Boy stands before a writing teacher who holds the stylus poised to write in his tablet (or to check the student's exercise). Other inscriptions on the vase are in the Attic alphabet: HIPODAMAS KALOS. (From Immerwahr, [1964], 18-19)] " David N. Carvalho: "Tablets of ivory or metal were in common use among the Greeks and Romans. When made of wood--sometimes of citron, but usually of beech or fir--their inner sides were coated with wax, on which the letters were traced with a pointed pen or stiletto (stylus), one end of which was used for erasure. It was with his stylus that Caesar stabbed Casca in the arm when attacked by his murderers. Wax tablets of this kind continued in partial use in Europe during the middle ages; the oldest extant specimen, now in the museum at Florence, belongs to the year 1301."

Images of Ancient Greeks