The Greek alphabet’s roots are in Lebanon where the Phoenicians invented a set of symbols that was borrowed by the Greeks in the 8th century BCE. The Greeks then developed it into the alphabet (the name itself comes from “alpha” and “beta”, the first two characters in it) which would later be the basis for Latin and, through it, the alphabet used today by English, French, German, Spanish and many other languages. This was due to the simplicity which a definite set of 26 letters offered when compared to the thousands of characters present in an ideographic script such as Chinese (in which each character has a meaning or an idea associated with it.)

As with the rest of the western world the early Greeks used papyrus for writing. Around 150 BCE, a Greek kingdom called Pergamum is credited with having refined the technique of making parchment - animal skins specially treated to be used as scrolls- and began the first parchment industry. (Parchment from camel skin has been found to be dating back to the 7th century BCE).

The Greeks used pigeons to deliver messages from at least the 5th century BCE. However, this method was borrowed from the Sumerians who developed it around 2000 BCE.

In time of war, a quick and efficient means of communication was required. Thus the Greeks developed a variety of telegraph systems, most of which involved flashes of light across long distances. The earliest such system is found in a play by ancient Greek tragedy playwright Aeschylus when a beacon signalled victory overseas to the people at home.

Soon the need for transmitting complete messages rather than signalling to confirm predetermined events became necessary, and this need led to the invention of the first ever semaphore system, described by historian Polybius (203-120 BCE). The alphabet was divided into groups of five letters and written on five tablets in a specific order. This set of tablets was available to both parties. When a message was to be sent, the signalman raised a torch one to five times on his left side to signal the tablet from which the required alphabet would be obtained. He then signalled one to five times on his right side to denote the position of the character on that tablet. In this way, anybody with the set of tablets could read the message by observing the pattern of raising of the torch.