I'm not being lazy. I'm writing a historical piece about a hermit in the year 95AD. This is just before the decline of the Roman Empire, the era of Domitian, who was busy persecuting Christians left right and centre.

The hermit writes a series of letters in a cave. But what would he use to do this? I'm having problems finding out. And also, he's Jewish. It's Biblical. Would he write in Hebrew or Latin?

JB

Sepia - cuttle fish ink
Or
Encaustum - oak galls, water, gum arabic and virtol (iron pyrites)
Writing on parchment (goat skin).

http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/I27_INV/INK_from_Late_Lat_encaustum_Gr_.html

Before the 2nd century AD I think he'd have written on papyrus rather than parchment.

Documents have been found written on thin sheets of wood. Would this have been more likely if he was living in a cave?

The Latin word for a pen is "stilus" for the pen they used for writing on wax tablets. I'm not sure if it's the same for an inkpen.

Husband says he would be writing in neither, he thinks. It would probably be Greek or Aramaic. And it depends who he's writing to - ie what he thinks they can understand. He would probably be able to write in both.

Greek equals lang of En. Roman Empire (Greek equals normal lang of Romans in the East)
Aramaic equals lang of Assyrian Empire & Persia. (Jews adopted this lang. after the exile in Babylon which was 500 BC-ish.)

At the time the hermit is writing, Hebrew would be the equivalent of Shakespearian English to us - so v. old-fashioned. The Dead Sea Scrolls are mostly Hebrew, some Aramaic, but they are 200BC to 60AD, so Hebrew is dying out at the end of when they were written.

NB Latin is lang of Wn Roman Empire, but if hermit is Jewish he probably wouldn't be Western, as most Jews were in the East.

Hope that helps - yell if you need more as K is a mine of theological information. Worryingly, he could tell me most of this without looking up in his theological tomes!! We need to get out more ...



A
xxx

I agree with Holly, at that date he would most likely have used Aramaic.

Where is he based?
If he is near the Nile he could be writing on Papyrus which he has collected himself.
If he is living in the mountains and keeping goats for his own sustenance, he would have a source of parchment.
In temperate lands he could use birch bark paper or thin wooden boards.

Wow! Why do we need Wikipedia, when we have WW?



Emma

I was just thinking the same, Emma. What a mine of useful info Ww-ers are. Amazing!
JB, does it help?
x
tc

One little point, JB, 95AD was during a flowering of the roman empire, at a time of expansion across Northern Europe, c.40AD the invasion of Britain. They did not pull out of Britain until c.400AD, the decline of the roman empire.

I agree with previous posts about language. Most probably Greek (common rather than classical) and maybe Aramaic. However, the Apocrypha would seem to suggest the prevalence of Greek.

Scribes?

Certainly in I Claudius he doesn't lift the quill himself...

Sarah

As I understood it Gulliver, Greek took over from Aramaic in the 3rd Century AD.

Scribe?

Would a hermit be a hermit if he had a secretary?

NMott,

The Apocryphal texts date from the second century BC to the first century AD. They were written during the decline of Alexander's Empire. The Septuagint includes these texts and since the Septuagint is a Greek translation of the OT (circa 70 AD), this suggests Greek became the common language for Jews much earlier than the third century AD.

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Just checked the chronology the Septuagint. 70AD is the latest date. It is possible that the Pentateuch had been translated into Greek as early as the third century BC.

Would a hermit be a hermit if he had a secretary?

Oh I don't know. Look at all those mystics in the Middle Ages who had themselves walled up and then relied on room service?

Sarah

According to Wikipedia, the Dead sea scrolls, written between the 2ndC BC and 1stC AD were mainly written in Biblical Hebrew with some in Aramaic and a few in Koine Greek.
In part it depends on the Hermit's location.



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Also, JB's hermit is Jewish, where as the apocrypher is part of the Christian bible.

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I mean, the Greek texts were the New Testiment.