The Incredible Codex
How Communications Technology Impacted Roman History
This essay is part of a series comparing the twilights of (1) Rome's slave-based economic system and (2) the Middle Ages' feudal system to (3) today's capitalism. In addition to the broad life cycles of these economic systems, we'll compare similarities between infectious diseases and communication technology across all three eras. Finally, we'll see how belief systems rise and fall in tandem with broad economic systems. When these systems seize up and stop functioning, people begin questioning authorities of every kind, leading to collapses of bedrock conceptions of reality itself.
Introduction
Bound books are ubiquitous in our modern world, but their invention in Classical Rome was nothing short of miraculous. The introduction of the book—or codex, as the Romans called it—drastically altered that society's fate and many others since by turbocharging the organization and dissemination of early Christianity.
The Codex
The bound book was invented in the 1st century AD, coinciding with the height of the Roman Empire. The Romans called this invention a "codex". The exact origin of the codex is uncertain; it emerged from the Roman practice of binding wax tablets together for note-taking. This practice likely inspired the concept of binding parchment (animal skin) or papyrus sheets into a book-like structure.
The Romans initially used codices alongside scrolls, but they quickly gained popularity because they were far more practical. Unlike scrolls, which could be extremely lengthy when unraveled, books allow readers to easily jump to any specific place in the text.
During the 3rd and 4th centuries, the codex gradually supplanted the scroll. By the time the Roman Empire fell, the bound book had become the dominant format for texts of all kinds.
Christianity
At the time the codex was invented, Christians were being heavily persecuted by the Roman authorities. Every Sunday school pupil has heard the stories of early Christians getting thrown to lions in the Colosseum. But because they compiled their religious beliefs into a single convenient volume, Christians managed to turn the tables on Rome’s powerful oligarchy.
Because they were early adopters of a new communications technology, the Christian’s new faith spread faster than any set of ideas ever had before then. Moreover, Christians all over the Empire could be assured that they were “on the same page.” Anyone who’s ever played a game of telephone knows that any message inevitably ends up garbled after just one or two verbal transmissions. However, with reference to a common text, upstart early Christians avoided garbling or splintering their message; the bound book allowed them to challenge power as a cohesive unit.
It may seem crashingly obvious today, but the bound book proved to be a powerful weapon in any war of ideas. It was so effective that the Caesars were eventually forced to accept the new Christian faith as their official state religion. Rarely has any war of ideas been won so decisively.
Communication Technology
The printing press is another famous example of communication technology tipping the balance of power. Having enjoyed political dominance over Europe since the Fall of Rome, the Roman Catholic Church lost control over the narrative when the printing press arrived. Until its invention, books were painstakingly copied by hand. But after its invention, the printing presses of Europe began churning out texts faster than the Pope could ban them. A marketplace of competing ideas replaced the ideological totalitarianism of the Vatican, and the Renaissance and the Reformation were the notorious results.
Today, another advance in communications technology is once again challenging power: the internet. We’re seeing the death throes of the legacy media, which used to report the news. It’s tried to survive by carrying water for the powerful but has only squandered its remaining credibility. The powerful, meanwhile, are attempting to award themselves broad censorship powers, but they have lost control of the narrative just like the Popes and the Caesars before them.
Conclusion
The bound book, or codex, was a Roman invention that revolutionized their society and forever changed the face of civilization in general. By replacing scrolls with this much more convenient format, early Christianity became ideologically organized enough to successfully challenge the power of the Caesars during Rome’s twilight. This challenge to power was mirrored by the invention of the printing press a thousand years later and by the advent of the internet in our own time.
Further Materials
