MA´NSIO
MA´NSIO (
σταθμός). When
the kings of Persia, and afterwards the Romans, constructed the great roads
through their empires, there naturally sprung up certain resting-places,
where travellers stayed for the night, or refreshed themselves. The term
σταθμός, which primarily meant a lonely
habitation for shepherds and their flocks, was applied by the Greeks to
these stations. Herodotus (
5.52) gives a full
account of the royal road which ran from Sardes to Susa (and from Sardes to
Ephesus,
id. 5.54). There were stations and
halting-places (
σταθμοὶ βασιλήϊοι κιὰ
καταλύσιες) all along it, 20 within the limits of Phrygia and
Lydia, a distance of 944 parasangs (about 320 English miles); in Cappadocia,
a distance of 104 parasangs, there were 28 stations; in Cilicia, a distance
of 15 1/2 parasangs, there were 3; in Armenia, in a space of 56 1/2
parasangs, there were 15, and so on, making 111
σταθμοὶ in all. The whole distance is estimated at 13,500
stades, so that the average number of stades in each stathmus was about 121,
or just 4 parasangs (less than 14 English miles). But as Herodotus (
loc. cit.) puts the average day's journey at 150
stades, it is evident that the stathmi were frequently a less distance apart
than a usual day's journey. As a matter of fact the day's journey varied in
different regions, for Herodotus, when discussing the extent of Scythia
(4.101), makes the day's journey amount to 200 stades. It is plain from
Herodotus (
loc. cit.) and Xenophon (
Xen. Anab. 1.2) that the stathmi were situated
at very irregular intervals. The term
σταθμὸς naturally came to be used of the distance or stage
between the halting-places. Hence Herodotus, to distinguish the
halting-places themselves, uses in one place the phrase
καταγωγαὶ σταθμῶν, in another
σταθμοὶ καταγωγέων. Xenophon, who employs
σταθμὸς as a measure of distance, finds
it necessary, on account of the varying distances between the
stopping-places, to specify the number of parasangs in every case. These
halting-places, which were naturally situated at fertile and well-watered
spots, would be more numerous in the more fertile regions: cf. Polyaenus
(
7.40,
1),
τῆς Περσίδος, ἔνθα κῶμαι πολλαὶ καὶ λεὼς
πολὺς καὶ σταθμοὶ πολλοί. There would be in those places
inns for the accommodation of travellers (
κατάλυμα,
πανδοκεῖον). As the great ancient roads of Asia still form
the main highways for caravans, there is every probability that the modern
Khan or
Caravanserai represents the
ancient
κατάλυμα. The
Khan
is usually a square building, enclosing a large open court, surrounded by
balconies with a series of doors, entering into plain unfurnished
apartments, and often with a fountain in the middle of the court. The Great
King seems sometimes to have settled conquered peoples in these stations;
for instance, Darius planted the captive Eretrians at Ardericca (
τῆς Κισσίης χωρῆς κατοίκισε ἐν σταθμῷ ἑωυτοῦ,
τῷ οὔνομά ἐστιν Ἀρδέρικκα,
Hdt. 6.119). Treatises, or handbooks to these
σταθμοί, were composed, one by Baeto
(Athenaeus,
10.442 b,
Βαίτων ὁ Ἀλεξάνδρου βηματιστὴς ἐν τῷ ἐπιγραφομένῳ
Σταθμοὶ τῆς Ἀλεξάνδρου πορείας), and another by
Amyntas, called simply
οἱ Σταθμοί (id.
ib.) or
Σταθμοί Περσικοί (id. 2.67 a),
or
οἱ τῆς Ἀσίας σταθμοὶ (id. 11.500
d). Arrian (
Arr. Anab. 1.2,
1) uses
σταθμὸς
as a definite measure of distance without any reference to parasangs or
stades (
ἀπέχει δὲ οὗτος ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἴστρου, ὡς
ἐπὶ τὸν Αἷμον ἰόντι σταθμοὺς τρεῖς). From this it
would appear that some average day's journey was taken as a
σταθμός. Herodotus (
8.98), speaking of the Persian couriers (
ἄγγαροι), tells us that the road was divided into portions,
corresponding to the distance that a man and horse could traverse in a day
(at a high rate of speed), and Xenophon (
Xen.
Cyrop. 8.6,
17) ascribes this
institution to Cyrus, who, having found out what distance a horse could do
in a (lay, divided the roads into corresponding stages, built stables
(
ἱππῶνες), placed couriers and horses,
and a man in charge at each station.
When Augustus organised the Roman empire, he established an Imperial Postal
System (
Suet. Aug. 49), which conveyed
despatches from station to station by means of couriers, who were called
under the Empire
Speculatores, corresponding to
the
tabellarii of the Republican period. (
Tac. Hist. 2.73;
Suet. Cal. 44; cf.
Liv. 31.24.) For
this purpose the stations (
stationes) were
divided into
mansiones and
mutationes. The former were places where travellers rested
for the night (cf. Hor.
Sat. 1.5, 9,
mansuri oppidulo, for this use of
manere), and where there were inns (
deversorium, caupona, hospitium, taberna), or stopped for
refreshment; there were often likewise houses (
palatia) for the accommodation of the provincial governors, or
the emperor himself, in case he passed that way. The
mutationes (cf. the late Greek
ἀλλαγαί were mere posting-houses for the changing of
horses. The word
mansio, from meaning a
stopping-place at the end of a day's journey, came to be used like
σταθμὸς as a measure of distance (
Suet. Tib. 10, “deinde ad primam statim
mansionem febrim nactus;”
Plin. Nat. 12.52, “a quo [
monte] octo mansionibus distat regio” ).
There were usually four or five
mutationes to
one
mansio. The
Itinerarium a Burdigala
Hierusalem usque, a guide-book composed about the time of
Constantine the Great, mentions in order the
mansiones from Bordeaux to Jerusalem, with the intervening
mutationes,
[p. 2.122]and the more considerable places near the road,
which are called either
civitates, vici, or
castella, and the distances are given in
leagues (
leugae) or miles (
milia). [Compare
CURSUS PUBLICUS]
[
W.RI]
