Roman Mail System

• The Roman Mail System was called the Cursus Publicus.  It transported Mail, Officials and Taxes between Rome and the Provinces.
• The positions of Hotels and Stations along the Roman roads used by the Mail System are marked on a 4th century CE Michelin style Roman road map called the Peutinger Table.

Cursus Publicus

• The Mail system provided an infrastructure of Wayside Inns along all the Roman Roads called Mutationes (way stations) and Mansiones (Hotels), which were initially maintained by contractors.
• By the Late Empire, each Province paid for the Maintenance through taxation.
• The Inns also provided repair facilities and fresh horses, mules, donkeys and oxen, along with vehicles called ‘Clabulae’.

Peutinger Table (3rd-4th century CE)

• The map shows a Michelin style pictorial map of Roman Roads with distances between the major towns of the Roman Empire. It included the Middle East and India up to the Ganges.
• The map is a 13th century CE copy of a Roman Document dating from the third or fourth century CE.