Ancient Literacies

(Marvins-Underground-K-12) #1

arranges for Hellenotamiai to make lists on asanisof tribute defaulters


and to put the list up in front of some public building (18ff.). The Coinage


Decree toward the end of the current text says that theepistataiin the


mint are to erect a public notice (on a stele) listing what seems to be the


amount of money of foreign origin received.^58 The Kallias decrees of 434/


3 B.C. (IG i^3 52) involve the sums owed by the state to the gods: more lists


are to go up. Thelogistaiare to calculate ‘‘what is owing to the gods


precisely.’’ The Prytaneis with thebouleare to repay the money, and they


are to cancel records of debts as they are repaid, ‘‘after seeking both the


pinakiaandgrammateiaand wherever other claims are written down.’’


Priests, who would tend to come from the elite, and other officials are to


produce the written records. The money returning to the gods is counted


out on the Acropolis before the (500)bouleutai—quite a sight, one


imagines. Treasurers of the Other Gods (selected by lot from the top


two classes) take the money and make records on a stele: money coming


in, and money still owed to the gods, by individual deity.


It is obvious here that adegreeof literacy is involved for all concerned:


Prytaneis of theboule, theboulegenerally, Treasurers, and priests. Records
of debts have to be sought, deciphered, added together and computed,


and with repayment, more lists and records made, both of payments and


of remaining debts. There is a lot of listing. Anyone completely unable to


read or write would be out of place, one supposes, though one could


imagine an illiterateboulemember sitting quietly at the back and listening


carefully; the ambitious and active would have to have a basic ability, for


documents are being sought, new documents made, all to ensure financial


probity. The Secretary of the Boule had an enormous role, as did the public


slaves in the archives. What does this kind of literacy look like? It seems


again to be very list-oriented: preambles must be understood, then the list


of debts incurred or payments, with numerals. A degree of numeracy is


important, and that with the awkward Attic numeral system which


used the alphabet both visually and aurally (thus ̃¼ä݌Ƽ 10 ; but


̃ ̃¼åYŒïóؼ20). An Athenian incapable of even this kind of literate


activity could presumably only remain the most mundane observer. To


be able to risk being chosen by lot as envoy to the allies or treasurer by the


late fifth century, an Athenian citizen must have had some facility with this


type of literacy and numeracy—even if there were clerks and slaves to help.


It is this, perhaps, that we are looking for as functional democratic


literacy in the mid-to-late fifth century—and part of the point stressed


here is that there is a sliding functionality as the polis extended its use of


written texts. A facility with making lists of tribute defaulters has little to


do with the ability to compose elegant sentences and write them down,


the sums, IG i^3 101, lines 25 30, with other records of moneys paid to be made and
handed to the boule, lines 39 40.



  1. The new fragment from Aphytis does not alter this: SEG LI (2001), 55.


Writing, Reading, Public and Private ‘‘Literacies’’ 39

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