The Scribes of Rome : A Cultural and Social History of the Scribae

La 4eme de couverture indique : "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." Cover 1 Half-title 3 Title page 5 Copyright information 6 Dedication 7 Epigraph 9 Contents 11 List of Figures and Tables 13 Acknowledgements 15 Abbreviations 17 Epigraph 24 1 Imagining the Roman Scriba 25 Knowledge Is Power 25 Scribal Capital 27 Evidence Lost 29 Images of Scriba-ship 33 2 The Human Archive 37 Consequences of Literacy 37 Scribal Education 40 Two Cultures 43 Roman Literate Practice 48 A Culture of Documentation 51 The Public Repository 55 Archives and Archival Practice 60 Guardians of the Written 68 Scriptum Facere 72 3 The Attendant 85 Roman Civil Servants 85 Origins 87 Association 92 Hierarchy 99 Diversity 104 Model 108 Human Relations 112 4 The Profiteer 118 Thieves and Opportunities 118 A Matter of Trust 122 Under Suspicion 127 Making a Living 130 5 The Parvenu 135 An Ordo of Scribae 135 Humble Beginnings 138 Contested Mobility 144 Imperial Careers 148 Local Notables 154 The Tale of a Scriba 160 6 The Roman Scriba Reimagined 164 A Classical Model 164 Remnants and Revivals 166 The Legacy of an Idea 170 Appendix The Roman Scribae 174 A.1 Roman State 174 A.2 Cities and Communities 188 A.3 Associations 193 A.4 Naval Forces 197 A.5 Unassigned 198 A.6 Falsi 199 Bibliography 200 Index Locorum 225 General Index 240 "In a society, in which only a fraction of the population was literate and numerate, being one of few specialists in reading, writing and reckoning meant an invaluable asset. The fact that the Roman state heavily relied on these professional scribes in financial and legal administration entailed a unique position and status. By gathering and analysing the available source material on the Roman scribae, the book 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, find 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"-- Provided by publisher