The Athenian defeat at the close of…

The Athenian defeat at the close of the Peloponnesian War in 404 marks the emergence of Sparta as the most powerful state in Greece.

The Spartans employ a system of secret writing, the “scytale,” a cylindrical rod around which the sender wraps a length of parchment or papyrus in a spiral.

Words are then written lengthwise along the rod, one letter on each revolution of the strip.

Once unrolled, the strip displays nothing but a succession of meaningless letters; to be read, the strip must be wrapped around a rod of exactly the same diameter as the first.