A system of Persian dispatch riders was established by the Persian king Cyrus (ruled from 550 to 530 B.C.E.) who posted stations every fifteen miles or so along the road from Susa to Sardis. This System provided the fastest means of long distance communication in antiquity, greatly admired by the Greeks. Herodotus wrote:

There is no mortal man who can accomplish a journey faster than these Persian messengers. The idea was invented by The Persians.For it is reported that as many days as there are for the entire trip, so many are the horses and men posted, a horse and a man for each day's journey. Not snow, not rain, not heat, not night, hinder these men from covering the stage assigned to them as quickly as possible. The first rider passes the dispatch to the second; the second to the third...