compounded of ἡμέρα, day, and ὁδός, course, amongst the ancients, were sentinels or guards appointed for the security and preservation of cities and other places. They went out of the city every morning as soon as the gates were opened, and kept all day patrolling round the place; sometimes also making excursions into the country, to see that there were no enemies lying in wait to surprise them.

HEMERODROMI were also a sort of couriers amongst the ancients, who only travelled one day, and then delivered their packets or dispatches to a fresh man, who run his day, and so on to the end of the journey. The Greeks had couriers of this kind, whom they derived from the Persians, as appears from Herodotus. Augustus also established couriers, who, if they did not relieve each other from day to day, yet did it from space to space, and that space was not very great.