Roman Ciphers

[GhostOfClayton]

I was listening to a programme on Radio 4 recently. It's called The Infinite Monkey Cage, and takes a light-hearted look at weighty scientific matters. It stars Professor Brian 'all the men want to be him, all the girls want to be with him' Cox, and a very talented comedian called Robin Ince. I can heartily recommend it, though any historical content is purely incidental to the main scientific themes, so my recomendation on this forum may constitute 'off topic'. Too late! It can be listened to as a podcast through iTunes, or via the previous link.

 

The recent episode was on the subject of Codes and Ciphers, and an expert made a passing comment, "The ancient Romans used ciphers."

 

Sounds very interesting. Anyone have any evidence of the use of ciphers used in ancient Rome?

[Melvadius]

There are quite a few of the Vindolanda Tablets which include shorthand marks which could be considered a form of cipher however the Lacus Curtius site has a good article on Nota, from that mine of useful information, William Smith' 1875 work Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. This starts:

 

NOTA, which signified a mark or sign of any kind, was also employed for an abbreviation. Hence notae signified the marks or signs used in taking down the words of a speaker, and was equivalent to our short-hand writing, or stenography; and notarii signified short-hand writers. It must be borne in mind, however, that notae also signified writing in cipher; and many passages in the ancient reciters which are supposed to refer to short-hand, refer in reality to writing in cipher. Thus both Julius Caesar and Augustus wrote many of their letters in cipher (per notas, Suet. Jul. 56, Suet. Aug. 88; comp. Gell. XVII.9). ...

[Onasander]

Clandestine communications.... Aeneus the Tactician devoted time to the earliest methods the Romans would of known of.

 

Also, Frontinius' Stratagemata dealt with cryptic-symbolism, mostly in gestures, to pass information.

 

Also remember a simple cypher wasnt enough, the Romans grew wise to hannibals misinformation plants, leading the romans to carefully examine not just the message, but the conditions the information had been come across. They became very discriminating and skeptical regarding the possibility of captured intelligence being misinformation. Hannibal apparently enjoyed a good mind game. Its hard to discern when a orthodox or unorthodox strategy is being employed.

[Metella]

I read somewhere about a general who used cyphers with scrolls .... but I can't remember the details of how it was symbolized .....    argh .... good topic, I'd love to hear more. 

 

I know, of course, they had nightly passwords for camp guards ... but written instructions were used to communicate long distance, and I wish I could remember the example I read.