Athens of the late fifth century, which was one of the most literate places on earth. Thanks to the alphabet, Greek writing was much easier to learn than many other writing systems, twenty-four letters neatly matched to sounds, which meant that written Greek was close to spoken Greek. No need to learn some ancient literary language like Hebrew or Old Akkadian. And the political system made sure that a citizen, even a lowly one, perhaps even a slave, a migrant, or a woman, could learn to read and write. Only the expense of papyrus, which had to be imported, was a drag on literacy. There was
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