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RCS - Lecture 9: Literacy
AEC 11/12
Roman Culture and Society - Literacy
Key questions
Spread of Latin language
 Spread of Latin
 Italy: local languages
 Coins in Britain
o Gold coin of Tincomarus - ‘Com. F.’ – Commi filius
o Verica - ‘rex’
o Cunobelinus/ Camulodunum
 West
 Spain/ S. France = Iberian/Gallic texts
 In East = multi-lingual societies
 Non-Greek/Latin literacies
Defining Literacy
 OED: 'the ability to read and write'
 UNESCO (UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural organisation)
 Reading - writing
 Reading only
 Reading only some types of text
 Capital letters: Petronius Satyricon 58
No, I never learned your geometries, criticisms, non-logics, literary criticism, but I know my block capitals, and I
can do any sum…
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Signature
Egypt category: ‘slow writers’
Levels of literacy in the Roman world
Evidence for literacy:
 monumental inscriptions
 graffiti
 papyri
 writing tablets
 art - representations of reading/writing:
 Pompeii painting of ‘Paquius Proculus’
 indirect archaeological evidence – stilus finds; seal-boxes
William Harris:
 lack of technology for spreading written word
 lack cheap writing materials:
 no spectacles
 low level of schooling
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RCS - Lecture 9: Literacy
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Oral society
Levels depend on context?
 Military
 Commerce:
 Condatomagus: La Graufesenque
 Magdalensberg
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Sineros from Aqulieia bought 110 basins at 15 pounds
Rullus: serving-dishes 170
From 1 May to 29 June money lent.
Town-countryside
 Cato Elder & Varro
 Stilus finds
Case-study 1: Pompeii
Literacy for financial affairs
 Caecilius Iucundus archive
o Receipt for sale of a slave by Umbricia Antiochis, December AD 56 - CIL IV
3340.24 = Cooley (2004) H76:
I, Marcus Helvius Catullus, wrote at the request of Umbricia Antiochis that she had received from Lucius Caecilius
Iucundus 6,252 sesterces for the auction of her slave Trophimus, less commission.
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Tablets of Poppaea Note – CIL IV 3340.154-55 = Cooley (2004) H38
CIL IV 3340.155:
Poppaea Note, freedwoman of Priscus, has sworn that the slaves Simplex and Petrinus (or whatever their names
are), are hers and that she owns them, and that these slaves are not pledged to anyone else, nor does she share them
with anyone else; Dicidia Margaris has bought these slaves, each priced individually, for [1,450] sesterces and has
received formal ownership of them from Popp<a>ea [Note, freedwoman] of Priscus, through the agency of her
guardian Decimus Caprasius Ampliatus ...
Casual Writing
 Locations
 ‘I was here’
2 October 78 BC - CIL IV 1842, inside the Basilica = Cooley (2004) D86
Gaius Pumidius Dipilus was here, five days before the nones of October when Marcus Lepidus and Quintus Catulus
were consuls.
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‘Crude’ sketches
Graffiti locations
 CIL IV 2175 = Cooley (2004) D100: Here I fucked lots of girls.
 CIL IV 2185, 2186 = Cooley (2004) D101: Sollemnes, you fuck well.
 CIL IV 2192 = Cooley (2004) D102: 15 June, Hermeros fucked here with Phileterus and
Caphisus.
gladiatorial
Alphabets
quotations from literature
CIL IV 4966 = Cooley (2004) D72:
What is happening? Alas, eyes, first you led me into the fire,
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RCS - Lecture 9: Literacy
Now of your own accord you give generously to your cheeks.
But tears cannot put out the flame;
They inflame the face and melt the spirit. Composed by Tiburtinus.
AEC 11/12
 Other anonymous poets too.
Parody on Aeneid 1.1:
CIL IV 9131 = Cooley (2004) D71:
Fullones ululamque cano, non arma virumque
I sing of fullers and an owl, not of arms and a man.
