TELECOMMUNICATIONS OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS

In today’s era, when telecommunication systems are in the process of an unprecedented evolution, talking about telecommunications in ancient Greece sounds very strange… since of course the ancients did not know of the telephone. Or did they? Had they developed optical telecommunications and invented a primitive Morse code system? Were they using telecommunication mechanisms and instruments? The answer is yes. They knew many ways and methods of telecommunication, some of which are the predecessors of today’s telecommunication systems. The reader will be amazed by the ingenuity, immediacy and capability of these systems. From carrier pigeons and mounted messengers, the phryctoriae of Agamemnon and the phryctoriae systems of the Greek regions, ancient Greeks proceeded to the invention of tachygraphy (shorthand) and codeography, and the development of pyrseia (the first Morse code system). From the mnemonic alphabet of Aeneas they moved on to the hydraulic telegraph, the anaphoric clock of Ctesibius and the mysterious synchronized clocks of Leo the Mathematician in Byzantium. It was an evolution that was violently drawn to a halt and it took 2,000 years to resume. The telecommunications of the ancient Greeks formed the basis of today’s development in this field and a source of admiration.