a messenger or regulated courier, appointed to carry with
expedition the despatches of princes, or the letters of private persons
in general, Job ix, 25; Jer. li, 31; 2 Chron. xxx, 6; Esther iii, 13,
&c. It is thought that the use of posts is derived from the Persians.
Diodorus Siculus observes, that the kings of Persia, in order to have
intelligence of what was passed through all the provinces of their vast
dominions, placed centinels at eminences, at convenient distances, where
towers were built. These centinels 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 practised, 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 on 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. In the judgment of many they went faster
than cranes could fly. Herodotus owns, that nothing swifter was known
for a journey by land. Xerxes, in his famous expedition against Greece,
planted posts from the Ægean Sea to Shushan, or Susa, to send notice
thither of what might happen to his army; he placed these messengers
from station to station, to convey his packets, at such distances from
each other as a horse might easily travel.
expedition the despatches of princes, or the letters of private persons
in general, Job ix, 25; Jer. li, 31; 2 Chron. xxx, 6; Esther iii, 13,
&c. It is thought that the use of posts is derived from the Persians.
Diodorus Siculus observes, that the kings of Persia, in order to have
intelligence of what was passed through all the provinces of their vast
dominions, placed centinels at eminences, at convenient distances, where
towers were built. These centinels 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 practised, 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 on 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. In the judgment of many they went faster
than cranes could fly. Herodotus owns, that nothing swifter was known
for a journey by land. Xerxes, in his famous expedition against Greece,
planted posts from the Ægean Sea to Shushan, or Susa, to send notice
thither of what might happen to his army; he placed these messengers
from station to station, to convey his packets, at such distances from
each other as a horse might easily travel.