Literacy and Power in the Ancient WorldAlan K. Bowman, Greg Woolf This book consists of a series of studies, each by a specialist in a different period or area of the ancient history of the Mediterranean world and northern Europe, examining the relationship between power and the use of writing in ancient society. The studies range in date from c. 600 B.C. to A.D. 800. It is intended not to provide a complete coverage of the ancient world but to use particular case studies to examine ways in which the relationship between literacy and power can be analyzed. |
Contents
Literacy and power in the ancient world | 1 |
The Persepolis Tablets speech seal and script | 17 |
Literacy and the citystate in archaic and classical Greece | 33 |
Literacy and language in Egypt in the Late and Persian Periods | 51 |
Literacy and power in Ptolemaic Egypt | 67 |
Power and the spread of writing in the West | 84 |
Texts scribes and power in Roman Judaea | 99 |
The Roman imperial army letters and literacy on the northern frontier | 109 |
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Common terms and phrases
accounts administration ancient Aramaic archives Athenian Athens authority Behistun inscription bishops bureaucratic Byzantine Cerialis Christian Church circulated classical communities context Council culture cursive Cyprian Darius decrees demotic early Edessa Egypt Egyptian Elamite élite emperors emphasised epigraphy evidence example fifth century fourth century Gallo-Greek Gallo-Latin Gaul Goths graffiti Greek groups Hallock Heather Iconoclasm Iconoclast IG I³ imperial important individual inscribed inscriptions Jewish Jews John of Damascus katharevousa kings language late later Roman Latin least letters Lex Salica lists literacy literacy and power literate material Medinet Madi Monothelitism official pagan papyrus Parnaka particular Patrologia Graeca perhaps period Persepolis Persian PF-NN polemical political probably Ptolemaic Ptolemaic Egypt religious role Rome rule sacred literacy sacred texts scribal scribes script scripture seal seems society stele suggests surviving Syriac tablets Theodosian Code tradition Vindolanda Visigothic writing written documents written records written word