Wax Tablet and Visual Impairment

Used in ancient and medieval time periods, wax tablets were typically used as notebooks in classroom settings, especially since parchment was not as readily available as it was later. The wax tablet is made up of one, or sometimes two, wooden boards that are carved in the center and filled with wax. To write, one would use a double-sided stylus. One side of the stylus was used for writing while the other side was used for erasing.

While it seems like writing on a wax tablet would be much more difficult than the modern notebook, many ancient Romans advocated for the wax tablet over pen and ink. Marcus Fabius Quintilianus was a Latin teacher in ancient Rome most famous for his work ​Institutio oratoria, ​in which he discusses education and methods of teaching and writing. In the twelfth book of Institutio oratoria ​(published in 95CE)​, ​he discusses the importance of wax tablets: “There are certain lesser points - though in study nothing is unimportant - which should not be overlooked. It is best to write on wax tablets, unless indeed poor eyesight makes it necessary to use parchments. While these aid vision, they delay the hand by the constant to and fro of pen to inkwell, breaking up the continuity of thought. Whichever medium is used, however, some pages should be left blank so that additional material can be freely added. For lack of space makes one reluctant to make corrections, and will certainly produce confusion in the old when new material is inserted." The idea of continuity of thought is rather interesting, and with the modern pen we have achieved this. But what is more interesting about this quote is how Quintilianus doesn’t totally shut out the use of parchment in regards to someone with poor vision. This is significant as it means people in ancient Rome were very understanding when it came to disabilities involving vision. Quintilianus noticed the difficulty of using wax tablets with poor vision and allowed alternative options for students that needed it.

Disabilities involving eyesight weren’t just accepted in ancient Rome, they were often celebrated. Considering ancient Rome's harsh treatment of certain disabilities, this can come across as quite surprising. Greek historian Dionysios of Halikarnassos wrote about the founder of Rome saying, “Romulus demanded that all the city’s residents should raise all their male children and the first born of the girls and not kill any child under three unless the child was disabled” (Brignell).

Many children with disabilities were killed in ancient Rome until the third century when this Roman law was reversed. Soranus of Ephesus was a Roman doctor who added some major contributions to disability history by clarifying the differences between sensory and motor impairments. However, not all of his thoughts on disabilities were ideal as he wrote in his book of gynecology that a baby should be “perfect in all its parts, members and senses. And by conditions contrary to those mentioned, the infant not worth rearing is recognized” (Duchan).

On the other hand, blindness and partial blindness were highly regarded especially if they were caused by battle wounds. Many people became famous after losing an eye, especially due to the famous stories of Horatius Cocles, Hannibal, and Sertorius. There are records of Julius Caesar noting four commanders who lost their eyes in civil wars. Marcus Tullius Cicero references blindness in his book ​Tusculanae Disputationes. ​He states that a person could live “very well and very able, without vision, so long as one had the faculty of an otherwise sound body and mind” (Trenton 10). There was a sense of strong community in ancient Rome where people would rely on others for things that they couldn’t necessarily do themselves. Cicero was very good friends with a man named Diodotus the Stoic who became blind as he got older. Cicero stated in his book, “The Stoic Diodotus, another man who lost his sight, lived for many years in my house. It seems hard to believe, but after he became blind he devoted himself more strenuously to philosophy than he ever had before. He also played the lyre, like a Pythagorean, and had books read to him day and night; he had no need of eyes to get on with his work. He also did something which seems scarcely credible for a man who could not see: he continued giving lectures on geometry, giving his pupils verbal indications of the points where they should begin and end the lines they had to draw” (Tusculan Disputations, v. 39).

While ancient Rome didn’t exactly welcome all disabilities with open arms, the recognition and research that was done is important to look back on. Visual impairment was just as common then as it is in modern times. It is important to note that for the most part visual impairment was accepted in ancient Rome. People weren’t looked down upon or thought as weak for these disabilities, and in many military cases, people were more respected for their disabilities and sacrifice.

Brignell, Victoria, et al. “Ancient World.” ​New Statesman,​ 7 Apr. 2008, www.newstatesman.com/blogs/crips-column/2008/04/disabled-slaves-child-roman.

Clarke, Martin Lowther. “Quintilian.” ​Encyclopædia Britannica​, 1 Jan. 2020, ​www.britannica.com/biography/Quintilian​.

“Diodotus the Stoic.” ​Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias​, enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/7555145.

Duchan, Judith Felson. "Soranus of Ephesus." ​ A History of Speech - Language Pathology​, www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~duchan/new_history/ancient_history/soranus.html.

Mim. “Wax Tablets Roman Style.” ​Abbey Museum​, 9 Aug. 2017, abbeymuseum.com.au/wax-tablets-roman-style/.

Trenton, Lisa. “Exploring Visual Impairment in Ancient Rome.” ​Disabilities in Roman Antiquity: Disparate Bodies, "a Capite Ad Calcem,"​ by Christian Laes and C. F. Goodey, Brill, 2013, pp. 99–110.