Apart from the immense stimulus which was given to trade and commerce by
the pacification of the world, liberal curiosity, or restless ennui, or
the passion to preach and propagate ideas, carried immense numbers to the
most distant lands.(1165) The travelling sophist found his way to towns on
the edge of the Scythian steppes, to the home of the Brahmans, or to the
depths of the Soudan.(1166) The tour up the Nile was part of a liberal
culture in the days of Lucian as it was in the days of Herodotus. The
romantic charm of travel in Greece was probably heightened for many by the
tales of Thessalian brigands and sorceresses which meet us in the novel of
Apuleius. The Emperor Hadrian, who visited almost every interesting scene
in his dominions, from the Solway to the Euphrates, often trudging for
days at the head of his soldiers, is a true representative of the
migratory tastes of his time. Seneca, indeed, finds in this rage for
change of scene only a symptom of the universal unrest. Epictetus, on the
other hand, and Aristides expatiate with rapture on the universal security
and wellbeing, due to the disappearance of brigandage, piracy, and war.
The seas are alive with merchantmen; deserts have become populous scenes
of industry; the great roads are carried over the broadest rivers and the
most defiant mountain barriers. The earth has become the common possession
of all. Nor is this mere rhetoric. Travelling to all parts of the known
world had become expeditious, and even luxurious. From the Second Punic
War, traders, couriers, and travellers had moved freely along the great
roads.(1167) The government post, which was first organised by Augustus on
the model of the Persian, provided at regular intervals the means of
conveyance for officials, or for those furnished with the requisite
diploma. Private enterprise had also organised facilities of travel, and
at the gates of country towns such as Pompeii, Praeneste, or Tibur, there
were stations of the posting corporations (the _cisiarii_ or _jumentarii_)
where carriages could be hired, with change of horses at each stage.(1168)
The speed with which great distances were traversed in those days is at
first sight rather startling. Caesar once travelled 100 miles a day in a
journey from Rome to the Rhone.(1169) The freedman Icelus in seven days
carried the news of Nero’s death to Galba in Spain,(1170) the journey of
332 miles from Tarraco to Clunia having been made at the rate of nearly
ten miles an hour. This of course was express speed. The ordinary rate of
travelling is probably better represented by the leisurely journey of
Horace and Maecenas to Brundisium, or that of Martial’s book from Tarraco
to Bilbilis.(1171) About 130 miles a day was the average distance
accomplished by sea. Vessels put out from Ostia or Puteoli for every port
in the Mediterranean. From Puteoli to Corinth was a voyage of five days.
About the same time was needed to reach Tarraco from Ostia. A ship might