Writing

Writing was a useful tool for the ancient Romans - the written word could communicate ideas to the people of Rome and to Roman subjects throughout the Empire. Only a fraction of the huge number of texts written by the Romans have survived.

We don't have any examples of writing from the Italian peninsula before the Greeks set up colonies there in the 8th century BC. The Greek alphabet was adopted by the Etruscans and spread throughout peninsula. Also, people living near the Greek colonies in the south may have borrowed the alphabet directly from the Greeks. The Latin alphabet that developed gradually was adopted from the Greek and spread throughout the Roman Empire - to northern and western Europe. We still use it today!

Most people in Rome didn't go to school and didn't learn to read and write. Children from wealthy families, however, began school at about age 6 or 7. Students learned to write on boards spread with wax They scratched letters in the wax with a pointed stick (called a stylus) and then rubbed them out with the flat end of the stick. What do we use in the classroom that lets us write and erase easily, especially your teacher?

The Romans used a variety of tools for writing. Everyday writing could be done on wax tablets or thin leaves of wood. Documents, like legal contracts, were usually written in pen and ink on papyrus. Books were also written in pen and ink on papyrus or sometimes on parchment. Inscriptions were sometimes carved in stone on buildings and other monuments, like triumphal arches.