sf^
AUTHORS AND THEIR PUBLIC
IN ANCIENT TIMES
A SKETCH OF LITERARY CONDITIONS AND OF
THE RELATIONS WITH THE PUBLIC OF
LITERARY PRODUCERS, FROM THE
EARLIEST TIMES TO THE FALL
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
BY
GEO. HAVEN PUTNAM, M.A.
AUTHOR OF "THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT," ETC.
THIRD EDITION^ REVISED
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
NEW YORK LONDON
27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD ST. 24 BEDFORD ST., STRAND
She 'Jjnichcrbocher Dress
1896
Pn
(OI'YKIGHT, 1893
BY
GEO. HAVEN PUTNAM
Cbe ftnicberbocftcr g>rc60,
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.
IN printing the second and third impressions of
my essay, I have been able to take advantage of
certain corrections and suggestions submitted by
friendly critics, among whom I wish to make special
acknowledgments to Mr. Charlton T. Lewis and to
Mr. Otis S. Hill, whose aid in the verification of the
quotations has been particularly valuable. I may
mention that in the printing of the first edition, I
had been obliged, in connection with the increasing
limitations of my eyesight, to confide the verification
and the proof-reading of the quotations to an assist-
ant, whose services proved, unfortunately, incompe-
tent and untrustworthy. As a result, a number of
errors which had been repeated from the German
editions, or which had crept into the work of the
transcriber, of the typewriter, or of the compositor,
found place with annoying persistency, in the volume
as printed. While I may not hope that the text as
iii
iv Preface to the Third Edition
now printed is correct (and a book free from typo-
graphical errors is an almost impossible production),
I can feel assured that the more serious misprints at
least have been duly cared for.
Attention has also been given to the correction of
certain errors of statement or of interpretation, but
in some of the instances in which my critics have
not been in accord with the authorities upon which
my own statements have been based, I have ventured
to abide by the conclusions of the latter. My little
essay made, of course, no pretensions to establish any
conclusions or to maintain any individual theories on
questions of classical literature concerning which there
might be differences among the scholars. My pur-
pose was simply to trace, as far as might be practica-
ble, from the scattered references in the literature of
the period, an outline record of the continuity of
literary activity, the methods of the production and
distribution of literature, and the nature of the rela-
tions between the authors and their readers. For
the citations utilised for this study, I was, as stated
in my bibliography, chiefly indebted to such scholars
as Wilhelm Schmitz, Joh. Mailer, Paul Clement,
Theodor Birt, Louis Haenny, H. Graud, and A.
Meinccke. The citations given from the Greek or
Latin authors were in the main based upon or cor-
Preface to the Third Edition
rected by the versions of these German or French
writers, and were specifically so credited.
The majority of my reviewers were ready to under-
stand the actual purpose of my book and to recog-
nise that my part in the undertaking was limited to
certain general inferences or conclusions as to literary
methods or conditions. In one or two cases, how-
ever, the critics, ignoring the specified purpose and
the necessary limitations of the essay, saw fit to treat
it as a treatise on classical literature and devoted
their reviews almost exclusively to textual criticisms
and corrections. In these, of course (irrespective of
certain obvious errors above referred to), they found
ample opportunity for differences of opinion with
the authorities whose versions I had utilised, and
ignoring the fact that my renderings were specifi-
cally credited to the German or French editions, they
criticised or corrected these as if they had been
presented by myself. It seems to me worth while,
therefore, again to point out that with these issues
between the scholarly or critical authorities I am
not at all concerned, and that in their controversies
I assumed to take no part. My sketches of literary
methods, and the suggestions submitted by me as to
the relations of authors and their readers, are affected
very little by these scholastic controversies, and what-
vi Preface to the Third Edition
ever interest or value they may possess will be en-
tirely independent, for instance, of such a question
as the correctness of the account given by Aulus
Gellius (cited by me from Schmitz and Blass) of the
correspondence between Aristotle and Alexander.
A similar word may be given in regard to the forms
utilised for certain terms or names which have be-
come familiarised with our English speech. My
most captious critic stated, for instance, very flatly
that my spelling of " Piraeus " was " neither Latin,
Greek, nor English." I can only explain that the
name is so spelled in the latest edition of Lippincott's
Gazetteer^ and for such casual references as I had
occasion to make, I had considered this work a
sufficiently trustworthy authority for the spelling of
a name which has found place in English narrative.
The same critic saw fit to assume that, because I
had used a German editor's paraphrase in Latin of
some saying of Suidas, I had imagined that this
author had written in Latin ; oblivious of the fact
that, a few pages farther on, I had made specific
references to the various writings of Suidas in
Greek.
I refer to these details not because they are in
themselves of any continued importance, but sim-
ply as examples of what struck me as dispropor-
Preface to the Third Edition
tioned textual or verbal criticism of a volume which
made no claims to textual authority. The text
ought of course to have been correct, and it was
certainly the case that some inexcusable errors
had crept into it. Regrettable as these errors were,
however, they did not as a fact affect the main
theme of the essay or sketch. It is assuredly in
order for a reviewer to call attention to any such
oversights, but the reviewer who devotes the sub-
stance of the space at his command to a list of typo-
graphical errors or oversights, and who has hardly
a word to say concerning the purpose of a book, , or
the extent to which such purpose has been carried
out, loses sight, I think, of the real function of review-
ing. He may make a good show of infallibility, or of
authoritative knowledge, for himself or for his jour-
nal, but he certainly fails to give what the reader is
entitled to expect, a just and well proportioned im-
pression of the work under consideration.
Since the publication of the first edition, the
larger work, as an introduction to which this essay
was planned, Books and Their Makers in the Middle
Ages, has been brought before the public, and has
been received with a very satisfactory measure of
appreciation. The readers of this last have occasion-
ally raised question concerning a lack of harmony of
viii Preface to the Third Edition
design or of uniformity of method between the two
books. It is in order therefore again to explain that
they were never intended to serve as two sections
of a continuous narrative. The record of the making
and distribution of books during the centuries after
476, I have attempted to present with a certain
degree of comprehensiveness ; but for classic times,
there are no materials available for any complete
or comprehensive record. The sketch presented
by me is, as stated, based upon a few references
to literary methods which are scattered through
the writings of classic authors. A much more
comprehensive study of the conditions of literary
production among the ancients could very easily,
however, be prepared by a student who possessed
the requisite familiarity with the literature of the
time, and who was sufficiently free from limitations
as to eyesight to be able to trace and to verify his
quotations for himself, and I trust that some com-
petent scholar may yet interest himself in producing
such a treatise.
NEW YORK, June 15, 1896.
PREFACE.
THE following pages, as originally written, were
planned to form a preliminary chapter, or general
introduction, to a history of the origin and develop-
ment of property in literature, a subject in which I
have for some time interested myself. The progress
of the history has, however, been so seriously ham-
pered by engrossing business cares, and also by an
increasing necessity for economizing eyesight, that
the date of its completion remains very uncertain.
I do not relinquish the hope of being able to place
before the public (or at least of that small portion
of the public which may be interested in the subject)
at some future date, the work as first planned, which
shall present a sketch of the development of prop-
erty in literature from the invention of printing to
the present day, but I have decided to publish in a
separate volume this preliminary study of the literary
conditions which obtained in ancient times.
In the stricter and more modern sense of the term,
literary property stands for an ownership in a specific
ix
x Preface
literary form given to certain ideas, for the right to
control such particular form of expression of these
ideas, and for the right to multiply and to dispose
of copies of such form of expression. In this imma-
terial signification, the term literary property is
practically synonymous with la propridtt intellectuelle y
or das geistige Eigcnthum.
It is proper to say at the outset that in this sense
of the term, no such thing as literary property can
be said to have come into existence in ancient times,
or in fact until some considerable period had elapsed
after the invention of printing. The books first
produced, after 1450, from the presses of Gutenberg
and Fust and by their immediate successors, were
the Latin versions of the Bible, editions of certain of
the writings of Cicero and of other Latin authors,
and a few other works which, if not all dating back
to Classic periods, were, with hardly an exception,
the works of writers who had been dead for many
generations.
The editions printed of these books constituted
for their owners, the printers, a property, which, as
distinguished from their buildings and from their
presses and type, might fairly enough be described
as a " literary property." It was, however, not until
the publishers began to make arrangements to give
Preface xi
compensation to contemporary writers for the prep-
aration of original works, or for original editorial
work associated with classic texts, and not until, in
connection with such arrangements, the publishers
succeeded in securing from the State authorities, in
the shape of " privileges," a formal recognition of
their right to control the literary work thus pro-
duced, that literary property in the sense of in-
tellectual property (geistiges Eigenthum), came into
an assured and recognized, though still restricted
existence.
Property of this kind, namely, in the form of a
right, duly recognized by the State, to the control of
an intellectual production, assuredly did not exist
in Athens, in Alexandria, or in classic Rome. There
is evidence, however, although often of a very frag-
mentary and inconclusive character, that in these
cities and in other literary centres of the later classic
world, there gradually came into existence a system
or a practice under which authors secured some
compensation for their labors.
Such compensation, doubtless at best but incon-
siderable as it did not depend upon any legal right
on the part of either author or publishers, must have
varied very greatly according to the personality of
the writer, the nature of the work, and the time and
XI 1
Preface
place of its production. The evidences or indica-
tions of payments being made to authors are mainly
to be traced in scattered references in their own
works. Such references are in the writings of the
Greek authors, but infrequent, and in not a few in-
stances the passages have been variously interpreted,
so that it is difficult to base upon them any trust-
worthy conclusions.
It is only when we reach the Augustan age of
Roman literature that we find, in the works of such
authors as Cicero, Martial, Horace, Catullus, and a
few others, a sufficient number of references upon
which to base some theory at least as to the nature
of the relations of the authors with their publishers,
and also as to the publishing and bookselling methods
of the time.
I have attempted, in this volume, to present a
sketch of these " beginnings of literary property "-
that is, to outline the gradual evolution of the idea
that the producer of a literary work, the poet, noirft^^
the maker, is entitled to secure from the community
not only such laurel-crown of fame as may be ad-
judged to his work, but also some material compen-
sation proportioned as nearly as may be practicable
to the extent of the service rendered by him.
I have prefixed to the study of literary and pub-
Preface xiii
lishing undertakings in Athens, Alexandria, and
Rome, in which cities definite relations between
authors and their public can first be traced, some
preliminary sketches concerning the beginnings of
literature in Chaldea, Egypt, India, Persia, China,
and Japan. I admit at once that descriptions of
legendary, prehistoric, or semi-historic periods, are
not directly pertinent to my main subject. I have
decided to include them, however, at the risk of
criticism on the ground both of (necessarily) super-
ficial treatment and of lack of relevance, because it
seemed to me that the character of the earliest liter-
ary ideals and of the legendary literary productions
of a people formed an important factor in helping to
develop its later literary conditions, and was not with-
out influence upon the relations of authors with their
public, when such relations finally began to take
shape.
It is, for instance, a matter of very decided interest,
in tracing the literary history of a nation, to ascertain
whether the source and initiative of its earliest litera-
ture was the temple, the court, or the popular circles
outside of temple or court ; whether the first compo-
sitions were produced by the priests, or by annalists or
poets working under the immediate incentive of the
favor of the monarch, or whether, like the epics of
XIV
Preface
Greece and the folk-songs of China, they came from
authors among the people, and were addressed di-
rectly to popular sympathies and to popular ideals.
It will be noted that I take pains to speak of
"authors" and "public," rather than of "writers"
and " readers," because it is evident that there were
literary productions in advance, and probably very
far in advance, of the discovery or evolution of writ-
ten characters, and also that long after the use of
script by authors, the greater portion of the public
in all ancient lands received their literature, not
through their eyes, but through their ears, not by
reading the text, but by listening to reciters, story-
tellers, and " rhapsodists."
In the preparation of this brief record, which makes
no claim to scholarly completeness, or to be anything
more considerable than a sketch, I have found my-
self hampered by lack of adequate classical knowl-
edge and by the lack of familiarity with the works
of even the more important of the Greek and Roman
writers. It is doubtless the case, therefore, that I
have failed to discover or to utilize not a few passages
and references that would have a bearing upon the
subject ; and I shall be under obligations to any
scholarly reader who will take the trouble to call my
attention to such omissions.
Preface xv
I have given, in a brief bibliography, the titles of
the more important of the books upon the au-
thority of which my sketch has been based. I desire,
however, to express my special indebtedness to the
following works, the full titles of which will be found
in the bibliography : Clement's La Proprittt Litte-
raire chez les Grecs et chez les Remains, Schmitz's
Schriftsteller in A then, Geraud's Les Livres dans
r Antiquitt, Birt's Das Antike Buchwesen, Haenny's
Schriftsteller und Buchhdndler im alten Rom, and
Simcox's History of Latin Literature.
As is indicated by the titles in the list of authori-
ties cited, the writers who have given attention to
the relations of authors of antiquity with their
readers, have been almost exclusively German or
French. I shall be well pleased if this brief study
of mine may serve as a suggestion to some compe-
tent American or English scholar for the preparation
in English of a comprehensive and final work on the
subject.
G. H. P.
NEW YORK, November, 1893.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PACK
I. THE BEGINNINGS OF LITERATURE . . i
1. PRELIMINARY i
2. CHALDEA 5
3. EGYPT 10
4. CHINA 21
5. JAPAN .... 38
6. INDIA 43
7. PERSIA 47
8. JUDAEA 49
II. GREECE 54
III. ALEXANDRIA .127
IV. BOOK-TERMINOLOGY IN CLASSIC TIMES . 149
V. ROME ... .... 163
VI. CONSTANTINOPLE . .... 282
INDEX . . .... 297
PRINCIPAL WORKS REFERRED TO AS AUTHORITIES.
BARTHELEMI, J. The Travels of Anacharsis the Younger. London,
1832.
BECKER, W. A. Charicles, or Illustrations of the Private Life of
the Ancient Greeks. Trans, by F. METCALFE. 7th Edition.
London, 1886.
Callus, or Roman Scenes of the Time of Augustus. Trans.
by F. METCALFE. 8th Edition. London, 1886.
BERGK, T. Griechische Literatur Geschichte. Leipzig, 1852.
BIRT, THEODOR. Das Antike Buchwesen. Berlin, 1882.
BREULIER, ADOLPHE. Du Droit de P erp fruit <! de la Proprifre" Intel-
lee -tue 'lie. Paris, 1851.
BRUNS, C. G. Die Testamente der Griechischen Philosophic.
2vols. Leipzig, 1872.
BUCHSENSCHUTZ. Besitz und Erwerb im Griechischen Alterthum.
Leipzig, 1879.
BURSIAN, C. Die Geographie Griechenlands. Munchen, 1882.
