Roman carved lettering?

Question

Did the Romans ever use lowercase when carving letters, or did they use it for writing? Where does lowercase come from? I'm sorry the question's a bit wishy washy, I'm hoping a good answer will lead me in a different direction.

Answer 1

Roman monumental carving in Latin was always done in Roman capitals, letter forms which derive from Greek and Etruscan capitals and which are the origin of our capitals today.

The Romans also wrote with reed pens on thin slips of wood, on parchment, pottery sherds and walls (grafitti) - here they used a cursive form of lettering which is ultimately the origin of our lower case alphabet. Roman cursive is extremely difficult to read as all the letters look similar - and not much like their modern forms.

It evolved only gradually, from Late Roman cursive to a kind of script called "uncial" used during the early middle ages. This was the script used for Bibles and other books written by monks.

Answer 2

The "upper case" and "lower case" came about because when printers used their printing press, they had to put in the letters. They stored their letters in two cases. The capital letters were in the case on top. I know it sounds wrong, but it's true. I hope that helps!

Answer 3

No the Romans did not use lower case. They had to chisel everything into stone and it was easier to only use upper case. The lower case probably came from Latin.