THE SCRIBES OF ROME In a society in which only a fraction of the population was literate and numerate, being one of the few specialists in reading, writing and reckoning was to possess an invaluable asset. The fact that the Roman state heavily relied on these professional scribes in financial and legal administration led to their holding a unique position and status. By gathering and analysing the available source material on theRomanscribae,BenjaminHartmanntracesthehistoryofRome’s public scribes from the early Republic to the Later Roman Empire. He tells the story of men of low social origin who, by means of their specialised knowledge, found themselves at the heart of the Romanpolity,incloseproximitytothepowerfulandresponsiblefor the written arcana of the state – a story of knowledge and power, corruptionandcontestedsocialmobility. benjamin hartmannisaformerResearchandTeachingAssistant inAncientHistoryattheUniversityofZurich.Hisresearchfocuses ontheroleofliteracyintheancientworld,ancientculturalandsocial history,andLatinepigraphy.Hehaspublishedmainlyonwritingon everydayobjectsandsmallfindsfromtheRomanworld. THE SCRIBES OF ROME A Cultural and Social History of the Scribae BENJAMIN HARTMANN UniversityofZurich UniversityPrintingHouse,Cambridgecb28bs,UnitedKingdom OneLibertyPlaza,20thFloor,NewYork,ny10006,USA 477WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,vic3207,Australia 314–321,3rdFloor,Plot3,SplendorForum,JasolaDistrictCentre,NewDelhi–110025,India 79AnsonRoad,#06–04/06,Singapore079906 CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781108493963 doi:10.1017/9781108656917 ©BenjaminHartmann2020 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished2020 AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData names:Hartmann,Benjamin,author. title:TheScribesofRome:ACulturalandSocialHistoryoftheScribae/BenjaminHartmann. description:Cambridge,UnitedKingdom;NewYork,NY:Cambridge UniversityPress,2020.|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. Identifiers:lccn2020002811|isbn9781108493963(hardback)|isbn9781108713740(paperback) subjects:lcsh:Scribes–Rome.|Rome–Officialsandemployees. classification:lccdg83.3.h372020|ddc937–dc23 LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2020002811 isbn978-1-108-49396-3Hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracy ofURLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. ThisworkwasacceptedasaPhDthesisbytheFacultyofArtsandSocialSciences, UniversityofZurich,inthespringsemester2018ontherecommendationoftheDoctoralCommittee consistingofProfessorDrAnneKolb(UniversityofZurich,mainsupervisor),ProfessorDrBeatNäf (UniversityofZurich)andProfessorNicholasPurcell(UniversityofOxford). tomyparentsAnnemarieandJosef toEsther sinequibusnon ErhateinenSturmineinemWasserglasebeobachtetunddabeinoch VerschiedenesmehrentdecktalsnurEigenschafteneinesSturmes. He observed a storm in a teacup and thereby discovered much more thanjustthecharacteristicsofastorm. LudwigHohl,DieNotizen Epigraph excerpt from: Ludwig Hohl, Die Notizen oder Von der unvoreiligen Versöhnung. ©SuhrkampVerlagFrankfurtamMain1981.AllrightsreservedSuhrkampVerlagBerlin.