BURY, J. B. A History of the Later Roman Empire.
2 vols. London, 1889.
CAILLEMER. La Propriety litte'raire a A thanes.
CASSIODORUS. The Letters of. Translated, with an introduction, by
THOMAS HODGKIN. London, 1886.
CATULLUS. Edited by RIESE. Leipzig, 1884.
Edited by ELLIS. Oxford, 1867.
CICERO. Letters. Edited by WATSON. London, 1852.
xix
xx Works Referred to as Authorities
CLEMENT, PAUL. Etude sur U Droit des Auteurs, Pre'ce'de'e cTunt
Dissertation sur la Proprie'te' Litter aire chez Us Grecs et chez Us
Remains . Grenoble, 1867.
CRUTTWELL, C. T. C. History of Roman Literature. New York,
1887.
DAVIDSON, J. L. S. The Life of Cicero. New York and London,
1894. (From advance sheets.)
DONALDSON, J. W. The Theatre of the Greeks. 8th Edition.
London, 1876.
Encyclopedia Britannica. gth Edition. Edinburgh and New York,
1884-1892.
FREEMAN, E. A. History of Federal Government. 2d Edition.
London, 1892.
FROMMANN, E. Aufsdtze zur Geschichte des Buchhandels im ibten
Jahrhundert. Jena, 1876.
FRONTO. Edited by NABER. Leipzig, 1867.
GELLIUS, AULUS. Nodes Attica. Edited by HERTZ.
2 vols. Leipzig, 1865.
GERAUD, H. Les Livres dans FAnliquite. Paris, 1840.
GIBBON, E. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Ameri-
can Edition. 6 vols. New York, 1889.
HAENNY. Louis. Schriftsteller und Buchhdndler im Alien Rom.
Leipzig, 1885.
HERODOTUS. Histories of. Trans, by RAWLINSON. 4 vols.
New York, 1886.
HODGKIN, THOMAS. Theodoric the Goth. New York and London,
1890.
HORACE. Edited by MULLER. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1874.
Odes and Epodes. Edited by WICKHAM. London, 1874.
JKVONS, F. B. History of Greek Literature. New York, 1886.
Works Referred to as Authorities xxi
JOHNSON, A. J. The Universal Encyclopaedia. 8 vols. New York,
1884.
JUVENAL. Trans, by GIFFORD. London, 1852.
Edited by WEIDNER. Leipzig, 1873.
KAPP, FRIEDRICH. Geschichte des Deutschen Buchhandels bis in das
I'jte Jahrhundert. Leipzig, 1886.
KARPELES, GUST A v. Allgemeine Geschichte der Litter atur.
12 parts. Berlin, 1890.
KLOSTERMANN, R. Das Urheberrecht und das Verlagsrecht. Berlin,
1871.
LAERTIUS, DIOGENES. De Vitis, Dogmatibus et Apothegen. Clar.
P kilos. Edited by HOBNER. 4 vols. Leipzig, 1831.
LAYARD, Sir A. H. Nineveh and Babylon. American Edition.
New York, 1852.
LECKY, W. E. H. A History of European Morals. American
Edition. 2 vols. New York.
LOUISY, M. P. Le Livre t et les Arts qui s'y Rattachenl. Paris,
1886.
MAHAFFY, J. P. Social Life in Greece from Homer to Menander.
6th Edition. London, 1891.
Greek Life and Thought, from the Age of Alexander to the
Roman Conquest. London, 1892.
The Greek World under Roman Sway. London, 1893.
MARTIAL. Edited by PALEY. London, 1875.
Edited by FRIEDLANDER. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1886.
MEINEKE, A. Historia Comcedi<z Gracce (in the Comicorum Grcec.
Fragmentd). Berlin, 1857.
M0LLER, J. Die Lustspiele des Aristophanes. Leipzig, 1868.
MOLLER, MAX. History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature. London,
i860.
xxii Works Referred to as Authorities
OMAN, C. W. C. The Story of the Byzantine Empire. New York
and London, 1892.
PLATO. Works. Trans, by JOWETT. 6 vols. Oxford, 1889.
PLAUTUS. Edited by FLECKEISEN. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1890.
PLINY. Works. Trans, by MELMOTH. 5 vols. London, 1878.
PLUTARCH'S Lives. Trans, by CLOUGH. 5 vols. Boston, 1878.
RAGOZIN, ZENA!DE. The Story of Chaldea. New York, 1886.
The Story of Assyria. New York, 1887.
RAWLINSON, GEORGE. History of Ancient Egypt. 2 vols.
New York, 1890.
RAWNSLEY, H. D. Notes for the Nile, together with a Metrical
Rendering of the Hymns of Ancient Egypt and of tfie Precepts of
Ptah-Hotep. London and New York, 1892.
Records of the Past. Edited by S. BIRCH. 12 vols. London, 1882.
RENOUARD, AUGUSTIN CHARLES. TraiM des Droits d'Auteurs.
2 vols. Paris, 1838.
RITTER, H. History of Ancient Philosophy (translation).
4 vols. Oxford, 1849.
ROMBERG, EDOUARD. Etudes sur la Proprie'le' Artislique el Lit-
ter aire. Bruxelles, 1892.
RozoiR, A. Dictionnaire de la Conversation, etc. Paris, 1838.
SCHAEFER, A. Demosthenes und Seine Zeit. 3 vols. Leipzig, 1858.
SCHOLL, A. Aufs&tze zur Klass. Liter. Berlin, 1884.
Hist. Lit. GrcEc. 3 vols. Berlin, 1886,
SCHMITZ, WM. Schriftsteller und Buchhandler in Alhen und im
ubrigen Grieckenland. Heidelberg, 1876.
SlMCOX, G. A. History of Latin Literature. 2 vols. London, 1883
SMITH, GEORGE. The Chaldean Account of Genesis : London, 1880.
STATIUS. Edited by MOLLER. Leipzig, 1871.
Works Referred to as Authorities xxiii
STRABO. Works. Edited by MEINEKE. 3 vols. Leipzig, 1866.
SUETONIUS. Lives of the Twelve Casars. Trans, by THOMSON.
London, 1855.
SUIDAS. Lexicon. Edited by BRAUN. (Cited by Schmitz.) Leip-
zig, 1832.
WEHLE, J. H. Das Buck, Technik der Schriftstellerei. Leipzig,
1.879-
WILLIAMS, S. WELLS. The Middle Kingdom : A Survey of the
Geography, Government, Arts, Literature, etc., of the Chinese
Empire. Revised Edition. 2 vols., 8vo. New York, 1883.
XENOPHON. Works. Trans, by J. S. WATSON. 3 vols. London,
1862.
ZELLER, E. Die Philosophic der Griechen. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1872,
AUTHORS AND THEIR PUBLIC
IN ANCIENT TIMES.
CHAPTER I.
The Beginnings of Literature.
WHEN Faust was puzzling his brain concern-
ing the everlasting problem of the nature
and origin of things, we find him questioning the
utterance of the Hebrew seer : " In the beginning
was the Word." " No," he says, " this must be
wrong. We cannot place the word first in the scale
of causation. The writer should have said ' In the
beginning was the Thought.' " On further reflection,
this statement also seemed to him inadequate. Is
it the Thought that creates and directs all things ?
Shall we not rather say " In the beginning was
the Power ? " Even this interpretation, however, fails
Authors and Their Public
to stand the test, and, after further wrestling, Faust
presents as his solution of the problem the statement,
" In the beginning was the 'Deed' "
I shall not undertake to consider in this mono-
graph any questions concerning the line of evolution
of the universe, and Faust's questionings are recalled
to me only because his final answer is in accord with
the experience of man in what he knows of the
development of himself, considered either as an
individual or as a race.
Assuredly the first thing of which man was con-
scious was not the word, written or spoken, nor the
thought behind the word, nor the power back of the
thought, but the deed, which could be seen and felt
and estimated. Conscious thought came much later,
and the word spoken and the word written, later
still. A mental conception, realized as such, and
finally taking form as a production of the mind, is a
development of a comparatively advanced stage of
human existence, the youth of the individual or of
the race, while for any definition of the nature of a
mental production, and of its just relation to the
individual by whom and to the community for which
it was produced, we must look still further forward.
Literature that is, mental conceptions in literary
form had been known for many centuries before
The Beginnings of Literature
the literary idea, and any individual ownership in
the form in which such idea was expressed, had been
thought out and defined. Literary property that
is, an ownership, on the part of the producer, in a
definite expression of literary .ideas dates, never-
theless, from a comparatively early period, and, in
one sense, may be said to have existed from the
time in which the first " poet " (maker or creator)
received his first compensation from a grateful public
or an appreciative patron. In the more precise in-
terpretation of the term, it is doubtless more correct,
however, to say that literary property dates from the
time when authors first received compensation, not
from the state or from individual patrons, but from
individual readers throughout the community, who
were ready to make payment in return for the
benefit received. The labor, however, of placing the
literary production in the hands of the reader and
of collecting from these the compensation for the
authors, required an intermediary, some one to
create the machinery for distribution and collection,
and usually also to assume the risk and investment
required. Literary property could, therefore, come
into an assured existence only after, or simultane-
ously with, the evolution of the publisher. This,
then, is the chain of causation at which we have
Authors and Their Public
arrived : The deed, the thought awakened by the
deed, the consciousness of the thought, the power,
first of oral and then of written expression of the
thought (usually the description of the deed), which
marks the appearance of the poet, the " maker " or
author ; the consecration of this expression or literary
production to a definite purpose, usually the glorifi-
cation of an individual in the commemoration of his
deed ; the habit of receiving from such individual a
tangible recognition ; the widening of the purpose
of the production and its dedication to the commu-
nity as a whole ; the giving, by the community in
return, of a reward or honorarium ; the evolution of
the publisher who develops the system under which
the amount of the honorarium secured for the author
is proportioned (though somewhat roughly) to the
number of persons benefited by his productions.
It is when the higher stage of civilization has been
reached which is marked by the appearance of the
publisher, that we have a true beginning of property
in literature.
Centuries must, however, still elapse before we
find record of any noteworthy attempts to arrive at
precise definitions of the nature and origin of liter-
ary property, or to analyze the proper relations of
the literary producer as well to the generation for
Chaldea
which he originally worked, as to such later gener-
ations as derived benefit from his creations.
Chaldea. The earliest literature of which the
archaeologists have thus far found trustworthy evi-
dence appears to be that of the Chaldeans. Their
" books," consisting of baked clay tablets, on which
the cuneiform characters had been imprinted with a
stylus, were well fitted to withstand the ravages of
time, being practically imperishable by either fire or
water. The important discovery of specimens of
the earlier literature of Chaldea was due to Sir
Henry Layard. In 1845 ^ e was fortunate enough,
while investigating the mounds at Koyunjik (ancient
Nineveh) now identified with the ruins of the palaces
of Sennacherib and Asshurbanipal (B.C. 650), to
stumble into the chambers which had contained the
royal library. Although he was not himself able to
decipher the early cuneiform characters with which
were covered the masses of clay tablets and frag-
ments of tablets brought to light by his excavations,
he readily recognized the importance of the discov-
ery, and took pains to forward to the British Museum
a large number of those in the best state of preserva-
tion. There they lay until 1870, when George Smith
6 Authors and Their Public
undertook the task of arranging and deciphering
them. Smith had been originally employed in the
Museum as an engraver, but in the course of his
work in engraving cuneiform texts, he had become
interested in their study, and by dint of persistent
application he soon came to be one of the few ac-
knowledged authorities on the subject.
Months of patient labor were given to the piecing
together of the thousands of scattered fragments
contained in La) T ard's shipment. Then, owing to
the enterprise of the London Daily Telegraph (which
in 1876 made a novel precedent in journalism by
printing from week to week, in juxtaposition with
the news of the day, decipherings of the Chaldean
writings of five thousand years back), Smith was
enabled to go to Mesopotamia, and in three succes-
sive journeys very largely to increase the collections
of tablets, which finally comprised over 10,000 speci-
mens.
Smith's untimely death by fever during his third
sojourn in the East put a check for a time upon both
the collecting and the deciphering, but the latter was
later continued by workers who became equally
skilled, and of a large number of the tablets trans-
lations have been put into print. During the past
ten years, a great development has been given to
Chaldea
the collecting and deciphering of the tablets by the
labors of such scholars as Dieulafoy, Fritz Hommel,
John P. Peters, and others.
Smith had found specimens of Chaldean literature
in such departments as agriculture, irrigation, astrol-
ogy, the science of government, the art of war,
prayers and invocations to the gods, and above all
and most frequent, records of campaigns. There
were also a few tablets which appeared to be examples
of children's primers and children's scribbling. As
far as it was practicable to judge from those frag-
ments that have been preserved of the literature of
the nation, the several works had for the most parti \(^y+
been prepared under the instructions and often ap-
parently for the special use of successive monarchs j |f,
or of the rulers of provinces. These books existed,
therefore, in strictly " limited editions," comprising
either single copies or but two or three copies for the
royal residences. The writers were apparently for
the most part officials in the public service and
often members of the royal household. On the
campaigns, the king, or the commander who took
the place of the king, appears to have been accom-
panied by scribes, who were expected to keep note
of the number of cities taken, the enemies slain, and
the prisoners captured, and of the amount of the
8 Authors and Their Public
spoils appropriated, and the records of campaign tri-
umphs form by far the largest portion of the litera-
ture discovered. These campaign narratives finally
came to take the shape of annual records, often
beginning with the formula "and when the spring-
time came, the time when kings go out to war."
The next largest division of the Chaldean litera-
ture is made up of invocations to the gods, narratives
of the doings of the gods, and prayers and psalms.
Many of these last bear a very close family resem-
blance to the war psalms of the Hebrews, the com-
position of which took place ten or twelve hundred
years later. This religious literature was the work
of the priests whose annual stipends came from the
royal treasury, augmented probably by the offerings
of the faithful. Remains of these priestly libraries
were discovered by Layard and Smith in the ruins
of Agade, Sippar, and Cutha.
In the records that have come down to us, there
is absolutely no trace of compensation being paid for
the different classes of literary undertakings except
in the shape of annual stipends to the writers, whose
work included other services besides their literary
labors, although it is, of course, probable that special
gifts may have been given from time to time for
exceptionally eloquent and satisfactory accounts of
Chaldea
successful campaigns. Whatever property existed
in these productions must, therefore, have been
vested in the king, but this hardly constituted a dis-
tinctive feature of literary property, as the kings
claimed and exercised a complete control over all
the property and all the lives within their realms.
