But the most revolutionary reordering was neither hewn from stone nor enforced by the sword. It was this: Mail. The daily post. Before the Romans came, the Israelite in Bethlehem or the Syrian in Palmyra lived out his days dissevered from, and in fact in ignorance of, the wider world. His universe ended at the town gate or the communal well. Could he trade? Study? Venture abroad? How, when he could know no more of the world than he could see from his doorstep or make plans for the morrow no farther than the distance he could tramp today? Rome brought the mail, and the mail brought the world.
