452 LIBELLI DIPLOMA-CODEX. When a book was sent anywhere, the roll was tied with a thread, and wax put on the knot, and sealed; hence signata volumina, Horat. Ep. i. 13. So letters, Cic. Cat. iii. 5. The roll was usually wrapped round with coarser paper, or parchment, Plin. xiii. 11, or with part of an old book, to which Horace is thought to allude, Ep. i. 20. 13. Hence the old Scholiast on this place, Fient ex te opisthographa literarum, so called, because the inscription written on the back showed to whom the letter or book was sent. Julius Caesar, in his letters to the senate, introduced the custom of dividing them into pages (pagine), and folding them into the form of a pocket-book or account-book, (libellus memorialis vel rationalis), with distinct pages, like our books; whereas formerly, consuls and generals, when they wrote to the senate, used to continue the line quite across the sheet (transversâ chartá), without any distinction of pages, and roll them up in a volume, Suet. Cæs. 56. Hence, after this, all applications or requests to the emperors, and messages from them to the senate, or public orders to the people, used to be written and folded in this form, called LIBELLI. (See p. 21.) Suet. Aug. xlv. 53. Tib. xviii. 66. Cl. 15. N. 15. Domit. 17. Martial. viii. 31.82., or CODICILLI, Tacit. Ann. xvi. 24. Suet. Tib. xxii. 42. Cal. 18. Cl. 29, rarely used in the singular; applied chiefly to a person's last will, (see p. 58.) also to writing tables, the same with pugillares, or to letters written on them, Cic. Phil. viii. 10. Fam. iv. 12. vi. 18. ix. 26. Q. Fr. ii. 11. Suet. Cl. 5. N. 49. A writ, conferring any exclusive right or privilege, was called DIPLOMA, (i. e. libellus duplicatus, vel duorum foliorum, consisting of two leaves written on one side), granted by the emperor, or any Roman magistrate, similar to what we call Letters Patent, i. e. open to the inspection of all, or a patent, Cic. Fam. vi. 12. Att. x. 17. Pis. 37. Senec. Ben. vii. 10. Suet. Aug. 50. Cal. 38. Ner. 12. Oth. 7., given particularly to public couriers, or to those who wished to get the use of the public horses or carriages for despatch, Plin. Ep. x. 54, 55. 121. [Tac. Hist. ii. 54.] Any writing, whether on paper, parchment, tablets, or whatever materials, folded like our books, with a number of distinct leaves above one another, was called CODEX, (quasi CAUDEX, plurium tabularum contextus, Senec. de Brev. Vit. 13. Cic. Verr. i. 36. 46. & Ascon. in loc.) particularly account-books; tabulæ vel CODICES, accepti et expensi, Cic. Rosc. Com. i. 2, &c. Verr. ii. 61., libri or libelli. Thus, we say liber and volumen of the same thing, Quinctil. ix. 4. f., liber grandi volumine, Gell. xi. 6., but not codex. Legere vel recitare suum codicem, the crime of the tribune Cornelius, who read his own law from a book in the assembly of the people, when the herald and secretary, whose office that was, (see p. 85. & 157.) were hindered to do it by the intercession of another tribune, Ascon. in Cornel. Cic. Vat. 2. Quinctil. runt;' but why should the magistrates have bought it if it had been free to every one to copy it? Martial, in one of his epigrams, says, Sunt quidam, qui me dicunt non esse poetam ; Sed qui me vendit, bibliopola, putat.'— Lib. xiv. Ep. 194. FORM OF WRITING LETTERS. 4.53 iv. 4. Hence, in after-times, Codex was applied to any collection of laws. See p. 196. All kinds of writings were called LITERÆ, Cic. passim: hence, QUAM VELLEM NESCIRE LITERAS, I wish I could not write, Suet. Ner. 10. Senec. Clem. 1. But literæ is most frequently applied to epistolary writings, (EPISTOLÆ vel charta epistolares, Cic.) used in this sense by the poets, also in the sing., Ovid. Pont. i. 7. 9. ii. 7. iv. 8. Ep. xviii. 9. xix. fin. xxi. fin.; so in a negative form, Cic. Att. xiii. 39. Fam. ii. 17. Arch. 8. Verr. i. 36.; or for one's handwriting (manus), Cic. Att. vii. 2.; but, in prose, litera commonly signifies a letter of the alphabet. EPISTOLA was always sent to those who were absent, Cic. Q. Fr. i. 1. 13. iii. 1. 