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There are merchants records and other civil documents from 1,200 years before Plato. In fact the oldest known letter of complaint dates from 1,750BC.
So I disagree.
what's it that you disagree with?
The comment I replied to.
i know, but what specifically in that comment?
I’m not sure how else to say it without repeating it.
I disagree that only the most educated people could read and write
I disagree that not many internet posts will be recorded for posterity
but we know that too few people used to be literate. I couldn't understand the need to disagree with this, i thought i misunderstood what you wrote.
It’s actually a bit of an ‘urban myth’ it did apply in eg Victorian Times but at other points in history there was widespread literacy.
What you do find at some times is that an elite wrote and spoke one language but everyone else wrote another. Which was a way of controlling access to information. This is one reason that the Bible was in Latin and there was subterfuge needed to get the first Bible in English. (The pages were smuggled into the country)
can you give some sources?
https://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item101093.html#:~:text=Intro,by%20law%20conducted%20in%20Latin.
i can't see how this supports your claim that literacy wasn't uncommon 🤷
That’s not what you asked for. I gave an illustration of the Bible being needed in English (which most people read) rather than Latin. So I gave you a source.
so, now, do you have any sources for your claim about literacy not being uncommon?
I’m beginning to think you might be trolling but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.
Some estimates put literacy in the ancient world as high as 40% excluding people who could read and write their name and basic words The decline in literacy after the Roman Empire is well documented and didn’t increase again until the Middle Ages. Buring and Van Zanden put the year 1451 as the point when it began to rise again.
If you want to see some discussion have a look here https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/literacy-rates-of-the-ancient-and-medieval-world.340325/
this isn't a source, it's another discussion thread like this one (and even on that thread there is no consensus)