CHRESTOS D.
LAZOS
In the present era, when telecommunications systems are undergoing unprecedented development, speaking about telecommunications in ancient Greece sounds quite strange—since, of course, the ancients did not know the telephone.
Or did they? Did they perhaps develop optical telecommunications and invent a primitive form of Morse system? Did they use mechanisms and instruments for communication? The answer is affirmative.
They were familiar with—and in fact used—many methods and techniques of telecommunications, some of which can be seen as precursors of modern communication systems. Readers will be struck by the inventiveness, immediacy, and efficiency of these systems.
From carrier pigeons and mounted messengers, the beacon towers (phryctoriae) of Agamemnon and the wider Greek beacon networks, they progressed to the invention of tachygraphy (stenography) and coded writing systems, as well as the development of fire-signalling (an early form of Morse code). From the mnemonic alphabet of Aeneas they advanced to the hydraulic telegraph, to Ctesibius’ signalling clock, and to the mysterious “self-operating clocks” of Leo the Mathematician in Byzantium.
This was a development that was violently interrupted and took 2,000 years to be rediscovered. The telecommunications of the ancient Greeks formed the foundation of today’s advances in the field and continue to inspire admiration.
