Throughout the ages, many countries have had a long history of postal services.In the Persian Empire in the 6th century BC, the famous king Darius opened up a post road communication network extending in all directions with the capital Susa as the center.The post road is very spacious, and there are post stations along the way, and messengers are always ready to convey the king's orders to the provinces of the empire, and news from all over the country is continuously presented to the king through this communication network.From Susa to Sardis at the western end of Asia Minor, the whole journey is 3,000 kilometers.Through the day and night segmental delivery of the couriers at the post station, it only takes seven days for the message to arrive.It can be seen that its efficiency is high!Therefore, the ancient Greek historian Herodotus wrote down the effectiveness of the Persian post station at that time in the form of aphorism: "No matter how rainy or snowy, no matter how hot it is, no matter how dark the night is, the messengers must complete their tasks in the fastest way. Deliver the documents to the designated place." It is often said that "all roads lead to Rome", which means that the capital of ancient Rome had wide roads connecting all directions.In the history book of our country "The History of the Later Han Dynasty: Biography of the Western Regions", it was mentioned that the ancient Rome "listed post kiosks".There is "a pavilion for ten miles, and a house (that is, post) for thirty miles".When envoys from various countries enter its territory, they can directly take the post to reach its king's capital.According to statistics, in the 2nd century AD, there were 372 galloping roads in Rome, with a total length of 80,000 kilometers.These avenues are also post roads, which transmit information from various places to the city of Rome in a timely manner.

The most vivid story about the transmission of information in ancient times is the story of Marathon.In 490 BC, a powerful Persian army landed near Marathon in the northeast of Athens, Greece, and invaded Greece. Athens had only an army of 11,000 people, which withstood several times the enemy's attack.The Greek soldiers shared a common hatred against the enemy, coupled with the wise command of the commander-in-chief Miltiades, the Greek army achieved a brilliant victory.Because this thrilling battle was related to the life and death of the people of Athens and even the whole of Greece, when the battle was fierce, the Athenians automatically gathered in the central square of the city of Athens, eagerly waiting for the information from the marathon front.In order to let everyone hear the good news of the victory as soon as possible, the front-line commander Mitiya sent the fast-running expert Philipides to run back to Athens to report the news.At this time, Philippedes was already injured, but he accepted the task resolutely. When Philippedes appeared in front of the people of Athens covered in blood and exhausted, he shouted excitedly: " Rejoice, we are victorious!" He fell down and died (Herodotus "History").The story of this heroic messenger from ancient times has been told for more than 2,000 years and still thrills today.In order to commemorate him, people stipulated a marathon long-distance running competition in the Olympic Games, and set the distance from the battlefield to Athens as 42 kilometers and 195 meters as the length of the marathon.

In 500 BC, there was a "Pony Express" postal service in ancient Persia.This way of delivering letters is similar to the "horse delivery" in ancient my country.It uses a fine-bred fast horse and selects the most capable postmen to deliver military documents and letters at the fastest speed.After nearly 2,000 years, this kind of postal service was once again popular in eastern cities in the United States. The postmen of Pony Express traveled alone on the post road with live ammunition and guns.At that time, it took more than 20 days to send a letter from New York to San Francisco.

The communication methods of some countries in the ancient world mentioned above used both fast horses and fast pedestrians.The postal service in ancient my country has its own unique form. In ancient my country, the post office was called "post station".What is "post"?What is a "post"?According to the calligraphy book "Shuowen Jiezi" written by Xu Shen, a scholar in the Eastern Han Dynasty of our country, it is explained: "Post", the character shape Since the Zhou and Qin Dynasties, post offices have had different names.In the Zhou Dynasty, it was called "Chuan" or "Ri" [ri Ri], in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States it was called "Ju [ju Ju]" or "Post" and "Zhi".In the Qin Dynasty, it was called "post", in the Han Dynasty it was called "post", in the Wei and Jin Dynasties "post" and "post" were called together, and in Tang Dynasty, "post" was called "guan".In the Song Dynasty, a new name "Jidipu" appeared. In the Yuan Dynasty, it was also called "Zhanchi". In the Ming Dynasty, the stations in the Yuan Dynasty were collectively called "posts". one.Now it is customary to refer to the ancient postal service in my country as "post post" for short, or "post station" and "post post".