Skytales
The word skytale is also spelled as scytale (pronounced as skee-ta-lee or shi-ta-le) and is indeed the earliest known cipher to this date. This cipher is actually a specific, classical, transposition cipher. In classical cryptography, a transposition cipher is a cipher that encodes a message by re-arranging the position of letters to “hide” a message. A skytale consisted of a pair of identical, wooden cylinders and narrow strips of parchment, papyrus, or leather. The sender of the message would have one cylinder, and the receiver of the message would have the other cylinder. The sender would wrap the long, narrow strip of parchment, papyrus, or leather around the cylinder and would write his or her message down on the length of the strip of material. The sender would write one letter on a separate section, and when the sender needed to start another line, he or she would slightly rotate the cylinder and start writing another line. Then, when the sender was done writing the message, the sender would unravel the strip of material and give it to the messenger. Sometimes, when leather was used as the medium for the message, the messenger would wear it as a belt, to further help conceal the message from enemies. An example of what a skytale looks like is located below.
At first, the picture above may seem like a bunch of letters on cylinders, but there is a message on the skytale. Do you know what it says? (Answer: “Do you want to play baseball at recess?”)
The Spartans invented and used skytales during the fifth century B.C. Evidence of these ciphers is found in Greek writings and poems. The Greek poet Achiloqus, who lived during the seventh century, wrote about skytales in his poetry. Skytales were normally used during battles and times of war. Commanders needed a simple, yet precise way of delivering messages to command posts, without the enemy being able to read the encrypted message. In order for the receiver of the message to be able to read the encrypted message correctly, the receiver needed a wooden cylinder that was the exact same size and diameter as the one that the sender used to make the message. After the messenger had delivered the message to the correct receiver, the receiver would wrap the material around the skytale to read the message. Since reading and writing was not prevalent during this time period, skytales served as a very secure method of transporting information from one place to another. Skytales became less and less practical as more people were able to read and write.
Lastly, what is the importance of skytales in cryptography? Once again, skytales are the earliest known ciphers to this date. Skytales are a simple mechanism that allows two parties to be able to read encrypted, transposed text with the use of a key, which is the baton or wooden cylinder. Skytales have provided an easy way of transferring important, encrypted data from one place to another, without much work. Because of the intellect of the Spartans, skytales have provided people with games, ideas, and tools for transforming and sending information and data.
Works Cited
“A Greek Skytale.” 9 Sept. 2004 <http://www.ryanannhunter.com/p.greekspy.html>.
Baker, Amy. “Scytale.” 9 Sept. 2004 <http://educ.queensu.ca/~fmc/may2004/scytale.html>.
Dupuis, Clement. “A Short History of Crypto.” April 1999. 9 Sept. 2004 <http://webhome.idirect.com/~jproc/crypto/crypto_hist.html>.
"Scytale." 6 Sept. 2004. Wikipedia Encyclopedia. 9 Sept. 2004 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scytale>.
“Skytales” 9 Sept. 2004. <http://library.thinkquest.org/28005/flashed/timemachine/courseofhistory/skytale.shtml>.
“Timeline BC.” Report Cryptography. 9 Sept. 2004 <http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611776/100438659084/?ic=100446325217>.