Palladius the Courier

I will try to explain how the emperor Theodosius received news of what was done in an incredibly short time, and how he was quickly informed of events taking place far away. He had the good fortune to have among his subjects a man of extraordinary energy of both body and mind, named Palladius. He rode so hard that he would reach the frontier between the Roman and Persian dominions in three days, and return to Constantinople in as many more. The same man traveled to other parts of the world on missions from the emperor with equal speed, so that an eloquent man once said, not unfittingly: “By his speed this man shows the vast expanse of the Roman Empire to be small.” The king of the Persians himself was astonished at the feats of speed that were reported to him about this courier. But we must be content with these details about him. [a]