“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”
Remember that phrase that everyone thinks is the motto or slogan of the United States Postal Service? It actually describes an ancient Persian system of mounted couriers used to speed messages throughout their vast empire. Yes, the Persians made use of a highly efficient relay-style delivery system more than two millennia before the Pony Express appeared in the American Old West.
Treasures of Dodrazeb: The Origin Key is an historical sword-and-science fantasy adventure. Click here to read an excerpt.
An invading Persian warrior becomes obsessed with Dodrazeb, a strange isolated kingdom that possesses incredible technology, including methods for communicating over vast distances that are familiar in modern times. Ancient Dodrazeb’s puzzling choice to hide from the world pulls him deeper into layers of mysteries as its sly princess does everything she can to expel the invaders. What are the Dodrazebbians so desperate to keep hidden?
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Even though it set speed records for mail delivery and became a well-loved and thoroughly romanticized piece of historical lore, the Pony Express was only in operation for 19 months. In that brief time, it failed to secure a lucrative government mail contract and never turned a profit. Between hostile Native Americans and the completion of the transcontinental telegraph system, the Pony Express was driven out of business and became obsolete in October of 1861.
So, just how did that famous phrase come to be associated with the U.S. Postal Service? The unofficial motto is inscribed in granite over the entrance of the James A. Farley building at Eighth Avenue and 33rd Street in New York City, right in the middle of Manhattan. Back in the early twentieth century, the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White was chosen to design the New York General Post Office building. Construction began in 1912 and it was opened to the public in 1914. The building was doubled in size in 1934 and its name was changed to honor Postmaster General James A. Farley.
William Mitchell Kendall was one of the architects. Kendall, who frequently read classic Greek literature for pleasure, had grown up in a wealthy household with a father who was a scholar of the classics. He selected a passage (translated by Professor George Herbert Palmer of Harvard University) from book 8, paragraph 98, of The Persian Wars by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus (c 484–c 425 BCE). The Post Office Department agreed that Kendall’s slight modification of the original translation was suitable for the building, and approved it.
Herodotus: “It is said that as many days as there are in the whole journey, so many are the men and horses that stand along the road, each horse and man at the interval of a day’s journey; and these are stayed neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed.”
“The method of carrying messages Herodotus describes was a Persian invention and enabled the messengers to travel swiftly. In this fashion King Xerxes sent a message home to Persia that the Greeks had destroyed his fleet off Salamis in 480 BCE.”—George Stimpson, A Book About a Thousand Things.
So, that famous, unofficial motto carved in stone on a famous building in New York City describes ancient Persian couriers. Think about that the next time your mail is delayed due to inclement weather.
Sources
https://uspsblog.com/how-is-new-york-city-related-to-famous-postal-quote/
http://www.bartleby.com/73/1439.html
https://www.infoplease.com/askeds/post-office-motto
https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/mission-motto.pdf
http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-pony-express
Thief. Pauper. Magic addict. Alexander Asherton, Ash to his friends, has reached the low point of his life. A once promising future with the Church of England has given way to a clandestine organization which tracks and collects magical items. They provide the elixirs that keep Ash alive, and in exchange he uses the power the elixirs grant to ‘acquire’ what they desire. If he succeeds, he lives. If he fails, he dies. The arrangement is simple enough… until his latest assignment becomes personal: recover an item in the possession of his former wife, Aimee. Ash’s world becomes even darker and stranger as he is drawn into a past he had hoped to leave behind.
Love. Betrayal. Revenge. Problems are growing worse for Ash. To save Sheela, the woman he loves, he had no choice but to betray her greatest secret. As a result, she was taken prisoner by Duke Schaever, the man who controls the flow of magic into the English Empire. Although Ash has tried to rescue Sheela, failure after failure has made him desperate enough to accept a new mission from his employers that will strike Duke Schaever at the most personal of levels – by kidnapping Lady Elizabeth Stewart, the Duke’s betrothed. It is an assignment fraught with danger, and as Ash moves closer to his goal, he is pulled deeper into the Duke’s world – a place that reveals the abominations of magic and science, that gives rise to new enemies, and where Ash learns exactly what motivates the Duke. The discoveries test friendships, love, and loyalties, even as it forces Ash to question what it means to live. And what it means to die.
My novel 
When Plato wrote about a utopian island kingdom as an allegorical tale, he had no idea that our modern pop culture would become riddled with references to the “lost continent of Atlantis” thousands of years later. The idea that Atlantis might have been a real place that collapsed into the sea at the height of its power and influence has captured the modern imagination—and kept it in a chokehold for generations.
Another legendary city known for its lavish architecture and utopian lifestyle is Dwarka, translated as “Gateway to Heaven” in Sanskrit. According to the ancient Hindu Mahabharata texts, Dwarka was founded by Krishna, the blue Hindu god of compassion, tenderness, and love. The city is described as having 900,000 royal palaces, all made of crystal and silver and decorated with emeralds. It featured an elaborate system of boulevards, roads, market places, assembly houses, and temples. The ancient texts describe how the evil King Salva declared war and attacked Dwarka with a flying machine using lightning-like energy weapons. Lord Krishna counterattacked, firing his weapons described as arrows “roaring like thunder and shining like the rays of the sun.” Their devastating battle left most of the city in ruins.
Until recently the very existence of Dwarka was thought by many to be merely legend. In 2001 the Indian government recovered materials from an underwater archaeological site in the Gulf of Khambhat. Pottery, sections of walls, beads, sculpture, and human bones and teeth from the site were carbon dated and found to be nearly 9,500 years old. Marine archaeologists have mapped sandstone walls, street grids, and remains of a busy and important seaport at 70 feet under water.
What has been investigated so far corresponds closely to descriptions of Dwarka in the Mahabharata. Many semicircular, rectangular, and square stone structures, as well as stone anchors have been documented, indicating a thriving overseas trade coming through this port city on the west coast of India. Scientists believe the area was submerged as ice caps melted at the end of the last ice age nine to ten thousand years ago.
Explorations of the Dwarka site are challenging long-held scientific beliefs. For instance, mainstream science holds that ancient Indian culture goes back some four to five thousand years. Yet these ruins are at least nine thousand years old, dating back to a time when the area submerged under water. The city must have existed before the flooding by centuries—if not by millennia—for it to have grown and expanded to become the bustling seaport that it became.
Now that these remains have been discovered under water, there is evidence that the legendary Dwarka did exist. It was a real city populated with living citizens suggesting that Indian civilization may be twice as old as scientists have believed. Whether or not it was also the dwelling place of lord Krishna and his aerial battle with king Salva was an historical occurrence is still a matter of some debate.
In my sword-and-science fantasy novel The Origin Key, a third-century Persian prince discovers an incredibly ancient society with surprisingly modern science and technology. The prince is not amused when he is told that the revered Persian ruler Cyrus the Great created the Persian Empire with help and advice from Dodrazeb. In the story, Dodrazeb is a fictional kingdom that originated virtually every scientific advancement known to 21st century mankind—plus some still unknown to us.
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S.D. McPhail 