that most characteristic commodity, the slave. The notion of a slave mode
of production is not widely subscribed to in the form originally proposed,
but it is very clear that slaves and ex-slaves played key roles in the organiza-
tion of new and more complex forms of production and exchange.^36
What we are observing is the emergence of new social forms that were
not only more complex than before, but which extended further in
space and time than their predecessors. Writing was an essential tool for
moving goods, information, and people within this system.
New conditions of this kind required the production of new kinds of
people, too, even among the free. Texts of the kind under discussion are
designed for strangers to read. It is a truism of epistolography that letters
inscribe within themselves the identity of the author (as she or he wishes
to present it) and that of the recipient (again as the author chooses
to shape it).Tituli pictiand amphora stamps are the opposite. Their
communicative effect, like that of labels on commodities today, is ano-
nymizing. Although they claim a certain authority, through their con-
formity to formatting rules, through the precision of their detail, perhaps
through their orthography, they are generally depersonalized. They do,
however, presume a particular quality of literate competence on the
part of readers, who must not only be able to read but also must under-
stand the complex conventions of labeling. A skilled amphora reader must
have known just where to look for a key bit of data, could ‘‘skim-read’’
hundreds of amphorae on the dockside knowing that an anomalous one
would stand out, must be able to follow the clues in detail once suspicion
is aroused. For Baetican amphorae, this competence must be shared from
Rome’s northern frontier to the Tiber emporion, and from London to
Seville. The almost complete absence of whole words other than proper
names, or of grammar, caters perfectly to readers who do not share
a spoken language. Standard European food labeling is almost equally
legible to French, Irish, Italian, Polish, and Greek consumers. So, too,
was amphora-ese.
During the second centuryB.C.E., if not before, the Roman empire had
become a world of fixed quantities. One monetary system dominated
most of it, a single legal system had increasing range, and a set of common
basic weights and measures was becoming widespread. Even in those
parts of the empire where educated elite members studied Greek in
school and used it in public life, there was a wide understanding of
Latin. Interactions with strangers were easier and more important than
ever before. The writing practices encoded in this most common form of
texts expressed and responded to this feature of imperial culture, and of
course promoted it further.
- Rathbone 1983 suggested that this might profitably be seen as the extension of the
use of highly specialized and educated domestic slaves into new spheres of the economy.
Literacy or Literacies in Rome? 59