The earliest specimen of Chaldean literature which
has as yet been discovered, and which is probably
the oldest example of writing at present known, is
given on a tablet of baked clay now in the British
Museum. This tablet was made up by George Smith
out of a mass of scattered fragments which had been
brought from the Assyrian mounds. In going over
the collection of inscribed tiles, Smith came across a
small fragment the inscription on which evidently
referred to the Flood, and in the course of his own
three sojourns in Mesopotamia he was fortunate
enough, after many months of patient labor, to find
a large portion of the fragments required to com-
plete the tablet and to give the main portion of the
narrative. Such success could hardly have been
possible if the royal library of Nineveh had not con-
tained several copies of the Flood tablet, as was
evinced by the finding of duplicates or triplicates of
certain of the portions. The tablet, as now put to-
gether, comprises eighteen pieces, and presents, not-
io Authors and Their Public
withstanding a number of gaps, a fairly complete
account of the Flood. The incidents are so far
paralleled by those given in the Genesis narrative,
that it is evident either that the two scribes derived
their information from the same sources, or that the
Hebrew story has been based upon the Chaldean
record. According to Lenormant, Smith, and Hom-
mel, the former was inscribed about 4000 B.C., in that
case ante-dating by more than two thousand years
the actual writing of the Book of Genesis. Ragozin
speaks of " the ancestors of the Hebrews, during
their long sojourn in the land of Shinar, having be-
come familiar with the legends and stories contained
in the collection of the Assyrian priests, and after
working these over after their own superior religious
lights, having shaped from them the narrative which
was written down many centuries later as part of the
Book of Genesis."
Egypt. The literature of Egypt probably ranks
next to that of Chaldea in point of antiquity. In
fact, not a few of the archaeologists have contended
that the civilization of Egypt was of still earlier de-
velopment than that of the countries of Mesopotamia
or of any other portion of the world.
1 Story of Chaldea, 260.
Egypt 1 1
The earliest Egyptian writings were, with few ex-
ceptions, theological in their character and appear
to have originated in the temples. First among the
authors of Egypt stands, according to tradition,
Thoth-Hermes, the ibis-headed god of wisdom and
of literature, the " Lord of the Hall of Books." His
companion is the beautiful Ma, goddess of truth and
justice, a very proper associate for the founder of a
nation's literature.
By later generations, Thoth-Hermes came to be
known as Hermes Trismegistus, the god of threefold
greatness or majesty. The forty-two works, the
authorship of which is ascribed to Thoth or Trisme-
gistus, formed, according to Karpeles, a kind of
national encyclopaedia, presenting the canon of the
faith and the knowledge of ancient Egypt.
Of these so-called Hermetic books, only portions
appear to have remained in existence with the begin-
nings of the historic period, but of these portions
certain fragments have been preserved for the inspec-
tion of scholars of to-day. In the examination in
1892 of some newly discovered tombs, papyri were
found which proved to contain religious writings
based upon the Hermetic books, and which were
themselves the work of scribes writing during the 4th
dynasty, 3733-35 6 6 B.C.
12 Authors and Their Public
The founder of the 4th dynasty was Khufa, better
known as Cheops, the builder of the Great Pyramid,
who is also ranked as an author, and to whose reign
belongs the first record of the famous Book of the
Dead. This Book of the Dead consisted of in-
vocations to the deities, psalms, prayers, and the
descriptions of the experiences that awaited the
spirit of the departed in the world to come, experi-
ences that included an exhaustive analysis of his
past life and his final judgment for the life hereafter.
The Egyptian title of the book was, according to
Karpeles, The Manifestation to the Light, that is, the
book revealing the light. Rawlinson specifies for it
another name, To Go Forth from Day. Portions of
the book of the dead are said to have been written
by Thoth, and other portions are spoken of as " the
composition of a great god." These belonged to
what might be called the permanent part of the text
or Ritual. Other divisions or pages containing
special references to the deceased would, of course,
be distinctive in each case. The copies prepared for
any particular funeral were more or less comprehen-
sive in their matter and more or less elaborate and
costly in their form according to the wealth and im-
portance of the departed, and according also to the
probable buying capacities of the mourners. The
Egypt 13
material written upon was always papyrus, while for
the covers, tinted or stained sheepskin was used.
One copy of the book was always placed in the
tomb, as a safe-conduct for the pilgrim soul on its
journey through A menti (Hades), and for its guidance
in the world to come. This practice has secured
the preservation in the tombs of a great number of
copies of the Book of the Dead, more than one
half of the existing papyri being transcripts of
different portions of its text. The Book of the
Dead enjoys the distinction of being the first
literature of the regular sale of which there is any
evidence. The undertaker, acting probably under
the instructions of the priests, made a business of
disposing of copies of the " book " among the
mourners and friends of the deceased, for whom it
served as a memorial of the departed. The Egyptian
undertaker, distributing in this manner from a period
three thousand years or more before the Christian
era, authorized or authenticated copies of the sacred
scriptures, accompanied in some cases by memorial
pages concerning the deceased, must take rank as
the first bookst-ller known to history. I speak of
authenticated copies, for it is probable that the
authorized text of the scriptures was kept in the
temples or in the colleges of the priests, and that
14 Authors and Their Public
the copies were prepared by the priests themselves
or by scribes working under their supervision and
direction. In this case the proceeds of the sales
were doubtless divided between the priests and the
undertakers, and the priests' portion may to some
extent have found its way into the treasury of the
temple. The scribes employed were sometimes as-
sistants or students attached to the temple, but not
infrequently slaves, although later the work of scribes
came to be regarded as honorable and as semi-pro-
fessional in its character, and some among them
held high stations. The control exercised by the
priests over the authorized texts of their sacred scrip-
tures, including certain writings in addition to those
belonging to the ritual of the dead, must have given
to them a practical copyright of the material. The
most complete copy of the Book of the Dead, ranking
as one of the oldest works of literature in the world,
is now in the British Museum. A small edition has
been printed under the editorship of Mr. Budge, in
precise fac-simile.
Apart from the Book of the Dead, the oldest book
of which there is record in the literature of Egypt,
and one of the oldest in the known literature of the
world, is a collection of Precepts, bearing the name
of Ptah-Hotep. Their author was a viceroy or
Egypt 15
governor of Egypt, and was a younger son of Assa,
the seventh king of the 5th dynasty, whose reign
began 3366 B.C. The Prisse papyrus, discovered at
Thebes in 1856, and now in the Bibliotheque Na-
tionale in Paris, is said by its discoverer, Chabas, to
be the oldest papyrus in existence, and to have been
written about 2500 B.C. 1 This papyrus contains a
copy of these Precepts of Ptah-Hotep, which have
apparently retained their interest for Egyptian
readers for nearly nine centuries, and which now,
more than five thousand years after their first publi-
cation, have been issued, for the benefit of modern
readers, in French and English versions.
The Precepts are characterized by simplicity,
directness, high-mindedness, great refinement of
nature, and a keen sense of humor, and they give to
the reader a very pleasant impression of their noble
author. The great importance laid by Ptah-Hotep
upon courtesy of manner and of action recall to
mind Lord Chesterfield, but the courtly Egyptian
had a heart and convictions. English and American
readers are under obligations to the Rev. H. D.
Rawnsley not only for placing before them this
antique and distinctively interesting production, but
also for his excellent metrical versions of some of
1 Revue Archczol., 1857.
1 6 Authors and Their Public
the representative hymns of Ancient Egypt. 1 The
original translation from the papyrus of the Precepts
was made by P. Virey for Records of the Past. It
is Virey's impression that the Precepts were in part
original with the Viceroy, and in part collected by
him from older sources. In reading these pithy
words of wise counsel of the shrewd and kindly old
Egyptian, one naturally recalls the proverbs ascribed
to King Solomon, the sayings of Confucius, and
certain of the utterances of Socrates. I do not
mean that Ptah-Hotep, on the strength of the frag-
mentary utterances that have come down to us, is
to be ranked with these great teachers, but that it is
interesting to note how early in literature favor was
found for the form of expressing opinions, or of
giving counsel in the form of maxims or proverbs.
The proverbs of Solomon are said to have been
written about 1000 B.C. The conversations of Con-
fucius were held about 500 years later, and the
utterances of Socrates were closed with his death,
399 B.C.
Rawnsley gives, among other renderings, metrical
versions of the following specimens of early Egyptian
poetry: " A Festal Dirge of King Antef," 2533-
2466 B.C. ; "The Song of the Harper," about 1700;
1 Rawnsley, Notes for the Nile. London and New York, 1892.
Egypt 17
"Hymn to Pharaoh," about 1400; "Dirge of
Meneptah," about 1333; "Hymn to Amen Ra,"
about 1300; "Hymn to the Nile," about 1300;
" Lamentations of Isis and Nepathys," about 320 ;
" The Poem of Penta-ur on the Exploits of Rameses
II.," written in 1326 B.C. The last-mentioned is inter-
esting as being almost the sole example of an
Egyptian epic. It is not clear whether Penta-ur
won his position as court poet-laureate by the pro-
duction of this poem, or whether, being already
laureate, the epic was written as one of his official
compositions. Under the instructions of the king,
however, whose exploits it commemorated, the poem
was made a national epic, and copies of it appear to
have been officially distributed throughout the king-
dom. The reign of Rameses, which covered the
years 1350-13006.0., marked, according to Rawlinson
and Karpeles, the culmination of a period which was
important not only for success in war, but for
literary production. Under Rameses, literary activ-
ity, no longer confined to the temple, was in part at
least transferred to the court. He collected about
him scholars and philosophers, and gave great re-
wards for successful literary efforts. The approval
given by royalty to Penta-ur's poem doubtless
secured for the author much better results than
1 8 Authors and Their Public
would have come to him through the royalty en-
joyed under the modern literary system.
The king took pride in the great library which had
been brought together under his instructions. Over
the entrance to the great hall of the library was
engraved the inscription, " A place of healing for the
soul."
By some historians, Rameses II., this king of a
long reign and of great exploits, the patron of liter-
ature, whose massive and well-preserved figure has
only recently been disentombed, has been identified
with the Pharaoh of the Exodus. I believe, how-
ever, that the better authorities have decided that
the Exodus took place under the Pharaoh who was
the son of the great Rameses.
Rawlinson speaks of the Egyptians as possessing
at a very early date an " extensive literature, com-
prising books on religion, morals, law, rhetoric,
arithmetic, mensuration, geometry, medicine, books
of travel, and above all, novels ! " He says further,
however, that, as far as can be judged from the
specimens which have been preserved, " the merit of
the works is slight. The novels are vapid, the medi-
cal treatises interlarded with charms and exorcisms,
the travels devoid of interest, the general style of all
the books forced and stilted."
Egypt 19
Rawlinson adds that, while " intellectually the
Egyptians must take rank among the foremost
nations of remote antiquity, they cannot compare
with the great European races whose rise was later,
the Greeks and Romans. . . . Egypt may in some
particulars have stimulated Greek thought, directing
it in new lines, and giving it a basis to work upon ;
but otherwise it cannot be said that the world owes
much of its intellectual progress to this people,
about whose literary productions there is always
something that is weak and childish." 1
On the other hand, the long list of distinguished
Greeks who sought learning in Egypt shows the
respect in which Egyptian culture was held. In the
list of the subjects considered in Egyptian literature,
Rawlinson appears also to have overlooked astrono-
my, in which the investigations of Egyptian scholars
were certainly of the first importance. Notwith-
standing the production of a very considerable body
of literature, there appears to be no evidence of any
compensation being secured by the authors, or of
literary productions taking shape as property. The
scribes, who did the copying, must of course have
been paid, for the Egyptians were probably not able,
as were later the Romans, to secure the labor of
1 Ancient Egypt, American edition, i., 106, 107.
2O Authors and Their Public
skilled and educated slaves. These scribes were for
the most part natives and freemen, and they came
to form a very important class, in which class the most
important were those engaged in what might be called
the civil service of the government. Of payment to
the authors, however, there is no trace, and they must
have written solely for their own satisfaction or for
hopes of favor. There is also nothing to inform us
of the manner in which the copies of the books which
had been " manifolded " were distributed amongst
the readers, and we can only conjecture the existence
of collections or libraries from which the books
could be borrowed, or a practice on the part of the
wealthy writers (a practice not unknown in modern
times) of a wide distribution of presentation copies
to friends whose appreciation was hoped for.
The royal library of Rameses contained, says
Karpeles, works under such headings as annals,
sacred poetry, royal poetry (/. e., poetry addressed to
the king), travels, works on agriculture, irrigation,
and astronomy, correspondence and fiction.
Rawlinson speaks of some characteristic tales
which were preserved from generation to generation,
such as the Tale of the Two Brothers (charmingly
narrated by the late Amelia B. Edwards), The
Doomed Prince, The Possessed Princesses, etc. He
China 21
also refers to collections of correspondence appar-
ently preserved to serve as models or patterns, after
the fashion of the " complete letter-writers " of to-
day.
Karpeles points out that the early Egyptian
literature was particularly rich in folk-tales, or
Mdrchen. It is possible that in Egypt, as in Greece
and Persia, the folk-tales as well as the folk-songs,
and such an occasional epic as the Poem of Penta-on,
were recited to the people by peripatetic reciters or
rhapsbdists. There are references to such recitations
taking place at court and at the banquets of the
rich.
It would have been interesting if it had occurred
to some Hebrew scribe, endowed with a sense of
humor, to send for the royal library in Thebes, as a
remembrance of the guests who had gone out of
Egypt, an Egyptian rendering of the Book of Ex-
odus, or even of the Song of Miriam.
China. The dates of the beginnings of literature
in China are uncertain. If we could accept as au-
thentic the claims of the Chinese historians, the
origins of their civilization must be traced back to a
period antedating by thousands of years the accepted
22 Authors and Their Public
records of Chaldea and Egypt. It is, however, I
understand, the present conclusion of the archaeolo-
gists that the beginnings of the development of the
civilization of the Chinese, as also of that of the
East Indian peoples, are to be placed at a time con-
siderably later than the date of the earliest records
of the peoples of Mesopotamia. According to cer-
tain authorities, written characters existed in China
as early as 5000 B.C. According to others, they first
took shape more than a thousand years later. The
Emperor Fu-hi, reigning about 3500 years before
Christ, is credited with the invention of the Chinese
alphabet. As the Emperor was walking near his
palace, possibly musing on the inconveniences of
ruling a country without an alphabet, his attention
was attracted by the beautiful markings of a very
large toad that he encountered. He took the beast
home with him, and (under the guidance of the
proper deity) evolved from the designs on the toad's
back the figures of the original Chinese characters.
He very probably said to himself (paraphrasing the
old nursery saying), "It looks like an alphabet,
and it hops like an alphabet, why not call it an
alphabet?" One can imagine a scholar in later
years, puzzling over the lengthy series of Chinese
characters, wishing that his Imperial Highness had
China 23
happened to meet a smaller or a less variegated
toad.
