Ancient world espionage

Cryptologia, Apr 2003 by Kruh, Louis

ANCIENT WORLD ESPIONAGE

Shelton, Rose Mary. Espionage in the Ancient World: An Annotated Bibliography of Book and Articles in Western Languages. McFarland & Company, Publishers, Box 611, Jefferson NC 28640 USA. 2003. 232 pp. $45.00.

The first comprehensive guide to the literature of ancient intelligence in one handy volume. The entries present books and periodical articles in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish and Dutch with annotations in English. These works address such subjects as intelligence collection and analysis (political and military), counterespionage, espionage, cryptology (Greek and Latin), tradecraft, covert action, and similar topics.

As a professor of history at Virginia Military Institute, Shelton is well qualified to prepare this bibliography. It is also noteworthy to point out that her sources include the W. F. Friedman Collection at the George C. Marshall Foundation and the C. A. Mendelsohn Collection at the University of Pennsylvania. Where appropriate she notes which volumes are held by the Friedman collection.

There are probably more than 150 cipher entries of various types. The Index has multiple entries for Codes and ciphers, Bacon ciphers, the Dubthach cipher and the Bamberg cryptogram, Voynich Manuscript, Sator Rebus (one of the oldest unsolved word square in the world), secret writing, and many others. Author entries include W. F. Friedman, D. Kahn, Andre Lange, John H. Hasswell, and many more. This is a worthwhile book to have in your personal library.

Louis Kruh

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