Roman imperial couriers took weeks to deliver messages that now transmit instantly

Evidence

Historians calculated that for an average trip, the relay teams travelled about fifty miles a day (estimates range anywhere between 38 to 62 mph) – though in emergencies the riders could cover more than a hundred miles a day. To put this into context, a message that Augustus’s grandson, Gaius Caesar, had died in Limyra (now southern Turkey) is estimated to have made it to Pisa, central Italy, in about thirty-six days (covering 1,300 miles by land). But even at a much faster pace, it would have taken at least two weeks to deliver a notification by land. Can you imagine waiting for two weeks to hear about an emergency? On WhatsApp, it took less than a second for people to be notified of alarming news about local kidnappers. — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 329

Categorization

• CANDY: A fun elevator conversation piece: Augustus’s courier network ran roughly fifty miles a day; emergency news travelled at a hundred. Two weeks for what takes under a second now.