About the year 3000 B.C., the Emperor Hoang-ti
is said to have invented the decimal system and the
measurement of time, and also to have completed
the organization of the Empire. If this date is to be
relied upon, the organization of the Chinese State
was taking shape about eight centuries after the
time of the great Sargon of Agade, who brought to
its highest power the earlier Chaldean empire. The
national ballads or folk-songs, later collected under
the title of the Book of Odes, are believed by Legge
to antedate the Empire that is, to have come into
circulation while the territory was still separated into
a number of independent states or principalities.
These folk-songs were collected by the minstrels and
historiographers working under the direction of the
feudatory princes, and the complete collection, when
reshaped by Confucius, is said to have comprised as
many as three thousand songs. The writer of the
article on China in the Encyclopedia Britannica
(gth edition) speaks of the collection as probably
antedating any other known work of literature.
The folk-songs themselves certainly existed from a
very early date, but, according to Karpeles, the
collection did not take the form of a book until
24 Authors and Their Public
after 1000 B.C. Karpeles believes that the earliest
known work in Chinese literature is the Y-king, the
Book of the Metamorphoses, or of Developments, which
dates from 1 150 B.C., about two centuries earlier than
the generally accepted date of the Homeric poems.
The author, Wang-wang, having been put into prison
for some political offence, employed his enforced
leisure in working out a philosophical system based
upon the maxims of the Emperor Fu-hi. 1
The Book of the Developments continued in high
honor for many centuries, and early in the fifth
century B.C. was reissued by Confucius, with an
elaborate analysis and commentary, serving to make
its teachings available for later generations. He
also issued a " final edition " of the Book of Songs,
which comprised, out of the three thousand of the
old collection, the three hundred which were best
worth preservation. Confucius takes rank in China
as practically the founder of its literature, of its
system of morals, and of its religious ideal or stand-
ard. The name Confucius is the Latinized form of
Kung Fu-tsze Kung, the teacher or master. He
was free, says one of his disciples, from four things :
foregone conclusions, arbitrary determinations, ob-
stinacy, and egoism. A good American of the
1 Karpeles, Gesch. der Lilt, des Orient., i., 10.
China 25
present time may express the regret that Confucius,
or some disciples like him, had not been spared to
occupy seats in the Senate Chamber at Washington.
What is known as the religion of Confucius, com-
prises in substance the old-time national or popular
faith freshly interpreted into the thought and lan-
guage of the later generation, and shaped into a
practical system of morals as a guide for the action
of the state and for the daily life of the individual
citizen.
It is interesting to compare the different forms
taken by the earliest literary traditions of the dif-
ferent peoples of antiquity. The Greek brings to
us as the corner-stone of his literature and of his
beliefs, the typical epics, the Iliads and the Odyssey ;
poems of action and prowess, commemorating the
great deeds of the ancestors, and describing the days
when men were heroes, and heroes were fit com-
panions and worthy antagonists for the gods them-
selves.
The imagination of the East Indian has evolved a
series of gorgeous and grotesque dreams, in which
all conditions of time and space appear to be oblit-
erated, and in which the universe is pictured as it
might appear in the visions of the smoker of ha-
schisch. It is difficult to gather from these wild
26 Authors and Their Public
fancies of the earlier Indian poets (and the earlier
writers were essentially poets) any trustworthy data
concerning the history of the past, or any practical
instruction by which to guide the life of the present.
The present is but a tiny point, between the im-
measurable aeons of the past and the nirvana of the
future, and seems to have been thought hardly
worthy the attention of thinking beings.
The Egyptian literary idea has apparently been
thought out in the temple, and it is from the priests
that the people receive the record of the doings of
its gods and of the immeasurable dynasties of mon-
archs selected by the gods to express their will,
while it is also to the priests that the people must
look for instruction concerning the duty of the
present.
The Assyrian records read, on the other hand, as
if they were the work of royal scribes, writing under
the direct supervision of the kings themselves. The
gods are described, and their varied relations to the
world below are duly set forth. But the emphasis
of the narrative appears to be given to the glory and
the achievements of such great monarchs as Sargon
and Asshurbanipal, as if a long line of scribes, writing
directly for the king's approval, had continued the
chronicles from reign to reign.
China 27
The early literary and religious ideals of China
took a very different form. We find here no priestly
autocracy, controlling all intellectual activities and
giving a revelation as to the nature of the universe,
the requirements of the gods, and the obligations of
men, obligations which have never failed to include
the strictest obedience to the behests of the priests,
the representatives of the gods. There are no court
chronicles, dictated under royal supervision, and de-
voted not to the needs of the people, but to the
glorious achievements of the monarchs. Nor is
there any great epic, commemorating the deeds of
heroes and demi-gods. In place of these we find
what may be called a practical system of applied
ethics. Confucius was evidently neither a visionary
dreamer nor a poet, nor did he undertake to estab-
lish any priestly or theological authority for his
teaching. He gives the impression of having been
an exceptionally clear-headed and capable thinker,
who devoted himself, somewhat as Socrates did a
century later, to studying out the problems affecting
the life of the state and of the individual. With Soc-
rates, however, the chief thing appears to have been
the intellectual interest of the problem, while with
Confucius, the controlling purpose was evidently the
welfare of his fellow-men. It was his aim, as he
28 Authors and Their Public
himself expressed it, through a rewriting of the wise
teachings left us by our ancestors, so as to adapt
them to the understanding of the present generation,
to guide men to wise and wholesome lives, and to
prepare them for a better future. 1
The work of Confucius stands as the foundation-
stone of the literature, the morals, and the state-
craft of China. It was continued by such writers as
Mencius, 350 B.C., and Tsengtze, 320 B.C.
The works of the earlier authors secured, we are
told, an immediate circulation, but we have no knowl-
edge as to the methods employed for their distribu-
tion. It seems probable that in the earlier as in
the later centuries, the authors whose works found
approval with the authorities received directly from
the state compensation for their literary and philo-
sophic labors.
The material used for the earliest known writings
was made from bamboo fibre, and was prepared in
the shape of tablets. Early in the third century B.C.
(curiously enough, during the reign of Hwang-ti, the
destroyer of literature), brushes were invented, with
which characters could be traced upon silk. The
bamboo was either scratched upon with a sharp
stylus, or the characters were painted upon it with a
1 Karpeles, i., n.
China 29
dark varnish. Sometimes also the characters were
burned into the bamboo, with a heated metal
stylus. India ink was first used in the seventh
century. The invention of paper took place about
100 B.C., the first material utilized for the manufac-
ture being bark, fishing-nets, and rags. Printing,
from solid blocks was done as early as the first cen-
tury A.D. The invention of the art of printing from
movable type is credited to a blacksmith named Pi-
Shing. The blacksmith's first books were turned out
towards the close of the tenth century A.D., or early
in the eleventh century, more than three centuries
before the presses of Gutenberg began their work in
Mayence.
The movable type used by Pi-Shing were made of
plastic clay. At the same time, or shortly there-
after, porcelain type were utilized. The printing
from movable type never seems to have developed
to such extent as to supersede block printing. The
Emperor Kang-He had engraved about two hundred
and fifty thousand copper type, which were used for
printing the publications of the government. These
type were afterwards melted for use as cash, but were
replaced by his grandson with type made from lead. 1
There is record of books being printed in Corea
1 Middle Kingdom, i., p. 603.
30 Authors and Their Public
(at that time a province of the Empire) from mov-
able clay type, as early as 1317 A.D. 1
Literature has always been an honored profession
in China, and seems even in the earliest times to
have attracted a larger proportion of workers than,
during the same period, were engaged in literary
pursuits in any other countries in the world. The
mass of literature was very much added to after the
introduction of Buddhism into the country, which
took place during the first century of the Christian
era. Karpeles states that a selection of the early
Chinese classics, with commentaries, undertaken
under the direction of one of the emperors in the
eighteenth century, would, it was calculated, com-
prise when completed, 163,000 volumes. By the
year 1818, there had been published of the series,
78,731 volumes. 2 From this enormous mass of ma-
terial a few books only stand out as possessing dis-
tinctive importance by reason of their influence on
the thought and the life of many generations.
There are the five King and the four Schu, or
" books." The term " king " means literally a web,
a thing woven, or fabricated. Its use in this connec-
tion recalls the pantos of the Greek rhapsodists, a
term which, originally meaning a thing spun or a
1 Encyclopedia Briiannica, article " China." 9 Karpeles, i., 12.
China 31
yarn, came also to stand for a literary production of
a certain class, a "yarn " that could be recited. The
five King were the " webs " or productions of wise
and holy writers, but the names of these writers
have not been preserved, even as a tradition. The
first in order is the Y-king, already mentioned, the
Book of the Developments, which is much the oldest
in the series. The second is the Schu-king or Book of
Chronicles, which begins its narrative with the time
of Noah, and gives the record of the dynasties from
2400 to 721 B.C. In addition to the historical chron-
icles, the Schu-king contains, in the form of dialogues
between the emperors and the councillors, the in-
struction in the principles of state-craft, in philosophy,
in the science of war, in music, in astronomy, and in
general culture. The headings of some of the chap-
ters recall the matters treated in The Prince of
Machiavelli. The following " royal maxims " do
not, however, sound Machiavellian : " Virtue," says
the great councillor Yih, speaking to the emperor,
" is the foundation of your realm " ; " The ruler must
lead his people in the paths of virtue " ; " Guard your-
self from false shame, and if you have committed an
error, hasten to make frank acknowledgment of the
same. Otherwise you will mislead your subjects."'
1 Karpeles, i., 12.
32 Authors and Their Public
The third of the canonical books is the Schi-king
or Book of Songs, already referred to. This presents
the selection made by Confucius of the hymns,
ballads, and folk-songs collected from the earliest
generations. The fourth is the Tschun-tshien, or
Spring and Autumn Year-Book, which is ascribed to
Confucius. It is a brief chronicle of events covering
a space of 240 years. The fifth is the Li-ki, or Book
of Ritual, or of Conduct. This gives detailed instruc-
tions concerning the proper ceremonials for all events
of life, from the cradle to the grave.
With these classics should be grouped certain
books prepared by the followers of Confucius, the
most important of which, the Ltin-yii, or Conversa-
tions, is a record of the instruction given by Confucius
to his pupils in the form of talks. In these conver-
sations we find questions shaped in a method quite
Socratic. With this should be grouped the Mcngtsze,
the record of the work of the philosopher Mencitis.
His instruction seems, like that of his great fore-
runner, to have been very practical in its character.
Associated with the earlier teachings of Confucius,
the instruction of Mencius was accepted as the basis
of the moral and the educational system of the
nation.
The enormous respect which the Chinese have
China 33
given to the works produced during their classical
period is believed by authorities like Williams and
Wade to have exercised an influence on the whole
detrimental to the development and to the originality
of their later literature.
The first active literary period preceded Confucius,
500 B.C. From this period have been preserved the
classics already referred to. The next important
epoch is that of the " interpreters," the counsellors
and the lawgivers, extending from Confucius to
Mencius, 350 B.C. They were followed by a long
line of annalists and commentators, whose work
came to an abrupt close with the reign of the Em-
peror Che Hwang-ti, 221-226 B.C. Hwang-ti was
evidently a man with opinions of his own. He ob-
jected to what seemed to him an exaggerated and
mischievous reverence for the " good old times," and
he proposed to discourage the laudator temporis acti.
He issued an edict directing all books to be burned
excepting those treating of medicine, divination, and
husbandry. This index expurgatorius (possibly the
earliest in history) included all the writings of Con-
fucius and Mencius, comprising both their original
work and their compilations and editions of the
earlier classics. It was further ordered that any one
who dared to mention the Book of History or the Book
34 Authors and Their Public
of Odes should be put to death. Any one possessing,
thirty days after the issue of the edict, a copy of the
books ordered destroyed, was to be branded and put
to labor for four years upon the great wall. This is
probably the most drastic and comprehensive policy
for the suppression of a literature that the world has
ever seen. Fortunately, like similar attempts in later
centuries, it was only partially successful. While the
destruction of books was enormous, and while, of
long lists of works, it is probable that all existing
copies actually did disappear, the texts of the most
important, including the specially obnoxious Book of
History and Book of Songs, were preserved. Accord-
ing to one tradition, a large number of the songs
were saved only by having been retained in the
memory of public reciters and their hearers. After
the death of the Emperor Che, the text of these was
taken down and again committed to writing. This
instance is, one recalls, fully in line with the methods
by which in Greece, before the general use of writing,
the earlier classics were preserved in the memories
of the rhapsodists and their hearers.
It is the opinion of Dr. Williams that the com-
mand of the Emperor Che for the destruction of all
books was so thoroughly executed that " of many
classical works not a single copy escaped destruction.
China
35
The books were, however, recovered in great part by
rewriting them from the memories of old scholars.
. . . If the same literary tragedy should be en-
acted to-day, thousands of persons might easily be
found in China who could rewrite from memory
the text and the commentary of their nine classical
works."
Williams is also my authority for the statement
that not only were the books destroyed as far as
copies could be found, but that nearly five hundred
literati were burned alive, in order that no one
might remain to reproach in his writings the em-
peror for the commission of so barbarous an act. 1
One of the most celebrated female writers in China
was Pan Whui-pan, also known as Pan Chao, the
sister of the historian Pan Ku, who wrote the history
of the Han dynasty. She was appointed histori-
ographer after the death of her brother, and com-
pleted, about A.D. 80, his unfinished annals. A little
later she wrote the first work in any language on
female education, which was called Nil Kiai or
Female Precepts, and which has formed the basis of
many succeeding books on female education. In
the writings of this and of other Chinese authoresses,
instructions in morals and in the various branches
1 Middle Kingdom^ i. , 600.
36 Authors and Their Public
of domestic economy are insisted upon as the first
essentials in the education of women, and as more
important than a knowledge of the classics or of
the annals. 1
1050 A.D. Wang Pih-ho, of the. Sung dynasty,
compiled for his private school a horn-book or
manual of education, entitled the San-tsz King.
The manual is interesting not merely as giving a
general study of the nature of man and the exist-
ence of modes of education, but because it includes
a list of books recommended for the student, a list
which gives an impression of the extent of the edu-
cation and literature of that date. 9
The golden age of Chinese literary production is
fixed by Sir Thomas Wade at the period of the
Tang dynasty, 620-907 A.D. In 922 A.D. an edition
of the classical writers was printed and published
under the instructions of the Emperor. The tendency
of writers since the tenth century has been to de-
vote their energies to commentaries on the ancient
works, and to analyses and interpretations of these
rather than to original production. The writing of
historical annals has, however, gone on with great
regularity, and the series of Chronicles of the Kingdom
is veiy comprehensive in its completeness.
