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A Latin Master from Roman Spain
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2009
Extract
Recently there has been an upsurge in the discussion of the extent of literacy in the ancient world. An important area within this debate is the examination of the attitude of state authorities to the promotion of literacy. In today's world it is taken for granted that any given government will seek to promote the highest level of literacy possible amongst its subjects. The reward for doing so is prestige, and the penalty for failure considerable opprobrium.
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23. Ch. 79.
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29. Cod.Iust. 10.54.7, ‘Magistros studiorum doctoresque excellere oportet moribus primum, deinde facundia…quisquis docere vult non repente nee temere prosiliat ad hoc munus sed iudicio ordinis probatus decretum curialium mereatur, optimorum conspirante consensu’; cf. Cod Theod. 13.3.6. Such privileges could also be revoked; see Cod.Iust. 10.52.2: ‘Grammaticos seu oratores decreto ordinis probatus si non se utiles studentibus praebent denuo ab eodem ordine reprobari posse incognitum non est.’
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32. Digest 27.1.6.9 (Modestinus).
33. Digest 27.1.6.10 (Paulus), τοὐς μ⋯ντοι ἄγαν ⋯πιστ⋯μονας Cf. Cod.Theod. 10.52.8, where this group is described as ‘a probatissimis approbati’, but there is no explanation of how this is to be achieved.
34. CIL 2.354.
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41. Epistles, 1.19,1.20.
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55. Petronius, , Satyricon 46Google Scholar.
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57. See for example Martial, 5.56,9.73.
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60. Suetonius, , De Gramm. 7 on Antonius GriphoGoogle Scholar.
61. See Jackson, R., Doctors and Diseases in the Roman Empire (London, 1988), p. 65Google Scholar. Our only evidence that this occasionally happened is Pliny, , N.H. 29.6.12–13Google Scholar.
62. Pliny, , Ep. 1.8Google Scholar.
63. See also Quintilian, , Inst. 1.1.8Google Scholar.
64. Gemma Ecclesiastica 35.
65. For Cicero, , De Off. 1.151Google Scholar, teaching was a semi-respectable profession, but one best avoided by the homo liberalis.