Spurius Carvilius Rūga (, ) was the

freedman A freedman or freedwoman is a person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their owners), emancipation (granted freedom as part of a larger group), or self- ...

of Spurius Carvilius Maximus Ruga. He is often credited with inventing the Latin letter G. His invention would have been quickly adopted in the

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( ) was the era of Ancient Rome, classical Roman civilisation beginning with Overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establis ...

, because the letter C was used for both the and sounds. For example, Ruga's own name () contained this ambiguity. In the latter half of the 3rd century BC, Ruga is the first man recorded to have been attested as opening a private

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

, although other such schools may have existed in Rome prior to his.

Plutarch Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...

is the main source for these inventions, and Quintus Terentius Scaurus confirms the former in '. The letter G was already in use before 230 BC; Wilhelm Paul Corssen theorized in ' that Plutarch intended to communicate that Ruga's school was the first to assign C and G to the phonemes of and .

References

Sources

*
Quaestiones Romanae
' questions 54 and 59.

by Gary Martin
The Origin of the Latin Letters G and Z
by George Hempl {{DEFAULTSORT:Carvilius Ruga, Spurius Ruga, Spurius 3rd-century BC Romans Republican era slaves and freedmen Schoolteachers

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