1 Middle Kingdom, i., 574. 9 Middle Kingdom, i., 526^
China 37
The rewards of authors are given in the shape of
official appointments and preferments, and of honors
and honorariums bestowed directly by the state. It
seems probable that in modern as in ancient times
the writers of China could look for no direct returns
from the circulation of their productions. It is never-
theless the case that from the time of Confucius to
the present day, that is for a period of two thousand
four hundred years, the direct influence of scholars,
thinkers, and writers has been greater in China than
in any other part of the world. The state as a whole
and the individual citizen, from the Emperor down,
have, as a rule, been ready to recognize and accept
the authority and the guidance of literary ideals
and of intellectual standards. The case would be
paralleled if the French Academy had existed from
the time of Charlemagne to the present day, if the
counsellors and rulers of the state had always been
appointed from the forty, and if the remaining offi-
cials of all grades had been selected by competitive
examinations, instituted and supervised by the forty.
The parallel would not be complete, however, unless
the Academy of to-day were still basing its examina-
tions on a codex of Charlemagne.
The imperial government of China and the Chi-
nese community as a whole have for many cen-
38 Authors and Their Public
turies, apparently ever since the time of the
book-burning Hwang-ti, rendered a larger measure
of honor (and also of direct reward as far as
this could be given by official station) to stu-
dents and scholars, than has been given by any
state in the history of the world. The literary
ideal and the literary productions, the study of
which has thus been honored, have, however, been in
the main those of a thousand years or more back.
The fact, says Legge, that the earlier literary period
was so fruitful, and that the works produced in it
have been held by later generations in so great
honor, is one cause why original or creative literary
productiveness has been discouraged, and why the
later literary activities continue in so large propor-
tion to take the shape of commentaries. It has also,
he thinks, been an important influence in keeping
the language in an inflexible and undeveloped con-
dition. It was the language of the fathers, and it
would be sacrilege to modify it.
Japan. The civilization of Japan is an off-
shoot or development of that of China, and the
Japanese literature is based upon Chinese mod-
els and standards. The literary relation strikes
Japan 39
one as in some respects similar to that which
existed between Great Britain and the American
Colonies, or later with the American States.
The literature of Japan is described, however,
as characterized by much more elasticity, vari-
ety, and creative originality than is possessed by
that of China, and in place of stereotyping itself
upon the models of old-time classics, it has shown
from century to century a wholesome power of de-
velopment.
At one time, says Karpeles, Japan possessed an
alphabet of its own, but later, the Chinese characters
were introduced, and were used together with the
older alphabet. It is only the very earliest writings
in which the Japanese characters alone are employed.
The Japanese scribes have from the beginning
worked with brushes rather than with pens, and in
so doing, have been able to utilize such substances
as silk, which would have been unsuitable for the
work of the pen. The invention of paper, however,
took place at an early date, possibly simultaneously
with its first use in China. Printing from blocks,
and later from type, was promptly introduced from
China early in our era.
According to the native chroniclers, the earliest
literary production of Japan was the work of the two
4O Authors and Their Public
gods Izanaghi and Izanami. These gods, having
created the country, thought it was incomplete with-
out some poetry, and the poetry was therefore
added. Tsurayuki, a poet of the tenth century,
takes the ground that all true expression of feeling
is poetry. The nightingale sings in the wood, the
frog croaks in the pool ; each is giving utterance to
a feeling, and each, therefore, is pouring forth a
poem. There is no living being, he continues, who
is not a producer of poetry. (This is as startling to us
ordinary mortals as the discovery of Moliere's Mon-
sieur Jourdain that he had been talking prose all his
life without knowing it.) As poetry, says Tsuray-
uki, begins with the expression of feeling, it must
have come into existence with the beginning of crea-
tion. 1 In the earliest times, he says, when the gods
were poets, the arrangement of sounds into syllables
had not been made, and rhythm had not been in-
vented. These early divine poems or utterances of
the gods are, therefore, very difficult to understand.
Later, however, Susanoo-no-mikoto fixed sounds
into syllables, and then, according to the tenth-cen-
tury poet, Japanese literature had its actual begin-
ning, but he does not give us the date of this useful
piece of work. We are inclined to wonder what
1 Karpeles, i., 23.
Japan 41
the wise Susanoo, etc., did about the announcing of
his own name, say on really formal occasions, before
the little matter of the invention of syllables had
been accomplished.
While it is claimed that from prehistoric times
there had been in Japan an active production and a
wide distribution of poetry (folk-songs), the first
collection of the " people's ballads " appears to have
been made as late as 700 A.D. At this time the
Emperor, whose residence was at Nara, took an in-
terest in literature, and during the quarter century
from 700 to 725 A.D. lived " the noble poet "
Yamabe-no-Akahito, and the " wise man of the
poets," Kakino-mo-to-Hito-Maro. (The god above
referred to, who bestowed upon Japan the invention
of syllables, seems to have done his work thoroughly.)
The compilation which took shape during this
period is known as the Man-yo-sin, or the " collec-
tion of ten thousand leaves." The two later collec-
tions are known as The Old and the Neiv Songs of
Japan, and The Hundred Poets.
A special feature in the literature of Japan is the
great number of poetesses. The fashion of women
interesting themselves in the writing of poetry was
initiated by the poetic Empress Soto-oro-ime, in the
third century A.D.
42 Authors and Their Public
The great epic of Japanese literature is the Fei-ke-
mono-gatari, that is The Annals of 'the Fei-ke Dynasty,
which is said to have been composed in 1083 A.D.,
and which was sung among the people by blind
rhapsodists. An epic of later date, in twelve books,
is credited to the poet Ikanage. The literary record
shows a long series of tales and romances, which are
described as possessing a graceful fancy and imagina-
tion much in advance of Chinese compositions of the
same class.
The theatre has from early times played a very
important part in the social life of Japan, and
dramatic composers are held in high honor. The
first dramas written for performance date from
about 807 A.D. The people of Japan have from the
early times of Japanese literature given cordial ap-
preciation to literary producers, and especially poets
and dramatists. The official recognition of literature
and of men of letters appears, however, to have been
much less distinctive and less important than in China.
We do not find record of official positions and prefer-
ments being bestowed on the ground of proficiency in
philosophy or literature, or by reason of a knowledge
of the learning of the past ; nor have the smaller
government places been distributed by competitive
examinations arranged for students of literature.
India 43
The distribution of literature among the people
appears to have been from an early date very
general, and the knowledge of the great classics has
certainly been widespread. Of the methods by
which such distribution was accomplished in the
early centuries of literary production we know
nothing. It seems probable from certain references
by later authors, that in Japan, as in Greece, the
rhapsodists and reciters were the principal dis-
tributors.
Of rewards or compensations given to the earlier
Japanese authors there is no record. The national
treasury does not appear to have been utilized as in
China and Assyria. It is possible that the dramatists
may have secured some share of the stage receipts,
but it is probable that the other authors must have
contented themselves with such prestige or honors
as came to them from the readers of, or the listeners
to, their compositions.
India. In India, the typical early literature is the
myth. There is no national epic in the Greek use
of the term, in which are described the doings of
heroic men. The literary productions are the work
of poets whose imagination has been impressed with
44 Authors and Their Public
the immensity and with the mystery of the universe,
and whose poetic fancies take the form of visions.
These fancies or visions are concerned with the doings
of the gods, while man plays but a small part in the
narrative.
Sanscrit literature is said to date back to the
fifteenth century B.C. The written characters have
an origin common with that of the Greek letters.
The oldest existing monuments of Indian script are
the edicts of the King Acoka, cut into the stone at
Girnar and elsewhere " so that they might endure
for ever." They date back to the third century B.C.
The first literary period of India presents the
poetry of the Vedas, the sacred scriptures of the
Sanscrit peoples. The hymns and invocations com-
prising the Vedas are supposed to have been col-
lected about 1000 B.C. This is the date that has
by many authorities been accepted for the col-
lecting of the Homeric poems, and corresponds
nearly with the time fixed for the writing of the
Chinese Book of the Metamorphoses. It also tallies
with the period to which is ascribed the production
of the Persian Zend-Avesta.
The term Veda means knowledge, or sacred knowl-
edge. The collection of the Vedas comprises four
divisions. The Rig-Veda, or Veda of Praises or
India 45
Hymns ; the Santa- Veda, or Veda of Chants or Tunes ;
the Yajnr- Veda, or Veda of Prayers ; and the Atharva-
Veda, or Brahma-Veda.
The second literary period, beginning about the
fifth century B.C., is that of the Folk-Songs, in which
the myth becomes legend, and the gods, approach-
ing a little closer to the earth, assume more nearly
the character of heroes. The third period is that of
the classic poets, whose productions in lyric and
dramatic poetry are ranked with the great works of
literature of the world. This period appears to have
reached its height of productiveness between the
sixth and tenth centuries of our era.
The earliest prose works are the theological writ-
ings of the Brahmanic priests, which take the form
of commentaries on the Vedas, and which elucidate
the sacred texts, principally from a sacrificial point
of view. The production of these theological com-
mentaries is supposed to date back to the seventh
or sixth century B.C.
Buddha, or Gautama, philosopher, poet, reformer,
and redeemer of his people, began his work towards
the close of the sixth century B.C. His teachings
gave rise to an enormous production of theological
literature in India, Ceylon, China, and Japan.
The information concerning the materials used by
46 Authors and Their Public
the earlier writers of India, and as to the methods
by which their books were placed before the public,
is very meagre. According to Louisy, the use of
diphtheraiy or dressed skins, prevailed to some extent.
Prepared palm-leaves were also utilized, particularly
by the Buddhist writers of Ceylon. There appears
to have been no general or popular circulation of
the manuscripts. These were costly, and were beyond
the means of any but the very wealthy, while it was
also the case that the knowledge of reading was con-
fined to but limited circles.
It seems probable that the manuscripts were in the
main prepared in the monasteries or temples, and
that they were exchanged between the temples. The
teachings of the writers were brought before the
people by preaching or recitations. Certain of the
princes also attached to their courts poets and phi-
losophers, and practically the only libraries or collec-
tions of manuscripts outside of those in the temples,
must have been those contained in the palaces of the
few princes who possessed literary tastes.
There could have been no other way of securing
for an author compensation for his work excepting
through princely favors or from the treasuries of the
temples.
Persia 47
Persia. The first name that comes down to us
connected with the literature of Persia is that of
Zoroaster. The Persian form of his name is Zara-
thustra, meaning the gold-star. The date of his
birth is said to be more uncertain than that of
Homer, but he is supposed to have lived about
1000 B.C.
He is credited with the authorship of the Gdthas,
hymns partly religious, partly political. To Zoroas^
ter were also revealed the teachings which later tools
shape in the sacred scriptures of the Persians, the
Zend-Avesta (commentary-lore). Of these scriptures,
only one division, the Vendidad, has been preserved
complete. Of the other parts only fragments re-
main. It is estimated that the Vendidad (which
means the regulations against demons) represents
about one twentieth of the original collection.
The oldest portion of the Avesta is the Yasna, or
sacrificial liturgy. This is a grouping together of
the commentaries surrounding the Gdthas. A third
division is the Visparad, or the Seasons, in which are
set forth the lists of the objects sacred to each sea-
son. A fourth division is the Yescht-Sade, or little
Avesta, comprising prayers and hymns.
The monotheistic or dualistic nature of the faith
as originally taught by Zoroaster has, in the later
48 Authors and Their Public
religious writings and practices, been overlaid and
obscured by the different phases of nature worship.
Fire is accepted as the symbol of holiness, but, ac-
cording to the views of the educated Parsees, is not
itself the thing worshipped.
The existing canon of the Avesta was compiled
and published under the direction of King Sapor
II., who reigned 309-330 A.D. Among the poems
of the Avesta we find the legend of which the hero
is Rustem, who stands as the representative of Iran
in its long contest with Turan.
The literature of Persia prior to the fourth cen-
tury of the Christian era was probably controlled in
great part by the priests. The exceptions would
have been in the case of the court poets or court
historians, writing under the incentive of royal re-
muneration. It is probable that songs and recita-
tions were to some extent given to the public by
minstrels or rhapsodists. There is some evidence
also of the development in later centuries of the
story-teller or improvisatore, who made a business
of exchanging, for the pence of the public, stories
partly original, but chiefly borrowed from older
sources. The Oriental capacity for story-telling,
and the Oriental readiness to devote an abundance
of leisure time to listening to stones, is clearly indi-
Judaea 49
cated not only by modern practices, but also by the
history of such collections as the Arabian Nights.
Of this famous series of tales, neither the nationality
nor the date of origin has been fixed with any de-
gree of certainty. It is probable, however, that the
collection first took shape in Bagdad about 1450
A.D., the date of the invention of printing. Von
Hammer is of opinion that the Bagdad Tales are
based upon a Persian collection called Hezar Afsaneh,
The Thousand Fanciful Stories. From a passage in
the Golden Meadows of El-Mesoudee (quoted by von
Hammer) this Persian collection is known to have
been in existence as early as 987 A.D.
It seems probable, as suggested, that the practice
of publicly reciting poems or of narrating stories
prevailed in Persia from a very early date, and con-
stituted here, as in Greece, the first method for the
distribution or the publication of literary composi-
tions. The material employed for manuscripts was
first dipktkeraiy or skins, and later papyrus and
parchment.
Judaea. There is a similar lack of evidence con-
cerning the existence among the Hebrews of any-
thing that could be called literary property. The
50 Authors and Their Public
great body of the earlier Hebrew literature belonged,
of course, to the class of sacred writings, best known
to us through the books of the Old Testament and
of the Apocrypha. In addition to these, and partly,
of course, included with these, were the various col-
lections of the law and of the comments on the law,
while later years produced the long series of com-
mentaries known to the reader of to-day under the
general name of the Talmud. The various tran-
scripts required of these writings of the law and the
prophets gave employment to numbers of scribes,
who, in the first place, apparently were usually con-
nected with the Temple, and must have derived their
support from the ecclesiastical revenues, but who
later formed a separate commercial class, receiving
payment for their work as done.
Professor Peters speaks of the age of Hezekiah as
the golden age of Hebrew literature. He quotes
the text, Prov. xxv., I, which says that " the men of
Hezekiah translated " or transcribed, or wrote down
the Proverbs of Solomon, as evidently an effort to
collect and preserve the literary treasures of the
past. He says, further :
" It is not unnatural to suppose that the writing down of Solomon's
Proverbs was for the purpose of a library in Jerusalem, such as the
Assyrian kings had long since collected at Nineveh. The Book of
Amos was edited (somewhere about 711 B.C.) apparently for this
Judaea 51
library . . . and I suppose Hosea and Micah also to have been
edited about this time and for the same purpose. It was the forma-
tion of this library at just this time and the desire to collect and pre-
serve all the literary remains of the past, which led to the collection
and preservation of so much of the literature of the Northern King-
dom, but lately brought into Judah by the Israelite emigres. No
tales of the valor of the heroes of Judah, no Judaean folk-lore ante-
dating the time of David, have been handed down to us ; this litera-
ture belonged to the Northern Kingdom. Literary and antiquarian
zeal led to the collection and reception of these northern tales and
poems into Hezekiah's library . . . where their use in historical
works, owing to the awakened zeal for a knowledge of the past, was
assured. So with the transfer of intellectual activity from Samaria,
a new era begins in Judah, and soon the charming tales and poems of
the north, preserved in the library of Hezekiah, begin to be woven
into the more solid and ambitious works of the historians and lawyers
of Jerusalem.
