Description acceptable. Paul Saenger claimed this activity was uncommon due to the “tunnel vision” imposed by scriptio continua. For 10 points each:
[10m] Identify this ability that probably was not actually rare in antiquity, despite a much-scrutinized passage in the Confessions in which Augustine is surprised to see Ambrose performing it.
ANSWER: silent reading [accept descriptions like reading without speaking the words aloud; or subvocalization or word forms]
[10e] A loci classici in the debate was Plutarch’s reference to Caesar’s silent reading of a love letter on the Senate floor during this conspiracy. Cicero exclaimed “O tempora! O mores!” while castigating this conspiracy’s namesake.
ANSWER: Catiline’s Conspiracy [or Catilinarian Conspiracy]
[10h] Like riding in a carriage, reading aloud was one of the “passive exercises” promoted to the Roman elite by a doctor from this kingdom named Asclepiades. Prusias I of this kingdom may have aided the suicide of an exiled general who taught him to weaponize snake-filled clay pots.
ANSWER: Bithynia (Hannibal served Prusias after his exile from Carthage.)
<S, Ancient History>