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Homer, whose divine works so minutely portray the various manners and occupations of his age and country, occasionally mentions messengers or letter-carriers (the Greek term is commonly rendered either), but without affording any description which may enable us to come to a distinct conclusion as to their office or qualifications. When we reflect, however, upon the extensive commerce of Greece, the connexion and frequent communication between the several states, and more especially the frequent necessity of conveying military intelligence, we can scarcely doubt the existence of some establishment for those purposes, although the exact mode does not appear in any any author extant.

The progress of post communication in the Roman empire does not appear to have kept pace with other institutions which distinguished, in her territorial and moral growth, the advancement of the mighty mistress of the world to that splendid height from which she was doomed to fall. In the History of the Republic, we find the statores employed under special regulations, and stationes established, forming a sort of military post applicable to the service of the state, and affording occasional means of correspondence to the patrician class at least—a further instance in favour of our position as to the origin of posts in general. From Suetonius we learn that the Emperor Augustus gave to this