3. Fam. i. 7. ii. 4.: CODICILLI were also given to those present, Tacit. Ann. iv. 39. Senec. Ep. 55. So LIBELLI, Suet. Aug. 84. The Romans, at least in the time of Cicero, divided their letters, if long, into pages, Cic. Att. vi. 2. Q. Fr. i. 2, 3. Fam. ii. 13. xi. 25., and folded them in the form of a little book, Senec. Ep. 45., tied them round with a thread (lino obligabant), Cic. Cat. iii. 5. Ovid. Ep. xviii. 28., as anciently, Nep. Paus. 4. Curt. vii. 2., covered the knot with wax, or with a kind of chalk (creta), Cic. Flacc. 16. Verr. iv. 26., and scaled it (obsignabant), Plaut. Bacch. iv. 4. 64. 96., first wetting the ring with spittle, that the wax might not stick to it, Ovid. Trist. v. 4, 5. Amor. ii. 15. 15. Juvenal. i. 68. Hence epistolam vel literas resignare, aperire, vel solvere, to open, Nep. Hann. 11. Cic. Att. xi. 9., resolvere, Liv. xxvi. 15. If any small postscript remained after the page was completed, it was written crosswise (transversim) on the margin, Cic. Att. v. 1. In writing letters, the Romans always put their own name first, and then that of the person to whom they wrote, Auson. Ep. 20., sometimes with the addition of SUO, as a mark of familiarity or fondness, Cic. & Plin. Martial. xiv. 11.; if he was invested with an office, that likewise was added, but no epithets, as among us, unless to particular friends, whom they sometimes called humanissimi, optimi, dulcissimi, animæ suæ, &c., Cic. & Plin. passim. They always annexed the letter S. for SALUTEM, sc. dicit, wishes health, as the Greek xalpe, or the like; so Horace, Ep. i. 8. Hence salutem alicui mittere, Plaut. Pseud. i. 1. 39. Ovid. Her. xvi. 1. xviii. 1., &c., multam vel plurimam dicere, adscribere, dare, impertire, nuntiare, referre, &c., as we express it, to send compliments, &c., Cic. Fam. xiv. 1. Att. xvi. 3. They used anciently to begin with SI VALES, BENE est vel gaudeo, EGO VALEO, Senec. Ep. i. 15. Plin. Ep. i. 11. Cic. Fam. v. 9. 10. xiv. 8. 11. &c., which they often marked with capital letters, Hirt. B. Hisp. 26. They ended with VALE, Ovid. Trist. v. 13. 33. CURA UT VALEAS; sometimes AVE or SALVE to a near relation, with this addition, MI ANIME, MI SUAVISSIME, &c. They never subscribed their name as we do, but sometimes added a prayer for the prosperity of the person to whom they wrote; as, Deos obsecro ut te conservent, Suet. Tib. 21., which was always done to the Emperors, Dio. lvii. 11., and called SUBSCRIPTIO, Suet. Tib. 32. The day of the month, sometimes the hour, was annexed, Suet. Aug. 50. Letters were sent by a messenger, commonly a slave, called TABELLARIUS, Cic., for the Romans had no established post. There sometimes was an inscription on the outside of the letter, sometimes 4.54 SLAVES OR FREEDMEN EMPLOYED IN WRITING, ETC. not, Plutarch. in Dione. When Decimus Brutus was besieged by Antony at Mutina, Hirtius and Octavius wrote letters on thin plates of lead, which they sent to him by means of divers (urinatores), and so received his answer, Dio. xlvi. 36. Frontin. iii. 13. 7. Appian mentions letters inscribed on leaden bullets, and thrown by a sling into a besieged city or camp, Mithrid. p. 191. See Dio. xl. 9. li. 10. Julius Cæsar, when he wrote to any one what he wished to keep secret, always made use of the fourth letter after that which he ought to have used; as D for A, E for B, &c. Suet. Cæs. 56. Dio. xl. 11. Augustus used the letter following, Dio. li. 3., as в for A, and c for B; for z, aa, Suet. Aug. 88. Isidor. 1. 24. So that those only could understand the meaning, who were instructed in their method of writing, Gell. xvii. 9. The Romans had slaves or freedmen who wrote their letters, called AB EPISTOLIS, Suet. Claud. 28. (A MANU Vel AMANUENSES), Suet. Cæs. 74. Aug. 67. Vesp. Tit. i. 3., and accounts (A RATIONIBUS, vel ratiocinatores, Cic. Att. i. 12. Suet. Claud. 28.), also who wrote shorthand, (ACTUARII, Suet. Jul. 55., vel NOTARII, Senec. Ep. 90.) as quickly as one could speak; Currant verba licèt, manus est velocior illis, Martial. xiv. 208.; on waxen tables, Auson. Ep. 146. 17. Manil. iv. 195., sometimes put for amanuenses, Plin. Ep. iii. 5. ix. 36.; who transcribed their books (LIBRARII), Cic. Att. xii. 3. Liv. xxxviii. 55.; who glued them (GLUTINATORES, Cic. Att. ix. 4., vulgarly called librorum concinnatores vel compactores, Bibonyol, bookbinders); polished them with pumice-stone (pumice poliebant vel lævigabant, Ovid. Trist. i. 1. 9. iii. 1. 