Roman Imperial Post

[Kosmo]

Augustus had created a post service for the relay of important messages, magistrates, taxes etc.

How were the private letters and packages sent across the empire? Important people had their own messengers but this is clearly too expansive for the many letters that commoners send.

[Formosus Viriustus]

And where did you buy post stamps ?

 

No, seriously, this is a question that intrigues me very much. I remember having heard about a letter that had been found near the Northern Walls - that must have been the Vindolanda tablets, I guess - from a grandmother back home who sent her grandson some warm underwear accompanied by a note with good advice and best wishes such as grandmothers are so fond of sending. That was one of the things that convinced me that literacy levels must have been pretty high : I can hardly imagine that you would go to a professional scribe for such trivia. At best ask that kid next door 'who can write a bit'.

This also would mean that there must have been a rather large volume of private mail and something like a mail service. I have no idea however about how this might have worked. Only that it was probably just as adept at loosing packages as the modern mail services are.

 

 

Formosus

[sylla]

Augustus had created a post service for the relay of important messages, magistrates, taxes etc.

How were the private letters and packages sent across the empire? Important people had their own messengers but this is clearly too expansive for the many letters that commoners send.

Such couriers were called tabellarii, usually slaves or freedmen; if for any reason you were unable to use your own, you ought to pay the services of the tabellarii from the publicani, the private contractors that collected taxes and did other services for the government; Cicero recommended some of them to Atticus for answering his letters (Att 5.15.3). Sometimes the merchants were able to transport the mail too. Private men often have to share the cost of this service with their friends; essentially, you were on your own. With the advance of the Empire, the local administration of some prominent cities eventually hired their own municipal tabellarii.

Edited May 16, 2009 by sylla