From the LSJ entry linked to above:

at Sparta, staff or baton, used as a cypher for writing dispatches, a strip of leather being rolled slantwise round it, on which the dispatches were written lengthwise, so that when unrolled they were unintelligible: commanders abroad had a staff of like thickness, round which they rolled these strips, and so were able to read the dispatches:--hence skutalê came to mean a Spartan dispatch, Th.1.131, X.HG3.3.8, Ar.Lys.991, Plu.Lys.19, Gell.17.9.15; and, generally, dispatch, message, as Pi. calls the bearer of his ode skutala Moisan O.6.91 , where the Sch. quotes achnumenê skutalê (dub. sens.) from Archil. (Fr.89.2); hê skutalês peritropê, of labour in vain (cf. huperos), Pl.Tht.209d.


Bingley

Bingley