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Graffiti about graffiti
CIL IV 1904 = Cooley (2004) D103:
I admire you, wall, for not having collapsed at having to carry the tedious scribblings of so many writers.
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?2000-3000 literate
Evidence atypical?
o electoral slogans
o Herculaneum painted signs
Social interactions through graffiti
 Put verbal and non-verbal examples together.
 Look for dialogues among graffiti
 CIL IV 1751: ‘If anyone sits here, let him read this before everything else’
 CIL IV 8903: ‘Traveller, at Pompeii you eat bread. At Nuceria you will drink’.
 Humour – trick the reader:
 CIL IV 2360: ‘He who writes this is in love… and I who read this am a prick’.
 Greetings to other people:
 CIL IV 1852, Basilica = Cooley (2004) D87:
Pyrrhus to his colleague Chius: I grieve because I hear you have died; and so farewell.
 Dialogues between graffiti & their spatial context
 Graffiti in response to another.
Rivalry of Severus and Successus in a bar (I.x.2-3) - CIL IV 8259, 8258 = Cooley (2004) D90:
- Successus the weaver loves the barmaid of the inn, called Iris, who doesn’t care for him, but he asks and she feels
sorry for him. A rival wrote this. Farewell.
- You’re jealous, bursting out with that. Don’t try to muscle in on someone who’s better-looking and is a wicked and
charming man.
[On other side of doorway] - I have written and spoken. You love Iris, who doesn’t care for you. Severus to
Successus.
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Also graffiti as written in response to their spatial context.
Case-study of graffiti in context: House of Maius Castricius (VII.16. Ins. Occ. 17)
 Authors of graffiti?
o ‘Romula lives here with her male companion’ – Benefiel cat. 29-30, 32, 35, 46;
o ‘Manius was here’, ‘Epaphroditus was here with Thalia’
o ‘Senius the slave of Marcus Stlavius was here’
 A poetic stairwell: Benefiel cat. No.34:
‘We came here with desire; we desire much more to go away, but that girl holds back our feet.’
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3rd floor: graffiti clustered in peristyle area
o Benefiel cat. 28: ‘the one whom I love is number 51’
Graffiti drawings
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RCS - Lecture 9: Literacy
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Case-study 2: Curse tablets in Roman Britain
 ‘judicial prayer’
 Bath
 Uley, Gloucestershire
 Curses not designed to be read
o Bath Tab Sulis 4
o Tab. Sulis 6
Uley tablet 72: AÉpigr (1992) 1127
‘Honoratus to the holy god Mercury. I complain to your divinity that I have lost two wheels and four cows and
many small belongings from my house. I would ask the genius of your divinity that you do not allow health to
the person who has done me wrong, nor allow him to lie or sit or drink or eat, whether he is man or woman,
whether boy or girl, whether slave or free, unless he brings my property to me and is reconciled with me. With
renewed prayers I ask your divinity that my petition may immediately make me vindicated by your majesty.’
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Curse on an embezzler - Uley 78:
…the man who has cheated me of the denarii he owed me. I give, I offer, I destine, I depute 100,000 denarii to the
god Mercury, that he may bring them to the temple and treasury of the most mighty god….
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Docilinus invokes Mercury’s help – Uley 43:
Varianus and Peregrina and Sabinianus who have brought evil harm on my farm animal… I ask that you drive them
to the greatest death, and do not allow them health or sleep unless they redeem from you what they have
administered to me.
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Latin curse written in Greek letters – Uley 52:
I have given the man who stole my linen and my cloak and my two silver coins, whether boy or girl, whether male
slave or female, whether man or woman, whether soldier or civilian. Take away his marrow, his blood, his soul,
unless he brings them back to your temple.