13.), anointed them with the juice of cedar (cedro illinebant), to preserve them from moths and rottenness (a tineis et carie), Ibid. & Plin. xiii. 12. Martial. iii. 2. v. 6. viii. 61.; hence carmina cedro linenda, worthy of immortality, Horat. Art. P. 332. [and kept them in cases of cypress, levi servanda cupresso, Ibid.]; so Pers. i. 42. and marked the titles or index with vermilion, (MINIUM, V. cinnabaris, Ovid. ibid. Plin. xxxiii. 7.) purple (coccus vel purpura), Martial. ib., red earth, or red ochre (rubrica); (see p. 195.); who took care of their library (A BIBLIOTHECA), Cic. Fam. xiii. 77.; assisted them in their studies (A STUDIIS, Suet. Cal. 28.); read to them, (ANAGNOSTÆ, sing. -es, Cic. Att. i. 12. Fam. v. 9. Nep. Att. 14., LECTORES, Suet. Aug. 78. Plin. Ep. viii. 1.) The freedmen, who acted in some of these capacities under the Emperors, often acquired great wealth and power. Thus Narcissus, the secretary (ab epistolis vel secretis) of Claudius, and Pallas, the comptroller of the household (a rationibus), Suet. Claud. 28. So the master of requests (a libellis), Suet. Dom. 14. Tacit. Ann. xv. 35. xvi. 8. The place where paper was made was called OFFICINA chartaria, Plin. xviii. 10.; where it was sold, TABERNA; and so OFFICINE ARMORUM, Cic. Phil. vii. 4. CYCLOPUM, workhouses, Horat. Od. i. 4. 8. SAPIENTIÆ, Cic. Legg. i. 13. omnium artium, eloquentiæ vel dicendi, schools, Id. Orat. 13. Fin. v. 3. But officina and taberna are sometimes confounded, Plin. x. 43. s. 60.* A warehouse, for paper, or books, or any merchandise, APOTHECA; * " Officina was originally, I conceive, opificina, as we have it in Plautus, Mil. iii. 3. 7. Si ea in opificina nesciam,' and came soon to be contracted into officina, a shop for work. Taberna, by metath. for Trabena, was a sort of shed or booth, constructed of boards (ex trabe), and denoted any erection constructed of these materials. As contradistinguished to officina, I conceive that it means a shop where goods are either manufactured or sold.” — (Crombie's Gymn. i. p. 238.) PRINCIPAL LIBRARIES AT ROME. 455 a bookseller's shop, TABERNA LIBRARIA, Cic. Phil. ii. 9., or simply Libraria, Gell. v. 4. LIBRARIUM, a chest for holding books, Cic. Mil. 12. The street, in Rome, where booksellers (bibliopōla) chiefly lived, was called ARGILETUS, Mart. i. 4. or that part of the Forum or street called JANUS; where was a temple or statue of the god Vertumnus, Horat. Ep. i. 20. 1. LIBRARIES. A GREAT number of books, or the place where they were kept, was called BIBLIOTHECA, a library, Festus. The first famous library was collected by Ptolemy Philadelphus at Alexandria, in Egypt, B. C. 284, containing 700,000 volumes, Gell. vi. 17.; the next by Attalus, or Eumenes, King of Pergamus, Plin. xiii. 12. Adjoining to the Alexandrian library was a building called MUSEUM, (i. e. domicilium, specus vel templum musis dicatum,) Plin. Ep. i. 9., for the accommodation of a college or society (úvodes) of learned men, who were supported there at the public expense, with a covered walk and seats (exedra), where they might dispute, Strab. An additional museum was built there by Claudius, Suet. Claud. 42. MUSEUM is used by us for a repository of learned curiosities, as it seems to be by Pliny, xxvii. 2. s. 6. 17. A great part of the Alexandrian library was burnt by the flames of Cæsar's fleet, when he set it on fire to save himself, Plutarch. in Cæs. & Dio. 42. 38., but neither Cæsar himself nor Hirtius mentions this circumstance. It was again restored by Cleopatra, who, for that purpose, received from Antony the library of Pergamus, then consisting of 200,000 volumes, Plutarch. in Anton. It was totally destroyed by the Saracens, A. 642. The first public library at Rome, and in the world as Pliny observes, was created by Asinius Pollio, [from the produce of the spoils in the Dalmatian War, A. U. 715,] Plin. vii. 30. xxxv. 2. in the Atrium of the temple of Liberty, Ovid. Trist. iii. 1. 71. on Mount Aventine, Mart. xii. 3. 5. Augustus founded a Greek and Latin library in the temple of Apollo on the Palatine hill [A. U. 726], Suet. 29. Dio. liii. 1., and another in the name of his sister Octavia, adjoining to the theatre of Marcellus, Plutarch. in Marcell. Ovid. Trist. iii. 1. 60. 