RE: Roman literacy
December 16, 2013 at 1:06 pm
(This post was last modified: December 16, 2013 at 1:14 pm by Anomalocaris.)
(December 16, 2013 at 12:32 pm)Minimalist Wrote: There are primarily agricultural subsistence-level societies today...they don't spend their time reading.
It depends upon whether the farmers tend to work independent land holdings, and whether such land holdings have to directly deal with commerce in argriculture produce.
Tenant farmers tend not to need literacy much. But farmer- landowners may very well need some degree of literacy, or at least have ready access to literacy, to support the operation of the family farm.
Also, if some literacy is important for advancement in the army, and army is a significant avenue of advancement for childrens of farmers, then it might have been worthwhile for even tenant farmers to invest in some literacy education for their offsprings.
I tend to think literacy amongst Roman Citizens were higher during middle republic, before the conquest of Hellenistic east and the subsequent Social wars, than later.