Literacy and Power
The emperor and the written word
o Imperial power
o Power through control of texts:
o publication of senate’s acta – Tacitus, Ann 16.22.8
o prevent circulation of undesirable texts
 Tac. Ann. 4.34-35
Cremutius walked out of the senate and starved himself to death. The senate ordered his books to be burnt by the
aediles. But they survived, first hidden and later republished. This makes one deride the stupidity of people who
believe that today’s authority can destroy tomorrow’s memories. On the contrary, repressions of genius increase its
prestige. All that tyrannical conquerors, and imitators of their brutalities, achieve is their own disrepute and their
victims’ renown.’
 Subversion: Domitian's arches arcei
 Burning could also be good: Anaglypha Traiani
 Erasure of texts.
 Display of writing: law of Irni – ch.95
o Abuse by Caligula.: Suetonius, Cal. 41.1
When taxes of this kind had been proclaimed, but not published in writing, inasmuch as many offences were
committed through ignorance of the letter of the law, he at last, on the urgent demand of the people, had the law
posted up, but in a very narrow place and in excessively small letters, to prevent the making of a copy.
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RCS - Lecture 9: Literacy
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o Letter of Claudius to Alexandrians - Sherk, The Roman Empire no.44 Lucius Aemilius Rectus declares: Since at the reading of the most holy and the most beneficent letter to our city our
city the whole city could not be present because of its large population, I thought it necessary to publish the letter in
order that, amn for man, as you read it, the greatness of our god Caesar might be an object of wonder to you and that
for his {---} goodwill toward our city you might be grateful.
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Access to texts for non-literate
o Reading
o Ostia - Be aware, traveller, that your voice is really mine - CIL XIV 356.
o Family tomb in Alpine region - AE 1989 247: - ‘whoever will read it, or listen to
someone reading’ - Murranus and Decria
o Proclamation - Astypalaia, treaty with Rome 105 BC
o Writing: scribes
Literacy and Religion
 Judaism
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Christianity
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‘Pagan’ religions
o Written language & power
o Commemorate act of communication between human & divine
Attis statue, Ostia: CIL XIV 38:
To the divine power of Attis. Caius Cartilius Euplus, in response to a warning from the goddess
o ‘to the god of this place’
o Recording as essential part of ritual
Pliny the Younger, Letters 8.8.8, to Voconius Romanus
Have you ever seen the source of the Clitumnus? If not (and I fancy not, or you would have told me) do visit it as I
did the other day. I am only sorry I put off seeing it so long….Close by is a holy temple of great antiquity in which
is a standing image of the god Clitumnus himself clad in a magistrate’s bordered robe; the written oracles lying there
prove the presence and prophetic powers of his divinity. All round are a number of small shrines, each containing its
god and having its own name and cult, and some of them also their own springs… The people of Hispellum, to
whom the deified Emperor Augustus presented the site, maintain a bathing place at the town’s expense and also
provide an inn; and there are several houses picturesquely situated along the river bank. Everything in fact will
delight you, and you can also find something to read: you can study the numerous inscriptions in honour of the
spring and the god which many hands have written on every pillar and wall. Most of them you will admire, but some
will make you laugh – though I know you are really too charitable to laugh at any of them.’
Conclusions
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RCS - Lecture 9: Literacy
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Roman Culture and Society – Literacy Bibliography
KEY READINGS
@Bowman, A.K. and Woolf, G. (1994) Literacy and Power in the Ancient World (Cambridge)
chapter by Bowman/Woolf [PA 273.T4] ch.1
@Harris, W.V. (1989) Ancient Literacy (Cambridge Mass., London) [PA 273.H2 + e-book] 'The Late
Republic and the High Empire, 100 B.C.-250 A.D.'
GENERAL READING
Baird, J.A. and Taylor, C. (2010) Ancient Graffiti in Context [DE 60.A5]
@Beard, M. et al. (1991) Literacy in the Roman World (JRA suppl. series no.3: Ann Arbor) chapters
by Humphrey, Beard, Horsfall, Franklin, Corbier, Bowman, Hopkins, Ellis Hanson
Benefiel, R. (2010) 'Dialogues of ancient graffiti in the House of Maius Castricius in Pompeii', AJA
114: 59-101 [Arts Journals]
Bodel, J. (2010) 'Epigraphy', in The Oxford handbook of Roman Studies, eds A. Barchiesi & W.
