User:Cynwolfe/literacy and education in the Roman Empire

Literacy and education in the Roman Empire contributed to the social mobility that characterized the earlier period of Imperial history known as the Principate. Estimates of the average literacy rate in the Empire range from 5 to 30 percent or higher, depending in part on the definition of "literacy".^[1] Full literacy was uncommon, but written documents were ubiquitous, and they were used by a wider range of people in the Roman Imperial world than was typical of most ancient societies.^[2] Numeracy was necessary to participate in commerce, and papyri preserve complex accounting methods.^[3] Despite the high value Romans placed on writing, education was available only for those who could pay for it, since there was no state-supported system of schools with public funding.

A higher rate of literacy is indicated among military personnel than within the general population. Educated women were not unusual, and there was an expectation that upper-class girls would at least attend primary school, probably in the same classes as boys. Only an elite few, regardless of gender, went on to receive a secondary education.

A significant if modest number of slaves were educated, and slaves played a key role in promoting education and the culture of literacy.^[4] Teachers, scribes, and secretaries were likely to be slaves. The education of slaves was not discouraged, and slave-children might attend classes with the children of their masters. Educated slaves seem to have been more likely to be manumitted, and to achieve material prosperity as freedmen. The Classical poet Horace, whose work the emperor Augustus brought to prominence, was the son of a freedman.

Bookstores were already well-established in Rome by the beginning of the Imperial period, and are found also in urban centers of the provinces. Books were expensive, but by the later period, popular genres of literature indicate reading for pleasure among non-elites. Emperors sponsored libraries that were to some extent public, and a wealthy individual might endow a library for a community, or amass impressive private collections to which in-house scholars might be attached. A shift from books in rolled form to books with a spine coincides with the rise of Christian literature. Literacy is thought to have declined in late antiquity during the transition away from the Classical institutions and practices that supported it.

^ William V. Harris, Ancient Literacy (Harvard University Press, 1989), p. 5; William A. Johnson, Ancient Literacies: The Culture of Reading in Greece and Rome (Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 3–4, especially note 5; T.J. Kraus, "(Il)literacy in Non-Literary Papyri from Graeco-Roman Egypt: Further Aspects of the Educational Ideal in Ancient Literary Sources and Modern Times," Mnemosyme 53.3 (2000), p. 325; Marietta Horster, "Primary Education," in The Oxford Handbook of Social Relations in the Roman World, pp. 89, 97–98.
^ Greg Woolf, "Literacy or Literacies in Rome?" in Ancient Literacies, pp. 46, 52.
^ David Mattingly, "The Imperial Economy," in A Companion to the Roman Empire (Blackwell, 2010), p. 286.
^ Woolf, "Literacy or Literacies in Rome?", p. 52.

[1] William V. Harris, Ancient Literacy (Harvard University Press, 1989), p. 5; William A. Johnson, Ancient Literacies: The Culture of Reading in Greece and Rome (Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 3–4, especially note 5; T.J. Kraus, "(Il)literacy in Non-Literary Papyri from Graeco-Roman Egypt: Further Aspects of the Educational Ideal in Ancient Literary Sources and Modern Times," Mnemosyme 53.3 (2000), p. 325; Marietta Horster, "Primary Education," in The Oxford Handbook of Social Relations in the Roman World, pp. 89, 97–98.

[2] Greg Woolf, "Literacy or Literacies in Rome?" in Ancient Literacies, pp. 46, 52.

[3] David Mattingly, "The Imperial Economy," in A Companion to the Roman Empire (Blackwell, 2010), p. 286.

[4] Woolf, "Literacy or Literacies in Rome?", p. 52.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]