had offices in all the major ports of the Empire and you could arrange travel with these, they could even arrange to have your money changed/transferred when you arrived at your destination, to save you the risk of carrying all your money with you on what was probably a long and risky journey.

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Indeed traval agents did exist as did organized tours for rich peoples. One frequent destination for rich romans was Ilion, aka Troy, and the city in the roman time seems to have derived it's prosperity in no small part from tourism. Also we have kept the oldest travel guide known in the work of Pausanias, which is truly the ancient version of the "Guide Michelin" or any such guide

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So, did travel agencies exist in the ancient world?

 

Yes. Sometimes affiliated with shipping interests or merchants, sometimes affiliated with commercially-minded cities, travelers could book passage about freighters (there were no passenger ships) and buy traveler's cheques. Exchangable for local currency at participating affiliates throughout the Empire, every traveller knew the importance of traveler's cheques. In an age of piracy, banditry, and uncertain exchange rates, you wouldn't want to leave home without them!

 

For more on the joys of ancient travel, see Philip Matyszak's fun book, Ancient Rome on Five Denarii a Day.

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I don't know whether I'm losing my taste for Falco, or that I'm just turned off by travel agencies existing in ancient Rome, but I was only able to get halfway through the second chapter of the book before putting it down.

 

So, did travel agencies exist in the ancient world?

Salve, MC! Don't be lazy; finish the book and then comment it to us.

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The Romans were the first people to have made use of things we could describe as passports as well. Although these would have been a collection of papers rather than anything resembling a modern passport booklet.

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