Free Academy. Secret Communication in Ancient Greece and Rome
Starting date: April 9, 2025
Key Points
- 4 lesson of 45 mins duration + final questions/talking
- Professional teaching stuff: Final survey for check your training level
- You will have Access to On Demand course lessons Recordings
- Final certificate of participation for participants who will attend all lessons
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Course Description
Communication security may seem like something modern. However, nothing is further from the truth as we well see in this academy. We will explore ways of hiding secrets used from the time of the Trojan War, via the Spartans, Aenas Tacticus, and Julius Caesar to late antiquity. We will also look at how methods for secret communication from ancient times formed the basis for modern security systems. Please joins us in exploring the world of secret messaging, spying, and codes in Greece and Rome!
Lesson 1 - The first writing systems in the world
April 9th, 2025
Lesson 2 - Ancient Greeks Secret Writings
April 16th, 2025
In this lecture, we will look in more detail at secret writings used by the Greeks. We shall look into methods used by the Spartans and by the military writer Aeneas Tacticus. What methods did they use? And how were these used? We will see that Aeneas and the Spartans were masters in hiding their secrets from the enemy.
Lesson 3 - Ancient Romans Secret Writings
April 23rd, 2025
In this lecture, we will focus in more detail on Romen examples. We shall look at secret writings used by Caesar, Augustus, Ovid and Pliny. Caesar and Augustus used the ‘Caesar cipher’ in correspondence during wars, while Ovid and Pliny used invisible ink in love letters. How did the Caesar cipher work? And how was invisible ink used? We will see that the Romans partly adopted the techniques of the Greeks, but that they also came up with their own methods to hide their secrets from outsiders.
Lesson 4 - Methods from antiquity still used in modern secret writings
April 30th, 2025
In this lecture, we will look at how methods from antiquity have developed and are still used in modern secret writings. We will look again at the Caesar cipher and the Spartan system, but also at Polybius and the Enigma machine. How have secret writings developed over time? What can we learn from the Greeks and Romans in this regard? We will see that secret writings used in Greece and Rome formed the basis for methods that are still used today.
Tutor: Dr. Martine Diepenbroek
Dr. Martine Diepenbroek is a Dutch classicist and historian of antiquity, working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Johannesburg. She specializes in communications security and secret messaging in the ancient world and has published several articles and a book. As a historian, she also has extensive knowledge of Greek, Roman, Mesopotamian and Egyptian history, archaeology and culture.
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