"This literary awakening could not fail to act upon the priests.
They were the custodians of those ancient religious and legal tradi-
tions, which, coming down from the age of Moses, had grown with,
and been modified by, changing times and conditions. While some
portions of the ' law ' were written, presumably the larger part of it
was handed down mainly by word of mouth.
" Moreover, that which was written probably existed in various in-
dependent codes relating to different subjects. Some of these such
as a tariff of offerings, or tables of civil and criminal law, like those
contained in the Book of the Covenant may have been published, or
set up at the Temple gates, where they could be read by the wor-
shippers. The greater part of the ' law,' however, seems to have
been the exclusive, if not esoteric, possession of the priesthood of the
Jerusalem Temple. The literary activity of the Renaissance made
itself felt within the circle of the priests, leading them to begin to
commit to writing their unwritten law as well as the ancient tradi-
tions, customs, and ceremonies. Thus was commenced the work
which has given us the middle books of the Pentateuch, as well as
much of Genesis and Joshua." l
^rof. J. P. Peters, Journal of the Exegetical Society, 1887,
116, 117.
52 Authors and Their Public
It appears, therefore, as if the Hebrew literature
of the time (the reign of Hezekiah, covering the
period referred to, lasting from 728 to 699 B.C.) con-
sisted substantially of the " law," that is of the
authoritative teachings of the " church," and was
almost exclusively in the hands of the priests. They
exercised a control, which amounted practically to
an ownership, over the sacred, that is the official,
records of the " law," and it appears as if the at-
tested copies or transcripts could be made only with
their permission and under their supervision. It is
probable, therefore, that the copyists were attached
to the Temple, and that such moneys as were re-
ceived from the sale of their transcripts belonged to
the treasury of the Temple, but the manner of
such sales can only be guessed at, as the records
give us no information. If, however, this under-
standing of the practice should prove to be correct,
we should have an example, if not of literary prop-
erty, at least of a species of " copyright " control.
The severe Jewish law, directing the penalty of
death to be inflicted upon prophets speaking " false
words," or uttering as inspirations of their own,
words which had originated with others, has been
quoted as an early example of regulation of plagiar-
ism, but it appears evident, says Renouard, 1 that the
1 Renouard, Trailt! dcs Drolls d'Autcurs, i., 15.
Judaea
53
crime here to be punished was not plagiarism but
sacrilege, Vates mendax qui vaticinatur et quce non
audivit, et qucs ipsi non sunt dicta, ab ho minibus est
occidendus" 1 The utterance of the prophet Jeremiah
(c. xxiii. v. 30) evidently refers to the same regu-
lation.
1 Sanhedrim, c. xiv., 5.
CHAPTER II.
Greece.
THE literature of Greece has become the property
of the world, but of the existence of literary
property in Greece that is, of any system or practice
of compensation to writers from their readers or
hearers, either direct or indirect the traces are
very slight ; so slight, in fact, that the weight of
authority is against the probability of such practice
having obtained at all.
It is fortunate for the literature of the world that
the Greek poets, dramatists, historians, and philoso-
phers were content to do their work for the approval
of their own generation, for the chance of fame with
the generations to come, or for the satisfaction of
the work itself, as their rewards in the shape of any-
thing more tangible than fame appear to have been
either nothing or something very inconsiderable.
Clement says : " After the most painstaking re-
searches through the records left us by the Greeks,
54
Greece 55
we are compelled to conclude that in none of the
Greek states was any recognition ever given under
provision of law, to the right of authors to any con-
trol over their own productions." * Breulier writes :
" Literary property, in any sense in which the term
is understood to-day, did not exist at Athens." s
Wilhelm Schmitz concludes that " no such relation
as that which to-day exists between authors and
booksellers (publishers) was known among the
Greeks. In none of the writings of the time, do
we find the slightest reference to any such publish,
ing arrangements as Roman authors in the time of
Martial were accustomed to secure." 8 This treatise
of Schmitz's is a painstaking and interesting study
of the conditions of Greek literature in classic times
and of the relations of Greek writers to their public,
and for certain portions of this chapter I am largely
indebted to the results of his investigations.
Geraud remarks that in the first development of
written language and literature among the Hebrews
and Egyptians, it is easy to recognize the " fatal
1 tude sur la Prcpridti Litte'raire chez les Grec set chez les Romains,
par Paul Clement, Grenoble, 1867.
* Du Droit de Perptiuite' de la Propridte' Intellectuelle , par Adolphe
Breulier.
3 Schriftsleller und Buchhandler in A then, und im iibrigen Grie-
chenland, von Wilhelm Schmitz, Heidelberg, 1876.
56 Authors and Their Public
influence of the spirit of priestly caste, an influence
from which the Greek peoples were comparatively
free." ' The richest literature of antiquity, he goes
on to say, is that of Greece, and it was also in Greece
that the art of writing made the most rapid advances.
The teaching of the priests, whether given through
the oracles or not, was purely oral, so that the
Greeks did not come into possession of any body
of sacred scriptures such as formed the original
literature of other peoples. On the other hand, the
ardent nature, inquiring and active intellect, and
brilliant imagination of the Greeks, gave an early
and rapid development to the arts, to poetry, and
to speculative philosophy.
The old-time tradition credits the introduction of
the alphabet in Greece to Cadmus, and fixes the
date of the first Hellenic spelling-school at about
the fifteenth century before Christ. I believe the
authorities are divided as to whether this mythical
Cadmus represents a Phoenician or an Egyptian
influence, but this is a question which need not be
considered here. I understand the philologists are
in accord in the conclusion that the Cadmus story
represents, not a first instituting of a Greek alpha-
bet, but merely certain important modifications in
Essaisur les Livres dans FAntiquit/, par H. Geraud, Paris, 1840.
Greece 57
the form of letters already in use. Birt asserts, as if
it were now a settled fact, that while the Greeks de-
rived their written characters from the Phoenicians,
they were indebted to Egypt for their first ideas in
the making of books. There is a very distinct family
resemblance between the Greek characters as known
in literature and those of the Hebrew, Phoenician,
and Syriac alphabets, while the names of the Greek
letters Alpha and Beta are found in all the Semitic
dialects. It seems further to be certain that the
earlier peoples of Greece, after for a time having
written perpendicularly according to the fashion of
the Chinese, began later to write from right to left
according to the Oriental manner.
The so-called Boustrophedon, a term meaning
" turning like oxen when they plough," was a method
of writing from left to right, and from right to left
in alternate lines. Among the earlier specimens of
this method were the laws of Solon (about 610 B.C.)
and the Sigean inscription (about 600 B.C.). This
system represents a period of transition between the
earliest style and that of which the invention is
credited to Pronapides, and is simply the modern
European fashion of writing from left to right. The
inscriptions of the Etruscans are largely written in
Boustrophedon. Neither in Greece, however, nor
58 Authors and Their Public
elsewhere, did this method remain in use for any
writings which are to be classed as literature.
While Greek literature, as far as known to us,
must be considered as beginning with the Homeric
poems, the date of which is estimated by the ma-
jority of the authorities at about 900 B.C., there
appears to be no trustworthy example of Greek
writing earlier than about 600 B.C. Curiously
enough, this specimen was found not in Greece but
in Egypt. Jevons describes it as follows :
" On the banks of the Upper Nile, in the temple of Abu Simbel,
are huge statues of stone, and on the legs of the second colossus from
the south are chipped the names, witticisms, and records of travellers
of all ages, in alphabets known and unknown. The earliest of the
Greek travellers who have thus left their names were a body of mer-
cenaries, who seemed to have formed part of an expedition which was
led up the Nile by King Psammitichus." '
Jevons goes on to give the grounds for the conclu-
sion (based mainly on the formation of certain of the
letters, and in part, of course, on the references to
King Psammitichus) that the inscription was written,
or rather was cut, upon the statue between 620 B.C.
and 600 B.C., according as we take the king mentioned
to have been the first or second of his name." We have,
then, a date fixing a time at which the art of writing
certainly existed among the Greeks, while it is fur-
1 Jevons, Hist. Greek Lit,, 42 et seq,
8 Evans found in Crete, in 1893, examples of script, believed to be
the work of scribes of Greek stock, of a much earlier date.
Greece 59
ther evident that if in the year 600 the art of writing
was so well established that it was understood by a
number of mercenaries, it must have been quite gen-
erally diffused through certain classes of society, and
the date for its introduction into Greece must have
been considerably earlier than 600. Jevons knows,
however, of no example of Greek writing which can
be ascribed to an earlier date than that above
quoted.
The conclusion, based upon this inscription, that
in the year 600 B.C. writing had for some time been
known in Greece, enables us, however, says Jevons,
to accept as probably authentic a reference to writing
ascribed to an author who lived nearly a century
earlier. Archilochus, a poet who is believed to have
flourished about 700 B.C., uses in one of his fables
the expression " a grievous skytale"
' ' A skytale was a staff on which a strip of leather for writing pur-
poses was rolled slant-wise. A message was then written on the
leather, and the latter being unrolled, was given to the messenger.
If the messenger were intercepted, the message could not be deciph-
ered, for only when the leather was rolled on a staff of precisely the
same size (i, e. , thickness) as the proper one, would the letters come
right. Such a staff, the duplicate of that used by the sender, was of
course possessed by the recipient."
This primitive method of cipher was for a long
time in use with the Spartans for conveying State
60 Authors and Their Public
messages. In the figure of speech used by Archilo-
chus, his fable was to outward appearance innocent
of any recondite meaning, but would prove a griev-
ous " skytale " for the person attacked.
It seems reasonable, continues Jevons, to accept
this passage as indicating a knowledge of writing
in Greece as early as 700 B.C. This date allows
a century for the diffusion of the art and for the
spread of the Ionic alphabet which are implied
by the Abu Simbel inscription. And the passage
does not prove too much. It does not imply even
that Archilochus himself could write. The inven-
tion or introduction was sufficiently novel and ad-
mirable to furnish a poet with a metaphor ; and the
skytale was probably then, as in later times, a gov-
ernment institution. This mention of it accords
with the probable supposition that writing was used
for government purposes for some time before it
became common among the people.
The next date or period which in connection with
my subject it is of interest to fix, however approxi-
mately, is that when it is possible to speak of the
existence of a reading public. On this point also I
take the liberty of quoting one or two paragraphs
from Jevons in which the probabilities are clearly
presented :
Greece 61
" Reading and writing were certainly taught as early as the year
500 B.C., and half a century later, to be unable to read or write was a
thing to be ashamed of. Herodotus speaks of boys' schools existing
in Chios in the time of Histiaeus, who lived about 500." l
" Instruction of this kind does not, however, prove the existence
of a reading public. Enough education to be able to keep accounts,
to read public notices, to correspond with friends or business agents,
may have been in the possession of every free Athenian in the period
between 500 and 450 B.C., and the want of such education may have
caused a man to be sneered at ; but this does not prove the habit of
reading literature."
There are, however, various references which indicate
that by the year 450 B.C. the habit of reading was begin-
ning to become general, at least in certain circles of
society. Jevons quotes a passage from the Tagenistte
of Aristophanes, in which, speaking of a young man
gone wrong, the dramatist ascribes his ruin to "a book,
to Prodicus or to bad company." 2 Jevons also finds
in fragments of an old comedy such expressions as
" an unlettered man," " a man who does not know
his A B C." A passage in the lyric fragments of
the poet Theognis (who lived 583-500) is of in-
terest not merely as an evidence of some public
circulation of literature, but as possibly the earliest
example of an author's attempting to control the
circulation of his own productions. Theognis says
he has hit on a device which will prevent his verses
from being appropriated by any one else. He will
1 Herod., vi., 27. 2 Jevons, Greek Lif.,p. 45.
62 Authors and Their Public
put his name on them as a seal (or trade-mark) and
then " no one will take inferior work for his when the
good is to be had, but every one will say ' These are
the verses of Theognis, the Megarian.' " As Jevons
says : " This passage certainly implies that Theognis
committed his works to writing." It also appears
to imply that there was likely to be sufficient liter-
ary prestige attaching to the poetry of Theognis to
tempt an unscrupulous person to claim to be its
author, while it is at least possible to infer that the
plan of Theognis had reference not only to his pres-
tige as an author, but also to certain author's pro-
ceeds from the sales of his works, which proceeds
he desired to keep plagiarists from appropriating.
Clement does not, however, believe that there is ade-
quate ground for the latter supposition, but contends
that if the poet caused copies of his poems to be
multiplied and distributed, it was not for the purpose
of having them sold, and not even in order that they
might be read, but to enable his friends to learn
them and to sing them at drinking parties or other
social gatherings. In his opinion, the nature of the
poetry of Theognis shows that it was not composed
for a reading public.
Giving the fullest possible weight to the evidences
for the early development of the knowledge of read-
Greece 63
ing and writing, and the possible facilities for the
multiplication and distribution of books in manu-
script, it is certain that Greek literature between the
ninth and the sixth centuries B.C. cannot have been
prepared for a reading public. The epics which have
come down to posterity from that period must have
been transmitted by word of mouth and memory.
Mahaffy and Jevons are in accord in pointing out
that the effort of memory required for the composi-
tion and transmission of long poems without the aid
of writing, while implying a power never manifested
among people possessing printed books, is not in it-
self at all incredible. Memory was equal to the task,
and the earlier Greek poems, memorized by the
authors as composed, were preserved by successive
generations of Bards. They were also evidently
composed with special reference to the requirements
of the reciters whose recitations were in the earlier
periods usually given at the banquets of the royal
courts or of great houses to which the bards were at-
tached. The practice of reciting before public audi-
ences can hardly have been begun before the year
600 B.C.
The early epics were as a rule much too long to
be recited within the limits of a single evening, and
they must therefore have been continued from
64 Authors and Their Public
quet to banquet. The authors have apparently kept_
this necessity in mind, and have provided for it by
dividing their narratives into clearly defined episodes,
at the close of which the reciters could leave their
audiences with some such word as that given at the
close of a weekly installment in the " penny dread-
ful " " to be continued in our next."
