~400 BC -
EARLY GREEK SHORTHAND
Early forms of Greek shorthand begin appearing, allowing speeches and administrative material to be recorded more efficiently. Later scholars speculate whether followers of Socrates used such methods.
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~400 BC -
NETWORK PEAK, CLASSICAL GREEK ERA
The network reaches its ancient-era maximum. Active nodes span Egypt, Greece, Persia, and the Levant. An estimated 300 ducks are in rotation.
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~200 BC -
KOINE GREEK ADOPTED AS ADMINISTRATIVE STANDARD
Following the Hellenistic expansion, koine Greek becomes the administrative language of Egypt, Persia, and the Levant. For the first time, a message drafted in Alexandria requires no translation upon arrival in Antioch. The network operates in one language.
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~63 BC -
TIRONIAN SHORTHAND
Marcus Tullius Tiro, secretary to Cicero, formalizes the first systematic Latin shorthand. Transaction encoding across the Roman network drops to a single line per entry.
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~58 BC -
CAESAR CIPHER
Julius Caesar employs a simple substitution cipher in military correspondence, shifting letters to obscure meaning from unintended readers. The method is adopted across Roman nodes operating in active conflict zones. Encrypted transactions now require a shared key to decode.
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