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In India around 400 BC to 200 AD, [[Mlecchita vikalpa]] or "the art of understanding writing in cypher, and the writing of words in a peculiar way" was documented in the [[Kama Sutra]] for the purpose of communication between lovers. This was also likely a simple substitution cipher.<ref name="translation">{{cite book|last1=Translators: Richard Burton, Bhagavanlal Indrajit, Shivaram Parashuram Bhide|title=The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana (Translated From The Sanscrit in Seven Parts With Preface, Introduction and Concluding Remarks)|date=18 January 2009|publisher=The Project Gutenberg|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/27827/27827-h/27827-h.htm|access-date=3 December 2015}}</ref><ref name=Kahn2>{{cite book|last1=David Kahn|title=The Codebreakers|date=December 1996|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=9781439103555|page=74|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SEH_rHkgaogC|access-date=25 November 2015}}</ref> Parts of the Egyptian [[Demotic (Egyptian)|demotic]] [[Greek Magical Papyri]] were written in a [[Cryptography|cypher]] script.<ref name="Betz">{{cite book|author=Hans Dieter Betz|url=http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/G/bo3684249.html|year=1992|title=The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including the Demotic Spells, Volume 1|publisher=University of Chicago Press }}</ref>
The [[ancient Greeks]] are said to have known of ciphers.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sans.org/reading-room/whitepapers/vpns/history-encryption-730|title=History of Encryption|website=SANS}}</ref> The [[scytale]] [[transposition cipher]] was used by the [[Sparta]]n military,<ref name="Cohen" /> but it is not definitively known whether the scytale was for encryption, authentication, or avoiding bad omens in speech.<ref>Kelly, Thomas. "The Myth of the Skytale." Cryptologia 22.3 (1998): 244–260.</ref><ref>Lateiner, D. "Signifying Names and Other Ominous Accidental Utterances in Classical Historiography." Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 45.1 (2010): 35–57. Print.</ref> [[Herodotus]] tells us of secret messages physically concealed beneath wax on wooden tablets or as a tattoo on a slave's head concealed by regrown hair, although these are not properly examples of cryptography ''per se'' as the message, once known, is directly readable; this is known as [[steganography]]. Another Greek method was developed by [[Polybius]] (now called the "[[Polybius#Cryptography|Polybius Square]]").<ref name="Cohen"/> The [[Ancient Rome|Romans]] knew something of cryptography (e.g., the [[Caesar cipher]] and its variations).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.icits2015.net/ancient-cryptography-history/|title=The Ancient Cryptography History|last=icitsuser|date=2017-01-22|website=ICITS|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-07|archive-date=4 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210804153508/http://www.icits2015.net/ancient-cryptography-history/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
== Medieval cryptography ==
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