| Polybius' Scytale | |
|---|---|
| |
|
Origin |
Polybius |
|
Type |
Wooden Cylinder and Leather Strip |
|
Effects |
Anagrammatic Solution Collater |
|
Downsides |
Results produced in period Latin |
|
Activation |
Contact with documents |
|
Collected by |
Warehouse 5 |
|
Section |
|
|
Aisle |
903481-2648 |
|
Shelf |
385955-6291-942 |
|
Date of Collection |
508 AD |
| [Source] | |
Origin[]
Historian Polybius recorded the Roman Empire's early growth in The Histories. Chronicled was their meddling in the Mediterranean, especially with their archrival Carthage. Polybius placed accuracy at the forefront of his writings, using only credible eyewitness sources he personally spoke with. Some of his ideas on consented of the governed eventually led to separation of powers under Montesquieu, and the Constitution under Jefferson.
Another of his contributions was a useful cipher where the alphabet was arranged in a grid. Each letter corresponded to a column-row combination, which could be used for quick coded communication. It was simple to learn the number pattern and easy to adapt for any situation. The scytale was an even earlier tool - a leather strip wrapped around a stick. Messages could only be read correctly if the letters aligned like the original, otherwise it was gibberish.
Effects[]
Allows a person to de-crypt re-arranged letters in any document into coherent words, however, the encrypted words are deciphered in Latin.