Literacy in the Roman world...

How literate was the Roman Empire? And how can we interpret the avaiable evidence, notably the epigraphic and archaeological evidence?
Literacy is conventionally defined as the ability to read and write. But there are various forms of literacy depending on people's membership in a particular culture.  We need to distinguish between active and passive literacy: starting with the ability to decipher or write simple texts, to the creative composition of complex texts with the complex syntax which may also imply forms of critical thinking and a reflection of one's self. Literacy may depend on people's status, their profession, gender, and age-group, and their access to education. What we can clearly see in the Roman empire is that writing was used by a large number of people, across all social strata: it is not an elite phenomenon. Craftsmen and traders also needed to read and write, as we can see for example from the famous potters' accounts from La Graufesenque.
For the theme of literacy it is important to consider all the available evidence. Very important is the archaeology, like the various writing instruments that can be found in thousands of graves. ...........
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Ralph Haeussler