My husband and I have been watching Rome, and it triggered a vague memory that until about the fourth or fifth century, all reading was done aloud, and that the inception of silent reading (recognizing words as pure symbol, and not turning them into sound as a way of decoding them) was a cultural shift. There’s something written about St. Augustine or St. Ambrose sitting under a tree, and others being surprised because they’re reading, but it isn’t aloud.
Any ancient history specialists?