Mosaics of Knowledge: Representing Information in the Roman World (Classical Culture and Society)

Today's information technology often seems to take on a life of its own, spreading into every part of our lives. In the Roman world things were different. Technologies were limited to small, scattered social groups. By examining five technologies-lists, tables, weights and measures, artistic perspective, and mapping- Mosaics of Knowledge demonstrates how the Romans broke up a world we might have imagined them to unite. That is, the recording, storage, and recall of information in physical media might be expected to bind together persons distant in time and space. More often than not, however, Roman instances serve to create or reinforce the isolation of particular groups. Persons in different "locations"- whether those are geographical, social, or occupational-had access to quite different informational resources, and the overall situation is thus not controlled by the needs of any particular class or group. On the one hand, these constraints on use in turn constrain the development and power of individual technologies. Development is slow, scattered, and far from one-directional. On the other, seeming technological weaknesses can turn out to be illusory if we set them in actual use-contexts. Romans deploy no more but also no less "computing" power than needed for very narrowly defined goals. This study combines detailed readings of a wide variety of evidence (inscriptions, small archeological finds, artworks, literary texts) with theoretical consideration of the social, cognitive, and material contexts for their use to present a unique portrait of Roman IT capabilities, limitations, and habits. Today's information technology often seems to take on a life of its own, spreading into every part of our lives. In the Roman world things were different. Technologies were limited to small, scattered social groups. 0By examining five technologies-lists, tables, weights and measures, artistic perspective, and mapping-Mosaics of Knowledge demonstrates how the Romans broke up a world we might have imagined them to unite. That is, the recording, storage, and recall of information in physical media might be expected to bind together persons distant in time and space. More often than not, however, Roman instances serve to create or reinforce the isolation of particular groups. Persons in different "locations"--Whether those are geographical, social, or occupational-had access to quite different informational resources, and the overall situation is thus not controlled by the needs of any particular class or group. On the one hand, these constraints on use in turn constrain the development and power of individual technologies. Development is slow, scattered, and far from one-directional. On the other, seeming technological weaknesses can turn out to be illusory if we set them in actual use-contexts. Romans deploy no more but also no less "computing" power than needed for very narrowly defined goals. 0This study combines detailed readings of a wide variety of evidence (inscriptions, small archeological finds, artworks, literary texts) with theoretical consideration of the social, cognitive, and material contexts for their use to present a unique portrait of Roman IT capabilities, limitations, and habits The book examines the invention, use, and diffusion of ancient Roman information technologies. In particular, it looks at technologies defined in conceptual terms—lists, tables, weights and measures, perspective and related artistic devices, and cartography—rather than mechanical ones (e.g., “tablet” or “scroll”). Each is viewed from both social and cognitive perspectives, as well as with attention to the interaction between the conceptual and its material instantiation. The study is particularly focused on the most powerful technologies, whose uptakes are in most cases sporadic across time, space, and use context. These systems display a tolerance for error and/or omission remarkable unless they are considered in the narrowest possible use-context. Similarly, they often presuppose shared knowledge (both of form and of content) that could only have existed in highly localized contexts. Further constraints on the use of these devices arise from preferences for facts that are constituted by the record, rather than recorded, and (at least in elite circles) for linear exposition on the model of oral discourse. As a consequence, on the one hand, Romans lived in a balkanized informational world. Persons in different “locations”—whether geographical, social, or occupational—would have had access to quite different informational resources, and the overall situation is thus not controlled by the needs of any particular class or group. On the other hand, seeming technological weakness often turn out to be illusory if we set them in their actual use-contexts. In the Roman world, technologies were limited to small, scattered social groups, whereas today's information technology often seems to take on a life of its own, spreading into every part of our lives. 'Mosaics of Knowledge' combines detailed readings of a wide variety of evidence such as inscriptions and artworks, with theoretical consideration of the social, cognitive, and material contexts for their use to present a unique portrait of Roman IT capabilities, limitations, and habits