Was silent reading unusual during Augustine's time? If so, what implications might a comment by Augustine in his Confessions  (6.3.3.) have on the larger question of whether reading was primarily oral rather than silent in the ancient world? In " Toward a Sociology of Reading in Classical Antiquity ," American Journal of Philology 121 (2000) 593-627 William A. Johnson quoted Augustine's passage from the  Confessions concerning the reading habits of his mentor, the archbishop of Milan,  Aurelius Ambrosius , who read silently. The inference is that silent reading was unusual in Augustine's time: "When Ambrose read, his eyes ran over the columns of writing and his heart searched out the meaning, but his voice and his tongue were at rest. Often when I was present—for he did not close his door to anyone and it was customary to come in unannounced—I have seen him reading silently, never in fact otherwise.…