Caesar Box Cipher
NewEncrypt and decrypt text with the Caesar Box (Scytale) cipher, a transposition cipher that writes a message into a rectangle and reads it back column by column.
The Caesar Box cipher (also called Scytale) writes the message into a rectangle row by row, padding the final row with underscores if needed, then reads the result back out column by column. Decryption reverses the process: fill the rectangle column by column with the ciphertext, then read row by row. When the rectangle is a perfect square, encryption and decryption use the exact same width. Spaces are treated as literal characters; text is uppercased.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between Caesar Box and a Caesar cipher?
Despite the similar name, they're unrelated — the classic Caesar cipher is a substitution cipher (shifting each letter), while Caesar Box (also called Scytale) is a transposition cipher that rearranges the existing letters' positions without changing any letter's identity.
What does the "width" setting control?
It sets how many columns the message is arranged into before being read back out — the same width must be used for both encryption and decryption, since it determines exactly how the letters get rearranged.
What happens if my message doesn't fit evenly into the rectangle?
The final row is padded with underscore characters ("_") to complete the rectangle; these padding characters appear in the encrypted output but are automatically stripped from the end of the decrypted result.
Does this tool match the classic dCode reference example?
Yes — encrypting "DCODE" with a width of 3 produces "DDCEO_", matching the standard reference example for this cipher exactly.
Why is this cipher also called "Scytale"?
Scytale refers to the ancient Spartan military device — a wooden rod of a specific diameter — around which a strip of parchment was wrapped so the message could be written across it; unwrapping the parchment produced exactly this same row-by-row-write, column-by-column-read transposition effect.