It cannot be supposed that a passage on govern- ment vessels was allowed to every one, any more than that the Imperial postal service by land was open to every one. In the latter case it is known that no one could use the Imperial service without a diploma signed by the Emperor (who made a rule of entrusting a certain number of diplomata to governors of provinces, which the governors gave to persons travelling on public service, and to some others in exceptional circumstances).| But, natur- ally, officers on government service, like the cen- turion in Ae 279°", took advantage of an Imperial corn ship with full authority; and it is evident from the language of Ac 27" that in such a case the centurion was in supreme command of the vessel as the highest officer of the Imperial service on board, and, after consulting with the sailing- master and the captain and with any other per- sons whom he chose, settled how far the ship was to go and when it was to be laid up for the winter (St. Paul the Traveller, p. 324).
As regards the time which news from Rome took to reach Egypt, a much exaggerated idea of the speed of communication has been propagated by Friedlander (Sittengeschichte Roms, il. p. 31), _and has been incautiously quoted from him as the foundation of their argument by many modern scholars.t This distinguished scholar infers from Pliny and Diodorus that ships frequently sailed from the Sea of Azoff to Alexandria in fourteen days, and from Rhodes to Alexandria in four ; and that on a fortunate voyage a ship could reach Marseilles in twenty days from Alexandria, and Alexandria in seven days from Utica or in nine days from Puteoli (Pliny, Nat. Hist, xix.1; Diodor. iii. 34: see also below, § vi.).
These, if correctly recorded, must have been quite exceptional voyages, and cannot be used as examples of ordinary life. f
But when Agrippa sailed from Puteoli, as above
* This must have been common, for the lofty Cretan moun- tains are visible far out at sea; probably it_may have been the usual intention to get bearings by sighting Crete. :
+ Pliny apologized to Trajan for permitting his own wife to use the public service with a diploma in a case of pressing haste.
+ So, for example, von Rohden in Pauly-Wissowa (Realencycl. i. 2, p. 2621), and against him Wilcken (Griech. Ostraka, i. p. 799).
described, in A.D. 38 (probably in July, possibly as early as June),* he reached Alexandria in a few days (éNyas torepov nuépars, Philo, i Flac. 5), betore any news of his elevation had reached the East. This seems to imply a very short voyage ; but Philo is of course speaking comparatively, and we need not suppose that he means less than ten days, but rather even a little more than ten, Still this seems to be a case in which the time from Rome to Alexandria can hardly have exceeded twenty days. With this as a standard, it must be inferred that in the open season it would be a tedious and unfortunate voyage which failed to bring passengers and news from Rome to Alex- andria under twenty-five days.
The speed with which the news of a grave Im- perial event like the death or accession of an Emperor reached the provinces would be the test of extremest ordinary speed. There can be no doubt both that such news would be carried by quick special messengers faster than ordinary travellers would go, and that the State messengers would travel at a fairly uniform speed (except so far as winds or storms favoured or prevented them). Yet the statistics collected by Wilcken (Griech. Ostraka, i. p. 799 ff.) vary in a very perplexing way. But this variation is more in appearance than in reality. Setting aside mere examples of the ignorance in small villages or remote towns of events at Rome,*+ we find that probably sixty to sixty-five days was an ordinary period for news of such great events to penetrate from Rome to Egypt. A good example is afforded at the accession of Pertinax (1 Jan. A.D. 193): the prefect of Egypt issued at Alexandria instructions with regard to the cele- bration of that important event (éml rp evruxerrary Baorr(e)ia).t It cannot be supposed that any time was lost in such acase. The instructions are dated 6 March, and the news is not likely to have been then more than a day old. At that season, there- fore, in the slowest and most difficult time for travelling, the news travelled from Rome to Alex- andria in sixty-four days. The route by which messages of this kind were transmitted will be considered hereafter : see below, §§ ix. xii.
But, on the other hand, there are cases of much more rapid transmission ; as, for example, the ac- cession of Galba was known officially in Alexandria within twenty-seven days.§ This speed, however, was due to the fact that Galba was proclaimed on 9 June, and at that season news would come by the direct sea route from Puteoli to Egypt, whereas the clearest examples of news of such events tak- ing about sixty days to arrive in Egypt belong to the winter or spring. We have seen that the direct sea route to Alexandria was hardly ventured upon except between 27 May and 15 September.