Subject: IOU: Re: Jerusalem Temple Inscription Warning Gentiles of Death
From: rochelle altman (willaa@netvision.net.il)
Date: Tue Dec 22 2009 - 16:13:46 EST
Hi, Jack, Well, in terms of Greek and Roman literacy, William Harris (Ancient Literacy, 1989) placed it at 10%. He has not gone uncontested, though. He ignored items such as the programs sold at gladiatorial contests mentioned by Cicero and tended to dismiss graffiti. Both of these do indicate some level of literacy. Still, 10-15% fully literate should be expected with another 25-30% semi-literate. These percentages really do not change very much across the centuries in cultures where literacy is encouraged. There's a new book out (that I'm going to order with my gift certificate from OUP) by Johnson & Parker, Ancient Literacies: The culture of Reading in Greece and Rome. (2009). After reading the review, I particularly am looking forward to reading Shirley Werner's article -- it's a bibliography and commentary that covers everything published on literacy since Harris and includes many important items in non-Classic cultures. I do wonder at 3-5%, though. Somehow, I'd expect the usual 10-15% of fully literate and 25-30% semi-literate, that is, can read a newspaper, sign his or her name, but may or may not be able to write a letter. (If we look at the inscriptions on the ossuaries, the majority are by literate people; perhaps 10% are by semi-literates.) Pretty much what we have today in the US. If you also add the marginally literate (people who can read a sign, a book with mostly pictures, but can't read the directions on a fire-alarm box) that would be about another 30%. Oh, well, there definitely is an overlap between literacy/orality. It's not as black and white as it used to be made out to be. Rochelle >-From: owner-ioudaios-l@Lehigh.EDU on behalf of Gary Hedrick >>>Sent: Sat 12/19/2009 8:22 PM >>>To: First Century Judaism Discussion Forum >>>Subject: Re: Jerusalem Temple Inscription Warning Gentiles of Death >>> >>>Regarding the literacy rate, one could use the same rationale and say, Why >>>write the New Testament? Why put a sign over Yeshua's head on the Cross? >>Why the Priene inscription or the Res Gestae?. Someone literate would >>read it out loud to those who were not. >> >>Jeffrey >> >>-- >>Jeffrey B. Gibson, D.Phil. (Oxon) >>1500 W. Pratt Blvd. >>Chicago, Illinois >>e-mail jgibson000@comcast.net > > >This was particularly true at crucifixions. Every Roman legion, in >this case the Legio X Fretensis, had a four man team called a >Quatornio with the responsibility for crucifixions. They were led >by a legionnaire of Centurion rank called an Exactor Mortis. > >Seneca, for example, refers to the Exactor Mortis as CENTURIO >supplicio praepositus, De Ira 1.26. "Tunc CENTURIO supplicio >praepositus condere gladium speculatorem iubet, damnatum ad Pisonem >reducit redditurus Pisoni ... and Hermann-Josef Rollicke in Auf den >Stufen (Berlin 2006), certainly a modern authority, states," Der >CENTURIO als der exactor mortis, der den Tod des delinquenten om >kreuz abzuwarten und zu bestatigen hatte..."There is a ton of >primary Latin material on this but my point is that the Roman >authorities did not deem it wasteful but important reminders to the >populace that you would be better off not opposing Rome. The charge >against the victim of this horrible exercise was written on a >titulus and read by the Exactor Mortis to the gathering public, >those same people who gathered about the guillotines in France, the >axe in England or Judge Bean's scaffold in the old West. > >The literacy rate in first century Palestine, according to Meir >Bar-Ilan was between >3-5% http://faculty.biu.ac.il/~barilm/illitera.html but among the >Greek speaking Romans and the Greeks themselves it was as much as >three times higher. Perhaps Dr. Altman has some references, I >cannot dig mine up right now. The inscription is targeted to >Gentiles rather than Greek speaking Diaspora Jews but my suspicion >is that Roman Period Gentile tourists who traveled to Jerusalem to >see one of the wonders of the world, were upper class and >literate. The Temple was a class A tourist attraction and Gentiles >almost certainly paid the same 1/2 shekel/Tyrian half tetradrachm (7 >grams of silver) to ascend to the Court of the Gentiles, enclosed >with colonnades and with stalls, souvenir stands and money >changers. There were probably temple guards placed at the 13 >entrances in the 3 cubit high wall separating the three steps or so >of the central courts but any Gentile who slipped by them, even a >Roman citizen, could be immediately put to death. These inscription >were probably placed at each of these openings in the wall. That >would account, IMO, for excavators being lucky enough to find one. > >Jack Kilmon >San Antonio, TX
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