form and, equally, no particular reason to think that preserving a record
of a society’s past is the only function to which writing can be put.
Following the lead of Simon Stoddart and James Whitley’s excellent
article on ‘‘The Social Context of Literacy in Archaic Greece and Etruria,’’
we may consider a different, more socially grounded approach to early
Roman literacy, both in relation to literacy in other Mediterranean cul-
tures and in relation to later developments at Rome.^12 Stoddart and
Whitley’s analysis of the relative frequency of different uses of writing
in different cultural/geographical contexts (Athens, Crete, Etruria) and at
different periods of time (half centuries from 700 to 450B.C.) allows them
to draw reasonable inferences about the variable social and ideological
significance of writing in different times and places. Although critics are
right to note that such interpretations are subject to the ‘‘tyranny of the
evidence’’ (especially the disappearance of instances of writing on perish-
able material), the fact that such tyranny operates with the same force
in different archaic contexts and time periods suggests thatrelativecon-
clusions about uses of literacy—such as those drawn by Stoddart and
Whitley—are valid, even if no absolute account of prevalence or full
enumeration of uses of writing can be provided.^13
Table 6.1, then, reproduces the data as organized by Stoddart and
Whitley, showing the sources of surviving Greek writing from Crete
and Attica and of surviving Etruscan writing from northern (less urban-
ized) and southern (more urbanized) Etruria. Noting the high proportion
of dipinti and graffiti at Athens, Stoddart and Whitley argue that
‘‘Writing [there] was very much connected to the needs of individuals
to record their names publicly, and thereby to display their virtue and
skills. For such inscriptions to be effective, a fairly wide literary audience
is pre-supposed. This contrasts sharply with the role that writing
played in Crete.’’ There, they suggest, the disproportionate emphasis on
promulgation of law codes is meant ‘‘to mystify them,’’ to make them
seem ‘‘immutable and unchanging.’’^14 In the case of the Etruscan mater-
ial, they link differential patterns of use to different degrees of urbaniza-
tion in northern and southern Etruria.
Table 6.2 summarizes results of my own preliminary and admittedly
incomplete survey of uses of writing in early Rome and surrounding areas.
The database consists of all the inscriptions for which dates are provided
by Degrassi in his compendium of Inscriptions of the Free Roman Re-
public (Inscriptiones latinae liberae rei publicae), as well as more recent
discoveries compiled in the Dutch school’s edition of the Lapis Satrica-
nus.
15
Only inscriptions found in central Italy are included, and only those
- Stoddart and Whitley 1988.
- Cornell states his objections at Cornell 1991, 7 10.
- Stoddart and Whitley 1988, 766.
- Stibbe et al. 1980, especially the compilation by Colonna at pp. 53 70.
Situating Literacy at Rome 117