scytale

noun

1. (historical)A cylinder with a strip of parchment wound around it on which a message is written, used for cryptography by the ancient Spartans.

   “But, being perſwaded that they would not hear any propoſal to that effect, he delivered each of them a ſcytale, or ſtaff on which the Lacedemonians wrote their ſecret letters, and with theſe diſpatch’d them home to the Ephori.”

   “This Perſian grandee reſolved, if poſſible, to humble the inſolence and haughtineſs of Lyſander, and for this purpoſe diſpatched ſome of his emiſſaries to Sparta, where they expoſed his ambitious views, charging him with an intention to render himſelf general for life, and independant of his conſtituents, and alleged ſuch probable reaſons for what they ſaid, that the ſenate and Ephori immediately diſpatched a ſcytale to recall him.”

   “This was what the Spartans called a ſcytale, a thong of leather or parchment, which they twiſted round a ſtaff in ſuch a manner, that there was no vacancy or void ſpace left upon it.”