Short answers, pulled from the story.
In ancient Rome, the scriba served as a public notary or clerk who held the highest rank among four prestigious occupational grades known as decuriae. These public scribes belonged to the group called apparitores and supported magistrates by performing administrative duties.
By the end of the 4th century BC, the office afforded several advantages including legal knowledge that was traditionally the privilege of the elite classes. Gnaeus Flavius shocked the Roman upper classes by winning election as curule aedile in 305 BC after his victory made possible by growing numbers of freedmen among urban populations prompted action from censors.
Scriba Sextus Cloelius kept a high profile as an agent of Clodius Pulcher and organized ludi compitalicii at the beginning of Clodius's year in office as tribune of the plebs in 58 BC. He also led people in riots when Clodius was murdered a few years later and took the body to the senate house turning it into the popular leader's funeral pyre.
The Augustan poet Horace introduced himself in his first published book as son of a freedman who identified specifically as a civil servant known as a scriba quaestorius. This title referred to clerk to the quaestors who were in charge of public treasury and informed his literary voice throughout his career.