Espionage in the Ancient World
as a Teaching Tool

Rose Mary Sheldon

Virginia Military Institute

I am proposing a presentation on using intelligence history as a means to achieve a cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary appeal for Classics. Since espionage has been dubbed “The World’s Second Oldest Profession,” there is no time period in which intelligence history cannot be used.  In recent years, a number of books and articles have appeared that make it easier for high school and college teachers to access the relevant material easy. Austin and Rankov’s Exploratio, and Sheldon’s, Intelligence Activities in Ancient Rome are just two examples.

Intelligence activities include a wide range of activities and technologies that can appeal to undergraduates. Code-breaking can be the preserve of the math major or the palaeographer. A chemistry major might very well investigate biological warfare (using the new book out by Adrienne Mayor). The internal structure of the Roman army can be examined to see who was used to carry intelligence, and the bureaucratic structure of the late empire shows which civilian institutions were part of the Roman intelligence apparatus. Literary texts tell us about spies and tradecraft, as do inscriptions and architectural artifacts (the castra peregrinorum in Rome, for example). Work by David Woolliscroft on Roman signalling attracts engineers who can build the machines the Romans used to send messages along frontiers, as well as construct the various encoding devices described by Aeneas Tacticus. Information traveled along the cursus publicus which brings in a discussion of Roman road-building, traveling conditions, and the public financing of Roman communications. The role of intelligence in forming Roman grand strategy pulls in political science majors, just as Roman internal security is a natural for criminal justice majors and pre-law students.

In short, my experience in teaching “Espionage in the Ancient World” has shown that the topic of intelligence can be used to achieve a multi-disciplinary treatment of ancient societies. It can be adopted as a stand alone course, or introduced as a unit within another course on the ancient world.