angaros

ἄγγαρος / noun / Ancient Greek

A mounted royal courier of the Persian Empire, one rider in a relay that carried the king’s messages across the land.

The relay

Along the royal roads stood stations, each a day’s ride apart, with a fresh horse and rider waiting. A message was handed from one angaros to the next, travelling day and night. The historian Herodotus wrote that neither snow, rain, heat nor darkness could keep them from finishing their stage.

Origin

Greek borrowed the word from an Iranian language, likely Old Persian. Its deeper roots are uncertain; some scholars link it to an older Mesopotamian term.

Later meanings

From it came the Greek verb angareuein, “to press into service,” to compel someone to carry a load or go a distance. The idea survives in English as angary, a term of international law for a state’s right to requisition neutral property in time of war.