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In the Roman world, technologies were limited to small, scattered social groups, whereas today's information technology often seems to take on a life of its own, spreading into every part of our lives.
Mosaics of Knowledge combines detailed readings of a wide variety of evidence such as inscriptions and artworks, with theoretical consideration of the social, cognitive, and material contexts for their use to present a unique portrait of Roman IT capabilities, limitations, and habits.
List of contents
- A Brief Orientation
- 1. Lists
- Ordered Lists
- Indexed Lists
- Tables of Contents
- Nested Lists
- 2. Tables
- Actual Tables
- Not Tables
- Outliers
- Conclusions
- 3. Weights and Measures
- How Does Roman Measurement Work?
- Standards and Standardization
- Direct Standardization
- Indirect Standardization
- Complications
- Conclusions
- 4. Representing Three Dimensions
- Perspective and the Theory of Space
- The Corpora
- Space in the Landscapes
- Two Comprehensive Examples
- Conclusions
- 5. Representing Two Dimensions
- Data Graphics
- Textual Illustrations
- Plans
- What is a "Map"?
- Maps
- Maps as Information Technology
- 6. Conclusion
- Where Are We Now?
- Going Forward I: Power and Other Topics
- Going Forward II: An IT Revolution in Late Antiquity?
- Bibliography
About the author
Andrew M. Riggsby is a historian of the Roman world. Educated at Harvard and Berkeley, he is now Lucy Shoe Meritt Professor in Classics at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome and was the Stanley Kelley Jr. Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching in Classics at Princeton University.
Summary
Today's information technology often seems to take on a life of its own, spreading into every part of our lives. In the Roman world things were different. Technologies were limited to small, scattered social groups.
By examining five technologies-lists, tables, weights and measures, artistic perspective, and mapping-Mosaics of Knowledge demonstrates how the Romans broke up a world we might have imagined them to unite. That is, the recording, storage, and recall of information in physical media might be expected to bind together persons distant in time and space. More often than not, however, Roman instances serve to create or reinforce the isolation of particular groups. Persons in different "locations"- whether those are geographical, social, or occupational-had access to quite different informational resources, and the overall situation is thus not controlled by the needs of any particular class or group. On the one hand, these constraints on use in turn constrain the development and power of individual technologies. Development is slow, scattered, and far from one-directional. On the other, seeming technological weaknesses can turn out to be illusory if we set them in actual use-contexts. Romans deploy no more but also no less "computing" power than needed for very narrowly defined goals.
This study combines detailed readings of a wide variety of evidence (inscriptions, small archeological finds, artworks, literary texts) with theoretical consideration of the social, cognitive, and material contexts for their use to present a unique portrait of Roman IT capabilities, limitations, and habits.
Additional text
REVIEW: Richard J. A. Talbert, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 01/03/2019. Quote loaded: 14/03/2019
