femmenietzsche:

As Xerxes was doing all this, he also sent a courier to Persia to report his present misfortune. There is nothing that travels faster, and yet is mortal, than these couriers; the Persians invented this system, which works as follows. It is said that there are as many horses and men posted at intervals as there are days required for the entire journey, so that one horse and one man are assigned to each day. And neither snow nor rain nor heat nor dark of night keeps them from completing their appointed course as swiftly as possible.

Holy shit, the Post Office motto comes from Herodotus. Neoclassical America strikes again