6 - The Roman Scriba Reimagined

Summary

The chapter serves both as a summary of the classical model of scriba-ship established throughout the book and as an epilogue to the history of the scribae in the Later Roman Empire and beyond. It follows the sparse traces of scribae and revivals of the post in the institutions of the Late Roman state. It argues for the pervasive nature of the idea of the scriba using the example of a public scribe in the Ostrogothic Kingdom of the seventh century.