As the practice was introduced of entertaining
larger audiences in the open air with the recital of
the Homeric and other epics, a class of professional
reciters arose, known as Rhapsodists, who declaimed
in a theatrical manner, with much gesture and vary-
ing inflection of the voice. The term rhapsody is
believed by Jevons to be derived from pctmc*), to
sew or stitch together. He quotes a line from Pin-
dar, O^piai panroav STtecov aoidoi, " sons of
Homer, singers of stitched verses." Words are meta-
phorically said to be stitched together into verses,
and the word pax-cpSos Jevons derives from panToo,
to stitch, and aoido?, a singer. 1
These rhapsodists travelled from place to place to
compete for the prizes offered by the different cities,
and while the national poems (carried in their memo-
1 Greek Literature, 51. The word is by some authorities derived
from pdfi8o<3 a staff, just as we have a stave in music. Rhapso-
dists would thus mean men of the stave ; pdfiftoS also (according to
Liddell and Scott, edited by Drisler) means grammatically a line or a
verse and paifxadia would mean a division of a poem for recitation.
Greece 65
ries) were probably common to all, each reciter doubt-
less had his own special method of declaiming these.
This practice helps to account for the transmission
and for the diffusion of the earlier epics. The
rhapsodists may, therefore, be said to have served in
a sense as the publishers of the period. The deriva-
tion of the word comedy throws some light on the
literary customs of the time. It means literally " a
song of the village," from KC^WT;, a village, and
asiSa), I sing.
The purposes of Greek writers were either politi-
cal or purely ideal. The possibility of earning
money by means of authorship seems hardly ever
to have occurred to them, and this freedom from
any commercial motive for their work was doubtless
an important cause for the high respect accorded in
Greece to its authors. In the time of Plato, the
Sophists, who prepared speeches and gave instruc-
tion for gain, were subject to more or less criticism
on this account a criticism which Plato himself
seems to have initiated. 1
At the threshold of Greek literature stands the
majestic figure of Homer; and to Pisistratus, the
Tyrant of Athens, is to be credited the inestimable
service of securing the preservation of the Homeric
1 Plato, Pheedo.
66 Authors and Their Public
poems in the form in which they have been handed
down to posterity. The task of compiling or of
editing the material was "conUcTecT to four men,
whose names, as predecessors of a long list of
Homeric editors, deserve to be recorded : Con-
chylus, Onomacritus, Zopyrus, and Orpheus, and the
work was completed about 550 B.C. 1
Another creditable literary undertaking of Pisis-
tratus was the collection of the poems of Hesiod,
which was confided to the Milesian Cecrops. We
have the testimony of Plutarch that by these means
the Tyrant did not a little towards gaining or re-
gaining the favor of the Athenians, which speaks
well for the early interest of the city in literature.
There are no details on record as to the means by
which these first literary products were placed at
the service of the community, but there can be no
question that the service rendered by the Tyrant
and the editors selected by him, consisted simply in
providing an authoritative text, from which any who
wished might transcribe such number of copies as
they desired. This Pisistratus edition of the Homeric
books is said to have served as the standard text for
the copyists and for Homeric students not only in
Greece but later in Alexandria, and is, therefore, the
1 Rilschl. Philolog. Schriften, Bd. I.
Greece 67
basis of the Homeric literature that has come down
to modern days.
Prof. Mahaffy remarks that the writings of Hesiod
differed from those of the other early Greek authors
in being addressed, not to "the powers that were,"
but to the common people. 1 Referring to the style of
Hesiod's works, Simcox says, rather naively, " Hesiod
would certainly have written in prose, if prose had
then existed." Works and Days (the only one of
Hesiod's poems which the later Greek commentators
accept as certainly genuine) consists of ethical and
economic precepts, written in a homely and unimagi-
native style, and setting forth the indisputable
doctrine that labor is the only road to prosperity.
Mahaffy is my authority for the statement that
Hesiod's poems came into use " at an early period as
a favorite handbook of education." 2
I wish this brilliant student of Greek life had given
us some clue as to the methods by which copies of
this literature were multiplied and brought into the
hands of the country people and common people to
whom it was more particularly addressed. The dif-
ficulty of circulating books among this class of readers
must have been very much greater than that of
reaching the scholarly circles of the cities.
1 Social Greece, 10. * Social Greece, 14.
68 Authors and Their Public
While it was a long time before authors were to
be in a position to secure any compensation from
those who derived pleasure from their productions,
they began at an early date (as in the case before
mentioned of Theognis) to raise questions with each
other on the score of plagiarisms, and to be jealous
of retaining undisturbed the full literary prestige to
which they might be entitled.
Clement remarks that "an enlightened public
opinion helped to defend Greek authors against the
borrowing of literary thieves, by stigmatizing pla-
giarism as a crime, and by expressing for a writer
detected in appropriating the work of another a well
merited contempt instead of the approbation for
which he had hoped." l It seems probable, however,
that this is too favorable a view to take as to the
effectiveness of public opinion in preserving among
Greek writers a spirit of exact conscientiousness, as
the complaints in the literature of the time concern-
ing unauthorized and uncredited " borrowings " are
numerous and bitter.
Such terms as "accidental coincidence," "identity
of thought," " unconscious cerebration " (in absorb-
ing the expressions of another), were doubtless used
in these earlier as in the later days of literature to
1 Le Droit des Auleurs, 16.
Greece 69
explain certain suspicious cases of " parallelisms " or
similarities. In fact, at least one Greek author, the
sophist Aretades, wrote a volume, unfortunately lost,
on the similarity or identity of thought creations. 1
Clement gives some examples of borrowings or
appropriations on the part of writers and orators,
and his list is so considerable as to leave the impres-
sion that the public opinion to which he refers was
either not very active in discovering the practice, or
was not a little remiss in characterizing and in con-
demning it. Isocrates copies an entire oration from
Gorgias ; ^Eschines makes free use in his discourses of
those of Lysias and Andocides. Even Demosthenes,
the chief of orators, occasionally yielded to the temp-
tation ; and among other instances, Clement cites ex-
tracts from orations against Aphobos and Pantcenetos
which are identical with passages in the Discourses on
Ciron by the old instructor of Demosthenes, Isaeus.
Rozoir tells us that an anonymous work of six
volumes (rolls) was published under the title Passages
in the Writings of Menander which are Not the Work
of Menander, and that Philost rates of Alexandria
accused Sophocles of having pillaged yEschylus,
^Eschylus of having permitted himself to draw too
much inspiration from Phrynichus, and, finally,
1 Rozoir, Dictionnaire de la Conversation, Art. " Plagiaire."
70 Authors and Their Public
Phrynichus of having taken his material from the
writers who preceded him. Such charges become,
of course, too sweeping to be pertinent, and can
probably in large part be dismissed with the con-
clusion that each generation of writers ought to
familiarize itself with the work of its predecessors,
and may often enough with propriety undertake the
reinterpretation for new generations of readers of
themes similar to those which have interested their
fathers and grandfathers.
One evidence that the subject of plagiarism was a
matter which in later days engaged public attention
is given by the Fable of ysop on the Jay masquer-
ading in the plumes of the Peacock.
Clement points out that in connection with the
fierce competition between the poets of Athens for
dramatic honors, no means were neglected by the
friends of each writer to bring discredit upon the
productions of his rivals, and that very many of
the charges of plagiarism can be traced to such an
incentive. Aristophanes, who amused himself by
utilizing for his comedies the strifes between his
literary contemporaries, puts into the mouth of
Euripides, whom he makes one of the characters in
The Frogs, the following biting words, addressed to
^Eschylus :
Greece 71
"When I first read over the tragedy which you placed in my
hands, I found it difficult and bombastic ; I at once made a severe
condensation, freeing the play from the weight of rubbish with which
you had overloaded it ; I then enlivened it with bright sayings, with
pointed philosophic subtleties and with an abundance of brilliant witti-
cisms drawn from a crowd of other books ; and finally I added some
pithy monologues, which are in the main the work of Ctesiphon." l
In the same comedy, ^Eschylus is made to accuse
Euripides of having carried on literary free-booting
in every direction. Further on, Bacchus, in express-
ing his admiration for some striking thought ex-
pressed by Euripides, asks whether it is really his or
Ctesiphon's, and the tragedian frankly admits that
the credit for the idea properly belongs to the latter.
Clement concludes that there must have been foun-
dation for the raillery of the comedian, and refers, in
this connection, to the remarks of Plato that if one
wished to examine the philosophy of Anaxagoras,
the simplest course was to read the tragedies of
Euripides, the choruses of which reproduced faith-
fully the teachings of the philosopher. Aristophanes,
while scoffing sharply at the misdeeds of others, was
himself not beyond criticism, being charged with
having made free use of the comedies of Cratinus
and Eupolis. 2
The philosophers and historians appear to have
been little more conscientious than the poets in their
1 The Frogs, v. 939 et seq. 8 Scholia ad Equites, v. 528 et 1291.
72 Authors and Their Public
literary standard. The historian Theopompus in-
cluded, without credit, in the eleventh book of his
Philippics a whole harangue of Isocrates, and with a
few changes of names and places, he was able to
make use of passages from Androtion and Xeno
phon. His appropriations were so considerable that
they were collected in a separate volume to which
was given the fitting title of The Hunters. 1 Lysima-
chus wrote a book entitled The Robberies of Ephorus.
Timon, in some lines preserved by Aulus Gellius,
charges Plato with having obtained from a treatise
of the Pythagorean philosopher Philolaus the sub-
stance of his famous dialogue the Timaus? The
lines, from the version of Clement, read as follows :
" You also, Plato, being ambitious to acquire knowl-
edge, first purchased for a great sum a small book,
and then with its aid proceeded yourself to instruct
others."
Even our moral friend Plutarch does not escape
from the general charge of borrowing from others.
" In reading," says Rozoir, " the text of many of
the Lives, one cannot but be struck with the very
great differences of style and of forms of expression,
differences so marked, that it is difficult to avoid
1 Bayle, Dicty. t Art. " Theopompus."
* Attic Nights, Book iii., Chap. 17.
Greece 73
the conclusion that many portions are extracts taken
literally and without credit, from other authors." '
From these examples, out of many which might
be cited, it seems evident that during the centuries
in which Greek literature was at its height, the prac-
tice of plagiarism was very general, even among
authors whose originality and creative power could
not be questioned. Emerson's dictum that "man is
as lazy as he dares to be " was assuredly as true two
thousand years ago as at the time it was uttered.
We may further conclude that while plagiarism,
when detected, called forth a certain amount of
criticism and raillery, especially when the author
appropriated from was still living, it did not bring
upon the " appropriates " any such final condemna,
tion as would cause them to lose caste in the literary
guild or to forfeit the appreciation of the reading
public. This leniency of judgment could doubtless
be more safely depended upon by writers who had
given evidence of their own creative powers. The
acknowledged genius could say with Moliere : " Je
prends mon bien oil je le trouve" and such a claim
would be admitted the more readily as, when a
genius does to the work of another the honor of
utilizing it, the material so appropriated must usu-
1 Diet, de la Convert., art. " Plagiaire."
74 Authors and Their Public
ally secure in its new setting a renewed vitality, a
different and a larger value.
The case of a small writer venturing to appropriate
from a greater one was naturally judged much more
harshly, and if a literary theft was detected in a pro-
duction which was submitted in open contest for
public honors, the verdict was swift and severe.
An instance of such public condemnation is re-
ferred to by Vitruvius. 1 One of the Ptolemies had
instituted at Alexandria some literary contests in
honor of Apollo and the Muses. Aristophanes, the
grammarian, who on a certain day acted as judge,
gave his decision, to the surprise of the audience,
in favor of a contestant whose composition had
certainly not been the most able. When asked to
defend his decision, he showed that the competing
productions were literal copies from the works of
well known writers. Thereupon the unsuccessful
competitors were promptly sentenced before the
tribunal as veritable robbers, and were ignominiously
thrust out of the city.
" Itaque rex jussit cum his agifurti, condemnatosque
cum ignominia dimisit"
This was, however, certainly an exceptional case,
as well in the clumsiness of the plagiarism as in the
1 De Arc hit., liv. vii. Preface.
Greece 75
swiftness of the punishment. The weight of evi-
dence is, I am inclined to believe, in favor of the
view, that in the absence of any protection by law
for the author's " rights," whether literary or com-
mercial, in his productions, the protection by public
opinion, even for living writers, was very incidental
and inadequate ; while it seems further probable
that, especially as far as the works of dead authors
were concerned, but a small proportion of the " bor-
rowings " were ever brought to light at all or became
the occasion for any criticism. Much, of course, de-
pended upon the manner in which the appropria-
tion was made. As Le Vayer cleverly says : " Lon
peut derober & la f agon des abeilles sans fair e tort a
personne ; mais le vol de la fourmi, qui enleve le
grain entier, ne doit jamais etre imitt" 1
There is one ground for forgiving these early
literary " appropriators " even of les grains entiers
namely, that by means of such transmissal by later
writers of extracts borrowed from their predecessors,
a good deal of valuable material has been preserved
for future generations which would otherwise have
been lost altogether.
In considering such examples of plagiarism as are
referred to by Greek writers and the general attitude
of these writers to the practice, it is safe to conclude
1 Oeuvres, ii., Part 2, p. 518.
76 Authors and Their Public
that authors cannot depend upon retaining the
literary control of their own productions and cannot
be prevented from securing honor for the produc-
tions of others unless public opinion can be supple-
mented with an effective copyright law.
Suidas, the lexicographer, relates that Euphorion,
the son of ^Eschylus, and himself also a writer, gave
to the world as his own certain tragedies which were
the work of his father, but which had not before
been made known (nondum in lucem editis). 1 It does
not appear that any advantage other than a brief
prestige accrued to Euphorion through his unfilial
plagiarism.
Such advantage was, however, more possible for
the author of a drama than for the author of any
other class of literature, for seats in the theatre,
which had at first been free, were later sold to the
spectators at a drachme (Plato's Apology of Socra-
tes). The drachme was equal in cash to about
eighteen cents, and in purchasing power to perhaps
seventy-two cents of our money. This price was,
according to Barthelemi, 1 reduced by Pericles to an
obolus, equal in cash value to about three cents.
The expenses of the presentation of a drama were
very slight, and even this smaller payment by the
1 From the Latin version of Breulie.r, Clement, II.
* Travels of Anacharsis the Younger, vi., 91.
Greece 77
audience should have afforded means, after the actors
had been reimbursed, for some compensation to the
dramatist.
Instances of compensation to orators are of not
infrequent occurrence, and, as Paul Clement remarks,
it seems reasonably certain that experienced orators
were not in the habit of writing gratuitously the dis-
courses so frequently prepared for the use of others.
Isocrates is reported to have received not less than
twenty talents (about $21,500) for the discourses
sent by him to Nicocles, King of Cyprus. 1
Aristophanes speaks of the considerable sums
gained by the jurists, but the service for which Isoc-
rates was paid was of course of a different character.
