In a society in which only a fraction of the population was literate and numerate, being one of the few specialists in reading, writing and reckoning meant the possession of an invaluable asset. The fact that the Roman state heavily relied on these professional scribes in financial and legal administration led to their holding a unique position and status. By gathering and analysing the available source material on the Roman scribae, Benjamin Hartmann traces the history of Rome's public scribes from the early Republic to the Later Roman Empire. He tells the story of men of low social origin, who, by means of their specialised knowledge, found themselves at the heart of the Roman polity, in close proximity to the powerful and responsible for the written arcana of the state – a story of knowledge and power, corruption and contested social mobility.
Author(s): Benjamin Hartmann
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 252
City: Cambridge
Cover
Half-title
Title page
Copyright information
Dedication
Epigraph
Contents
List of Figures and Tables
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Epigraph
1 Imagining the Roman Scriba
Knowledge Is Power
Scribal Capital
Evidence Lost
Images of Scriba-ship
2 The Human Archive
Consequences of Literacy
Scribal Education
Two Cultures
Roman Literate Practice
A Culture of Documentation
The Public Repository
Archives and Archival Practice
Guardians of the Written
Scriptum Facere
3 The Attendant
Roman Civil Servants
Origins
Association
Hierarchy
Diversity
Model
Human Relations
4 The Profiteer
Thieves and Opportunities
A Matter of Trust
Under Suspicion
Making a Living
5 The Parvenu
An Ordo of Scribae
Humble Beginnings
Contested Mobility
Imperial Careers
Local Notables
The Tale of a Scriba
6 The Roman Scriba Reimagined
A Classical Model
Remnants and Revivals
The Legacy of an Idea
Appendix The Roman Scribae
A.1 Roman State
A.2 Cities and Communities
A.3 Associations
A.4 Naval Forces
A.5 Unassigned
A.6 Falsi
Bibliography
Index Locorum
General Index
