. . .i>, and with another of a smaller size and with still higher wheels called cisium, became the chief and most rapid vehicles upon the public roads, whether in Italy itself, or along the military roads already made into France, Spain, or Germany. Despatches and letters were conveyed with speed and punctuality to the more distant parts of the Roman Empire. The historian Suetonius mentions that the Emperor Augustus established on the military roads active young men at first, and afterwards carriages, to convey his despatches to the governors of the provinces. Besides these rapid conveyances along the public roads, there was the rheda, a slow sort of waggon drawn by six or eight mules. Buildings were erected along the main road where these different carriages could be hired. Cicero declares that a message was sent fifty-six miles in a cisium in ten hours. On a monumental column at Ingel, near Treves, is the representation of two persons riding in a cisium with one horse. Th. . . Read More