2, 3, 4.

GRAFFITI ON TILES FROM SILCHESTER.

(P.
25.)] [Illustration: FIG.5.GRAFFITO ON A TILE FOUND AT SILCHESTER (P.25).
_Pertacus perfidus campester Lucilianus Campanus conticuere omnes._ (Probably a writing lesson.)] I have heard this conclusion doubted on the ground that a bricklayer or domestic servant in a province of the Roman Empire would not have known how to read and write.

This doubt really rests on a misconception of the Empire.

It is, indeed, akin to the surprise which tourists often exhibit when confronted with Roman remains in an excavation or a museum--a surprise that 'the Romans' had boots, or beds, or waterpipes, or fireplaces, or roofs over their heads.