this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2025
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Do we actually have any 'Mary Chestnut' diaries from ancient times? Regular folks who recorded their thoughts?
Sadly, no. The two big issues are that writing material wasn't cheap, and that most of what has survived only survived because it was seen as important enough to be copied and reproduced. Many of our sources for antiquity have survived with only a handful of reproductions - such as a collection of Cicero's letters, which survived to the 14th century AD in only a single copy, found by chance in a Church library.
That being said, we do have some records of everyday thoughts, but nothing so substantial as a diary. There's a lot of archeological material in the form of writing on pottery shards, curse tablets, and the like. The buried city of Pompeii, which was covered in volcanic ash during the 1st century AD, has some amazing tidbits in the form of graffiti, which was scribbled all over the town by common folk - everything from jokes, to ads, to insults, to conversations, to caricatures, to simple, everyday celebrations!
I always forget to post this on Bread Day
Thank you.