Literacy and Power in the Ancient World

• 1. Literacy and power in the ancient world Alan K. Bowman and Greg Woolf; 2. The Persepolis Tablets: speech, seal and script D. M. Lewis; 3. Literacy and the city-state in archaic and classical Greece Rosalind Thomas; 4. Literacy and language in Egypt in the Late and Persian Periods John Ray; 5. Literacy and power in Ptolemaic Egypt Dorothy J. Thompson; 6. Power and the spread of writing in the West Greg Woolf; 7. Texts, scribes and power in Roman Judaea M. D. Goodman; 8. The Roman imperial army: letters and literacy on the northern frontier Alan K. Bowman; 9. Literacy and power in early Christianity Robin Lane Fox; 10. Greek and Syriac in Late Antique Syria S. P. Brock; 11. Later Roman bureaucracy: going through the files C. M. Kelly; 12. Literacy and power in the migration period Peter Heather; 13. Texts as weapons: polemic in the Byzantine dark ages Averil Cameron.

'Bowman and Woolf's collection has many virtues – not least putting Greek and Roman experience into a wider ancient context. All classicists must read it to broaden their range and enlarge their operating framework.' The Classical Review