IGNORANCE, in a more particular sense, is used to denote illiteracy. Previous to the taking of Rome by the Gauls, such gross ignorance prevailed among the Romans that few of the citizens could read or write, and the alphabet was almost unknown. During three ages there were no public schools, but the little learning their children had was taught them by their parents; and how little that was may be partly concluded from this circumstance, that a nail was annually driven into the wall of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, on the 15th of September, to assist the ignorance of the people in reckon-
ing the years, because they were unacquainted with letters or figures. The driving of the nail was afterwards converted into a religious ceremony, and performed by the dictator, to avert public calamities.