New approaches to the epigraphy of the Roman world

During the 1990s and 2000s, much scholarly attention was given tothe question of levels of literacy in the Roman world, a question which would appear to be central to our understanding of the role of inscriptions in their contemporary contexts. Following the publication of William Harris’ highly influential work Ancient Literacy, in which he argued that literacy levels must have been very limited in the Roman imperial period – as low as 10% - albeit variable in different places,[1] a sequence of other works appeared that attempted to vindicate the place of inscriptions in the Roman world by either arguing for higher pockets of literacy in some contexts, or by focusing upon inscriptions as somehow symbolic or powerful, communicating in ways that were not wholly dependent upon people’s ability to read their texts, and which consequently had a wider reach in society than literate readers.[2] Even in cases where authors have explicitly distanced themselves from wishing to estimate the potential number of individuals able to read an inscription (see section 2, below), the emphasis has remained on the question of reading inscriptions.