still less in composing and recording verse (i.e.,mousike). But it was the
type of literacy needed by an Athenian active enough in the democratic
machinery to enter thebouleor take up a position of responsibility as an
official, a magistrate (for whichtheteswere excluded). I would tentatively
call it ‘‘officials’ literacy,’’ a literacy rather different from the ability to
write a name for an ostracism.
As the democracy developed, so did its processes and the Boule itself
took on more duties. The democracy in the fourth century is quite distinct
from that of the fifth, as is well known.^59 It is therefore inconceivable
that one should consider literacy practices implied in the fourth-century
democracy as automatically similar or parallel to those of the fifth.
60
Even
within the fourth-century democracy, a period, after all, of several de-
cades, one would expect a certain degree of change, as I think we can see.
The Boule alone acquired more responsibility and the democracy in gen-
eral moved more power to committees and subgroups from the Assembly,
whereas the Assembly had commonly voted over even tiny details in the
first flush of radical democracy in the fifth century. Various groups of
officials like thepoletai(‘‘sellers’’) leave extensive stone records of their
activities. One assumes that these were helped by secretaries, but it is hard
to avoid the impression that a fully active member of any of these groups
must have been literate enough to deal with accounts, instructions, and
decrees where necessary (drafting, checking, etc.), though always with the
proviso that secretaries were there to read things out as one of their main
tasks. In a way, these activities may be more of the same in literacy terms,
but one would guess that as such documents became more extensive, the
boulemembers themselves would gradually become more familiar and
experienced, if they were not already (we may perhaps compare Brian
Stock’s concept of ‘‘textual community’’ [1983] but for a context of
democratic Athenian officialdom). The degree of ‘‘functional’’ familiarity
with written texts will now necessary have changed.
The remarkable Grain Tax Law of 374/3 should be mentioned here.
Stroud’s publication of this newly discovered inscription points out the
relatively complicated set of activities the Ten men are expected to
complete to sell the grain coming in from the Grain Tax (which is a tax
in kind), and to ensure that the Athenians have grain.
61
These men are
chosen by election from the Assembly which underlines the democratic
importance of the law and its provisions. Stroud suggests that the law was
- For example, Hansen 1991, Rhodes 1972; note also Eder 1995.
- A problem with Sickinger’s book (1999) is that although he patiently shows many
cases in which the orator will have had to delve into the archives to find a decree, or get
someone to do so, he reads back on a priori grounds a mass of document making and keeping
from the fourth to the fifth century, and from the fifth to the sixth in a way which seems to
sidestep the great political, cultural, and social changes occurring over the periods in
question. See Thomas 2003. - Stroud 1998.
40 Situating Literacies