- WRITING, PROPERTY, AND THE MATERIALIZATION
OF SOCIAL RELATIONS
If we consider the spread of writing and reading practices at Rome,
perhaps the first question to come to mind is, why did it take so long?
Rome did not develop a literary culture in the sense of professional
authors, a preserved and transmitted canon, and intertextual reference
and critique until the late third centuryB.C.^7 Yet the Romans—or at least
some Romans—would have had access to writing probably as early as the
first part of the eighth century.
8
It is worth recalling that among the
earliest examples of Greek writing are the EUOIN or (less likely)
EULIN inscription on a pot unearthed in the cemetery at Osteria dell’Osa
near Gabii, in Latium, now generally dated to the first quarter of the
eighth centuryB.C.,
9
and the slightly later Nestor’s cup inscription from
Pithekoussai—an island whose location in the Bay of Naples made it a
jumping-off point for Greek contacts up and down the Italian seacoast.
10
Written Latin makes its appearance, depending on whom you believe and
how you interpret certain texts, as early as the seventh century, with the
Duenos inscription, which was found at Rome in the late nineteenth
century.^11 The early Latin alphabet resembles, and was perhaps shaped
by, that of the Etruscans, who of course had their own literacy practices
before, during, and after the emergence of Rome as a major power in
central Italy. It is worth noting that preserved Etruscan writing is largely
formulaic in nature, a feature suggesting that the significance of Etruscan
texts could have been apparent even to those not familiar with their exact
meaning, somewhat the way trademarks today can be meaningful across
linguistic boundaries. The issue of writing in the earliest period of Roman
history, its prevalence, use, and significance, usually gets wrapped up in
scholarly debates over the credibility of the later Roman historiographic
tradition—an odd development, because there is no particular reason to
believe that a society’s memory can only be preserved in documentary
- See Habinek 1998, 34 68; Ru ̈pke 2000; Sciarrino 2004.
- For a compendium of the earliest instances of writing in Latium see Smith 1996,
233 6; also important are Colonna 1980 and Cornell 1991. Note also the joint research
project on pre Roman literacy, based at University College London and described online
at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ancient literacy/. - Ridgway 1996; Peruzzi 1998.
- On the cultural significance of Pithekoussai (Ischia) see Camporeale 2000, passim;
Whitley 2001, 126 33; for discussion of the Nestor’s cup inscription, see Watkins 1976,
Faraone 1996. - CIL 1.2.4 ILLRP1.2; discussed Ernout 1973, 7 9. Other candidates for earliest
Latin inscription include the Vetusia inscription on a silver bowl from the Bernardini tomb,
now housed at the Villa Giulia in Rome; and the Praenestine fibula (ILLRP1.1; Ernout 1973,
1 2), displayed at the Museo Etnografico L. Pigorini, also in Rome. Controversy over the
authenticity of the latter continues apace, with recent opinion appearing to incline toward
authenticity: see, for example, Hartmann 2005, 67 106.
116 Situating Literacies