69. There were several other libraries at Rome; in the Capitol, Suet. Dom. 20., in the temple of Peace, Gell. xvi. 8., in the house of Tiberius, Gell. xiii. 18, &c. But the chief was the Ulpian library, instituted by Trajan, Gell. xi. 17., which Dioclesian annexed as an ornament to his Therma, Vopisc. in Prob. 2. Many private persons [as Cicero and Lucullus] had good libraries, Cic. Fam. vii. 28. Q. Fr. iii. 4. Att. iv. 10. Plutarch. in Lucull. Senec. de Trang. 9. Horat. Od. i. 29. 13., particularly in their country villas, Cic. Fin. iii. 2. Martial. vii. 16. Plin. Ep. ii. 17. Libraries were adorned with statues and pictures, [" Hor. Sat. i. 4. 22." T.] Suet. Tib. 70. Plin. Ep. iii. 7. iv. 28., particularly of ingenious and learned men, Plin. xxxv. 2. Juvenal. ii. 7.*, the walls and These pictures or busts (imagines) were contained in circular escutcheons or shields: hence clypeus is used for the representation itself of any illustrious person :~ 4.56 HOUSES OF THE ROMANS. roof with glasses, Boeth. Consol. Plin. xxxvi. 25. Senec. Ep. 86. Stat. Silv. i. 5. 42. The books were put in presses or cases (ARMARIA vel CAPSE) along the walls, which were sometimes numbered, Vopisc. Tac. 8., called also FORULI, Suet. Aug. 31. Juvenal. iii. 219., LOCULAMENTA, Senec. Tranq. 9., NIDI, Martial. i. 118., but these are supposed by some to denote the lesser divisions of the cases. The keeper of a library was called a BIBLIOTHECA; Bibliothecarius is used only by later writers. HOUSES OF THE ROMANS. THE houses of the Romans are supposed at first to have been nothing else but cottages (casa vel tuguria,) thatched with straw, Ovid. Amor. ii. 9. 18.; hence CULMEN, the roof of a house (quòd culmis tegebatur), Serv. in Virg. Ecl. i. 6. Æn. viii. 654. After the city was burnt by the Gauls [A. U. 364], it was rebuilt in a more solid and commodious manner; but the haste in building prevented attention to the regularity of the streets, Liv. v. 55. Dio. xiv. 116. The houses were reared every where without distinction (nulla distinctione passim erecta), Tacit. Ann. xv. 43., or regard to property, (omisso sui alienique discrimine, adeò ut forma urbis esset occupatæ magis, quàm divisa similis,) where every one built in what part he chose, Liv. ib.; and till the war with Pyrrhus, the houses were covered only with shingles, or thin boards, (SCANDULE vel scindulæ, i. e. tabellæ, in parvas laminas scissæ,) Plin. xvi. 10. s. 15.* It was in the time of Augustus, that Rome was first adorned with magnificent buildings; hence that Emperor used to boast, that he had found it of brick, but should leave it of marble; Marmoream se relinquere, quam lateritiam accepisset, Suet. Aug. 29. The streets, however, still were narrow and irregular, Suet. Ner. 38. Tacit. Ann. xv. 38., and private houses not only incommodious, but even dangerous, from their height, and being mostly built of wood, Juvenal. iii. 133. &c. Scalis habito tribus, sed altis, three stories high, Martial. i. 118. In the time of Nero, the city was set on fire, and more than two thirds of it burnt to the ground. Of fourteen wards (regiones) into which Rome was divided, only four remained entire, Tacit. Ann. xv. 40. Nero himself was thought to have been the author of this conflagration. He beheld it from the tower of Mæcenas; and delighted, as he said, with the beauty of the flame, played the Taking of Troy, drest like an actor, Suet. 38. Tacit. Ann. xv. 39, 40. 44. thus Tacitus (Ann. ii. 83.), in describing the honours paid to the memory of Germanicus, says, ' Cum censeretur clypeus, auro et magnitudine insignis, inter auctores eloquentiæ: which Pliny, xxxv. 3., thus explains: Scilicet scutis, qualiter apud Trojam pugnatum, continebantur imagines, unde et nomen habuere Clypeorum. Origo plena virtutis, faciem reddi in scuto cujusque, qui fuerit usus illo.' Compare Hor. Od. i. 28, 11. Suet. Calig. 16. Inter reliquos honores decretus est ei clypeus aureus, i. e. clypeata imago. See Lin. xxv. 39. "Mamurra, a Roman knight, and general of artillery to Cæsar in Gaul, where he raised an immense fortune, is said to have been the first man in Rome who incrusted his house with marble, and made all his pillars of solid marble. (Plin. Hist. xxxvi. 6)" — Middleton's Life of Cic. ii. p. 170. |