Scheidel [DG 209.O94]
@Bowman, A.K. and Woolf, G. (1994) Literacy and Power in the Ancient World (Cambridge)
chapters by Bowman/Woolf, Woolf, Goodman, Bowman, Lane Fox [PA 273.T4]; ch.1
Corbier, M. (1987) ‘L’écriture dans l’espace public romain’, in L’urbs. Espace urbain et histoire.
(Collection de l’Ecole française de Rome 98: Rome) 27-60 [DG 63.U8]
@Horsfall, N. (1989) ‘‘The uses of literacy’ and the Cena Trimalchionis: 1’ Greece and Rome 36.1:
74-89
@Horsfall, N. (1989) ‘‘The uses of literacy’ and the Cena Trimalchionis: 2’ Greece and Rome 36.2:
194-209
Johnson, W.A. & Parker, H.N., eds (2009) Ancient Literacies (Oxford) [Z 1003.5.G8.A53]
Meyer, E.A. (2004) Legitimacy and Law in the Roman World: tabulae in Roman belief and practice
[DG 88.M3]
Miles, R. (2000) ‘Communicating culture, identity and power’ in J. Huskinson, ed. Experiencing
Rome. Culture, Identity and Power in the Roman Empire (London: Routledge) 29-62 [DG 78.E9
Peachin, M., ed. (2011) The Oxford Handbook of Social Relations in the Roman World - chs by M.
Horster, 'Primary education'; J. Connolly 'Rhetorical education'; Charles W. Hedrick, Jr., 'Literature and
Communication'; E.A. Meyer, 'Epigraphy and Communication'; A. Jördens, 'Communicating with
Tablets and Papyri' [on order]
@Starr R.J. (1990) ‘The used-book trade in the Roman world’, Phoenix 44.2: 148-57
@Woolf, G. (2000) ‘Literacy’, in Cambridge Ancient History XI (2nd edn) , eds A.K Bowman, P.
Garnsey, D. Rathbone (Cambridge) 875-97 [D 57.C2]
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RCS - Lecture 9: Literacy
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@Woolf G. (1996) ‘Monumental writing and the expansion of Roman society in the early empire’, JRS
86, 22-39.
EDUCATION
@Booth A.D. (1979) ‘The schooling of slaves in first-century Rome’, TAPA 109: 11-19
@Eyre J.J. (1963) ‘Roman education in the late republic and early empire’, G&R 10.1: 47-59
@Gavrilov A.K. (1997) ‘Techniques of reading in classical antiquity’, CQ 47.1: 56-73
Marrou H. (1956) A History of Education in Antiquity [379.409 MAR]
BRITAIN
Bowman, A.K. (1994) Life and letters on the Roman frontier: Vindolanda and its people (London)
[DA 147.V4]
Bowman, A.K. Vindolanda [PA 273.T4]
Bowman, A. K. and Thomas, D. (1984) Vindolanda: the Latin writing-tablets [DA 147.V4]
Bowman, A.K. (1994) The Vindolanda writing-tablets (Tabulae Vindolandenses II) [DA 147.V4]
Cooley, A.E., ed. (2002) Becoming Roman, Writing Latin? Literacy and Epigraphy in the Roman West
(espec. chapters on Britain by Hanson & Conolly; Tomlin) [CN 513.B3]
COMPARATIVE STUDIES ON LITERACY
Goody, J. R., ed. (1968) Literacy in Traditional Societies (Cambridge) [372.44 GOO]
Goody, J. R. (1977) The domestication of the savage mind (Cambridge) [HC 9000.G6]
Goody, J. R. (1987) The interface between the written and the oral (Cambridge) [P 211.G6]
McKitterick, R. , ed. (1990) The Uses of Literacy in Early Medieval Europe (Cambridge) [372.44
USE]