This is a section of a 13th-century copy of an Ancient Roman map from about 400 CE. Called the _Tabula Peutingeriana_, it depicts the intricate system of roads and passages that made up the official courier service connecting the Empire. This infrastructure was known as the _Cursus Publicus_, and lasted for centuries as the primary way of getting messages across the hundreds of miles that the Empire stretched. Local people paid for the upkeep of the Cursus Publicus, which included a staff of veterinarians, animal-groomers, and wagon-wrights, and thousands of way-stations. But it wasn’t an all-inclusive service: to get a message sent, you had to hire your own courier.
