Not my week for e-mail apparently,
> From: "John Cowan"
> > Hey, if it works, it works. Julius Caesar' version mapped ABCD... to
> DEFG...,
> Triiiicky!
> > > (the code word [i.e. of the next cipher] is 'neutron' [the next cipher
> may
> > > well be in English])."
> > And is probably a Vigenere cipher.
> I'm afraid I don't understand "Vigenere".
> > > (wouldn't "shibboleth" or a variation thereon have been available at
> that
> > > time?),
> > By no means. Augustus probably had heard of the Hebrew Scriptures, but
> > certainly words from it were not circulating at that time.
> Fair nuff.
> I broke down and looked in my Cassell's, and the word they give for
"cipher"
> (=a secret writing) is "notae, notarum". (Does this work for you, Ray?)
> Zilch on "key (code word)".
> Anyway, again, the unsuspecting editors of whatever book this is were
> probably ill-prepared to match wits with the menacing (da da da daaa [sung
> to the tune of Beethoven's 5th]) Conlang list.
>
> Kou