52 Chris Keith characterized by a limited writing capacity. That limited capacity, however, had significant repercussions. From that point on in an individual’s life he or she would at least be ranked among those who could sign his or her own name on documents, and thus participate, even if marginally, in literate culture. When teachers stressed penmanship among students, assigning them writing practice at a very early stage, they intended to take best advantage of the time at their disposal to make them part of the class of those who “did know letters”. Thus basic copying skills and the ability to produce a signature were probably considered more desirable in the first place than the ability to read properly, especially when balanced against the time and effort needed to produce such result (61). The importance for being able to demonstrate membership in the class of those who “know letters” cannot be overemphasized for those ancients in positions of even marginal power. One may here cite the famous Petaus, a town clerk (kwmogrammateuv") who could “pass himself off as literate” by reproducing letters mechanically even though he could not read anything beyond his own name (62). That this was the case is revealed by a papyrus he used to practice his formula Petau'" kwmogra(mmateu;") ejpidevdwka (“I, Petaus, town clerk, have submitted”) (63). Once he made a mistake while practicing (omission of the initial epsilon of the verb at line 5), the mistake repeats itself (64). That is, Petaus cannot read enough to know he was repeating the mistake; he was simply copying the previous line. Petaus’ own writing abilities are all the more interesting because, when called upon to give an opinion on another town clerk who had been charged with illiteracy, he claimed boldly that of course the clerk was literate, for he had (61) CRIBIORE, Writing, 152. See also HARRIS, Ancient Literacy, 251-252. Cf. MURPHY-O’CONNOR, Paul, 8: “In the Greco-Roman world all who went to school learned to write, and were trained by being obliged to take down dictation”. This is (in the least) a gross overstatement. (62) CRIBIORE, Writing, 151; Gymnastics, 172. (63) P.Petaus 121 (P. Köln inv. 328). The papyrus appears on R. BAGNALL, Reading Papyri, Writing Ancient History (Approaching the Ancient World; London 1995) xiii (discussed on 24). An excellent discussion is that of YOUTIE, “Bradew" gravfwn”, 239-241. v (64) T.J. Kraus (“[Il]literacy in Non-Literary Papyri from Graeco-Roman Egypt: Further Aspects to the Educational Ideal in Ancient Literary Sources”, [ID.] Ad Fontes, 119-120) gives a fuller description of the numerous mistakes in P.Petaus 121.