The use of the scytale by the Spartans in the fifth century B.C. is the earliest record of a pattern being used for a transposition code. The scytale was a rod around which a strip of paper was wrapped.The message was written down the side of the rod, and when it was unwound, the message was unreadable.If the messenger was caught,the message was safe.If he arrived safely, the message was wound around an identical rod and read.