The intellectual or literary life of Athens, initiated
by the popularization (at least among the cultivated
circles) of the poems of Homer and Hesiod, was
very much furthered through the influence of Plato.
Curiously enough, notwithstanding Plato's great ac-
tivity as a writer, he placed a low estimate on the
importance of written as compared with that of oral
instruction. This is shown in his reference to the
myth concerning the discovery of writing. 2
The ten books of Plato's Republic were undoubt-
1 Pseudo-Plutarch, Vitce dec. Or at. -Isocrates , c. viii.
2 Phcedrus, 274.
78 Authors and Their Public
edly prepared in the first place for presentation in
the shape of lectures to a comparatively small circle
of students, and were through these students first
brought before the public. Plato's hearers appear
to have interested themselves in the work of circu-
lating the written reports of his lectures, of which
for some little time the number of copies was natu-
rally limited. We also learn that the fortunate
possessors of such manuscripts were in the habit of
lending them out for hire. From a comedy of the
time has been quoted the following line: " Hermo-
doros makes a trade of the sale of lectures." *
Hermodoros of Syracuse was known as a student
of Plato, and this quotation is interpreted as a refer-
ence to a practice of his of preparing for sale written
reports of his instructor's talks. Plato had evidently
not yet evolved for himself the doctrine established
over two thousand years later by Dr. Abernethy,
that the privilege of listening to lectures did not
carry with it the right to sell or to distribute the
reports of the same. Abernethy's student had at
least made payment to the doctor for his course of
lectures, while if, as seems probable, the teachings of
Plato were a free gift to his hearers, his claim to the
1 Diogenes Laertius, iii., 6, and Bergk, Griech. Literatur Gesch.,
218.
Greece 79
control of all subsequent use of the material would
have been still better founded than that of the
Scotch lecturer. But the time when it was not con-
sidered incompatible with the literary or philosophi-
cal ideal for the authors or philosophers to receive
compensation from those benefited by their instruc-
tion, had not yet arrived. This reference to Her-
modoros has interest as being possibly the first
recorded instance of moneys being paid for literary
material. The date was about 325 B.C.
Suidas calls Hermodoros a hearer (aHpoairf^) of
Plato, and says, further, that he made a traffic of his
master's teachings (\6yoi6tv 'EppodGopot epnope vs-
rai). Cicero, in writing to Atticus, makes a jesting
comparison of the relations of Hermodoros to Plato
with those borne by his publishing friend to himself,
when he says : Placetne tibi libros " De Finibus "
primum edere injussu me of Hoc ne Hermodorus
quidem faciebat, is qui Platonis libros solitus est divul-
gare. 1 " Possibly you may be inclined to publish
my work De Finibus without securing the permission
of the author. Even that Hermodorus, who was in
the habit of publishing the books of Plato, was not
guilty of such a thing."
The term libros, employed by Cicero, is of course
not really accurate, and ought properly to be inter-
l AdAtt., xiii., 21.
8o Authors and Their Public
preted as teachings, as Hermodoros appears not to
have had in his hands any of Plato's manuscripts,
and to have used for his "publications" simply his
own reports of his instructor's lectures. It seems
probable from these several references that Hermo-
doros secured from his sales certain profits, but it
was evidently not believed that he considered him-
self under any obligation to divide such profits with
Plato.
We have no word from Plato himself concerning
the method by which his writings were brought be-
fore the public, but we find references in Aristotle
to the " published works of Plato." ' Cephisodorus,
a pupil of Isocrates, makes it a ground for reproach
against Aristotle (considered at the time as a rival
of his own instructor) that the latter should have
published a work on Greek proverbs, a performance
characterized as " unworthy of a philosopher." 3
The greater portions of the writings of Aristotle
appear to have been composed in the course of his
second sojourn in Athens, during which he was
specially indebted to, and was possibly maintained
by, the affectionate liberality of his royal pupil
Alexander the Great. A curious claim was made
1 Poet., xv., and Poli., viii., 541.
Stahr, Aristotle, 67.
Greece 81
by the latter to the ownership, or at least to the
control, of such of the philosopher's lectures as had
been originally prepared for his own instruction.
" You have not treated me fairly," writes Alexander
to Aristotle, "in including with your published
works the papers prepared for my instruction. For
if the scholarly writings by means of which I was
educated become the common property of the world,
in what manner shall I be intellectually distinguished
above ordinary mortals ? I would rather be note-
worthy through the possession of the highest knowl-
edge than by means of the power of my position."
Aristotle's reply is ingenious. He says in sub-
stance : " It is true, O beloved pupil, that through
the zeal of over-admiring friends these lectures, origi-
nally prepared for thy instruction, have been given
out to the world. But in no full sense of the term
have they been published, for in the form in which
they are written they can be properly understood
only if accompanied by the interpretation of their
author, and such interpretation he has given to none
but his beloved pupil." '
Alexander's claim to the continued control of
literary productions prepared for him and for the
first use of which he, or his father on his behalf, had
1 Gellius, N. A., xx. 5. Plutarch, Alexander, c. vii.
82 Authors and Their Public
made adequate payment, raises an interesting ques-
tion. It is probable, however, that the principle
involved is at the bottom the same as that upon
which have since been decided the Abernethy case
and other similar issues between instructors and
pupils; such decisions limiting the rights of the
students in the material strictly to the special use
for which he has paid, and leaving with the instructor,
when also the author, all subsequent control and all
subsequent benefit.
Aristotle made a sharp distinction between his
" published works " s^corepiHol or tndedofjievoi Xoyoi)
and his Academic works (dxpoaaeis). The former,
written out in full and revised, could be purchased
by the general public (outside of the Peripatos).
The latter were apparently prepared more in the
shape of notes or abstracts, to serve as the basis of
his lectures. Copies of these abstracts, such as
would to-day be known in universities as Precis,
were distributed among (and possibly purchased by)
the students, 1 and could not be obtained except
within the Peripatos.
From the bequests made by certain of the philoso-
phers of their books, it appears that such a distinction
between the two classes of books was general. In
1 Zeller, Philos. d. Griechen, ii., 112, 119.
Greece 83
these legacies the copies of current publications,
purchased for reading (Ta areyvGoG^va), are dis-
tinguished from the unpublished works (arexdora).
It was from such an unpublished manuscript
(avexdorov) x that in the Thecetet. of Plato a reading
is given.
It is easy to understand that the more abstruse
works of Plato and Aristotle were not fitted for any
such general distribution as was secured for the then
popular treatises of Democritus on the Science of
Nature, or for the writings of the Sophist Protagoras.
It is by no means clear by what channels were dis-
tributed these works, which appear very shortly after
their production to have come into the hands of a
large number of readers not only in Greece itself,
but throughout the Greek colonies. The sale of
copies, made by students and by admiring readers,
seems hardly to furnish a sufficiently adequate pub-
lishing machinery, but of publishers or booksellers,
with staffs of trained copyists, we have as yet no
trustworthy record.
Protagoras, who came from Abdera, was said to
have been intimate with Pericles. He was the first
lecturer or instructor who assumed the title of
Sophist, and what is more important for our subject,
1 Bruns, Die Testaments der Griech. P kilos,, cited by Birt, 437.
84 Authors and Their Public
was said to be the first who received pay for his
lessons. Plato, whose view of the responsibilities of
a literary or philosophical worker seems to have been
extremely ideal, makes it a charge against Protag-
oras that during the forty years in which he taught,
he received more money than Phidias. And why
not, one is tempted to enquire, if his many hearers
felt that they received a fair equivalent in the
services rendered ? The receipts of Protagoras ap-
pear to have come entirely from the listeners or
students who attended his lectures ; at least there is
nothing to show that he himself derived any busi-
ness benefit from the large sales of the copies of
these lectures. His remunerated work is therefore
an example of property produced from an intellec-
tual product but not yet of property resulting for
the producer of a work of literature.
The history, or histories of Herodotus were first
communicated to the world in the shape of lectures
or readings of the separate chapters of the earlier
portions. We find references to four such lectures
delivered respectively at Olympia, 1 Athens, 3 Corinth,*
and Thebes* between the years 455 and 450, B.C.
1 Lucian, Herodotus, c. i. and ii.
* Plutarch, Herodotus, c. 26.
8 D. Chrysost., op. xxxvii., t. ii., 103.
4 Plutarch, i., c. 31.
Greece 85
In 447 B.C. Herodotus was sojourning in Athens, still
engaged in the work of his history, and becoming
known, through his public readings, to Pericles,
Sophocles, and other leaders of Athenian thought
and culture. In 443 he joined the colonists whom
Pericles was sending out to Italy, and became one
of the first settlers at Thurium, where he remained
until his death in 424. It was at Thurium that the
great work, in the shape in which we now know it,
was finally completed, about 442. The promptness
with which the History became known in Greece and
the very general circulation secured for it, seems to
have been in large part due to the personal interest
in it of Pericles and Sophocles and possibly also to
the financial aid of the former in providing funds for
the copyists. It is related, on uncertain authority,
says Clement, that in 446, the Athenian Assembly
decreed a reward to Herodotus for his History, after
certain chapters of it had been read publicly. There
appears to be no other reference to any compensa-
tion secured by the author for this great work to the
preparation of which he had devoted his life and
which had cost him so many toilsome and costly
journeys. The History of Herodotus, the first work
of any lasting importance of its class in point of
time, and in the estimate of twenty-three centuries
86 Authors and Their Public
not far from the first by point of excellence, was
practically a free gift from the historian to his
generation and to posterity.
The system of instruction or literary entertain-
ment by means of readings or lectures became one
of the most important features of intellectual life in
Greece. Mahaffy speaks of the culture and quick-
ness of intellect of an Athenian audience as being
far in advance of that of a similar modern assembly.
Freeman says : " The average intelligence of the
assembled Athenian citizens was unquestionably
higher than that of the House of Commons." '
It is stated by Abicht a that the young Thucydides,
then a boy of twelve, was one of the listeners to a
recital of Herodotus at the great Olympian festival,
and, moved to tears, resolved that he would devote
himself to the writing of history. Later, when he
had entered upon his own historical work, Thucydi-
des remarks with a confidence which later centuries
have justified, that he "was not writing for the
present only, but for all time." J
His History was left unfinished, apparently owing
to the sudden death of the author, although the
1 History of Federal Government, i., 37.
1 Einleitung zu Herodot. , 13 ff.
'Thucydides, I, c. 22.
Greece 87
exact date of this death is not known. It does not
appear who assumed the responsibility for the first
publication of the History. Marcellinus speaks of
a daughter of Thucydides having undertaken the
transcribing of the eighth book, and having pro*
vided means for the issue of the same. 1 If this
daughter inherited the gold mine in Thrace which
her father tells us he owned, there should have been
no difficulty in finding funds for the copyists.
According to others the work was cared for by
Xenophon and Theopompus. Demosthenes is re-
ported to have transcribed the eight books with his
own hand eight times, and there were doubtless many
other admiring readers who contributed their share
of labor in copying and distributing the eloquent
chronicles of the Peloponnesian war. In the fourth
century B.C. the dedication of literature to the pub-
lic seems to have been emphatically a labor of love.
Xenophon had at one time thought of writing a
continuation of the narrative of Thucydides, but
until the time of his withdrawal to Scillus, he had
neither the leisure nor the service of the skilled
slaves requisite for the work. Xenophon takes to
himself the credit of having brought into fame the
previously unknown books of Thucydides which he
1 Marcellinus, 43.
88 Authors and Their Public
had been in a position to suppress (or to supplant) 1 .
Xenophon's own literary activity, resulting in a con-
siderable list of narratives and treatises, was com-
prised between the years 387 and 355 B.C., that is
during the last thirty years of his long life. He
died in 355, at the age of ninety-eight. On the
estate at Scillus which the Spartans had presented
to him, for services rendered against his native state
of Athens, he had gathered a large staff of slaves
skilled as scribes, by whom were prepared the copies
of his works distributed amongst his friends. He
speaks of having taken some of the scribes with him
to Corinth, where the Cyropcedia was completed.
In Xenophon's Anabasis we find that each chapter
or book is preceded by a summary in which are re-
peated the contents of the preceding chapter. The
work was, as was customary, divided into books of
suitable length for reading aloud from evening to
evening, and such summaries were, says Isocrates,
of decided convenience in recalling to the hearers
the more important occurrences related in the pre-
vious reading, and in this manner sustained the
interest in the narrative. The dialogues of Aristotle
were said to have contained proems presenting sum-
maries of the preceding conclusions together with
1 Diog. Lacrtius, ii. , 57.
Greece 89
an outline of the new situation. The similar proems
in the Tusculan Disputations of Cicero are not pref-
aces to books but to situations, and occur only in
those books in which a new situation is introduced. *
For the preservation of the writings of the earlier
Greek authors, we are indebted to the first book
collectors or bibliophilists. Athenseus 2 names as
founders of some of the more important earlier
libraries, Polycrates of Samos (570-522 B.C.), Pisis-
tratus of Athens (612-527), Euclid of Megara (about
440-400), Aristotle (384-321), and the kings of Per-
gamum (350-200). Pisistratus, who died 527 B.C., be-
queathed his books to Athens for a public library,
and the Athenians interested themselves later in
largely increasing the collection. This is possibly the
earliest record there is of a library dedicated to the
public. On the capture of Athens by Xerxes, the
collection was taken to Persia, to be restored two
centuries later by Seleucus Nicator. 3 The library of
the kings of Pergamum, which Antony afterward
presented to Cleopatra, is said by Plutarch 4 to have
grown to 200,000 rolls, which stands of course for a
much smaller number of works.
1 Birt, 475.
2 Athenseus, i., 4.
3 Gellius, vii., c. 17.
4 Plut., Vit., Antonius, c. 58.
90 Authors and Their Public
The most comprehensive of the earlier private
collections of books was undoubtedly that of Aris-
totle, to whose house Plato gave the name of " the
house of the reader." ' Diogenes Laertius speaks of
his possessing a thousand GvyypafjL^ara and four
hundred fiifihia. According to one account, the
books of Aristotle were bequeathed to or secured by
Neleus, and by him were sold to Ptolemy Phila-
delphus, who transferred them to Alexandria, to-
gether with a collection of other manuscripts bought
in Athens and in Rhodes. 2 Strabo says that the
heirs of Neleus, ignorant people, buried the manu-
scripts in order to keep them from falling into the
hands of the kings of Pergamum, and that they were
seriously injured through damp and worms. When
again dug up, they were, however, sold for a high
price to Apellicon, who had certain of the works
reproduced, in very defective editions, from the
imperfect manuscripts. On the capture of Athens,
Sulla took possession of such of the books as still
remained and carried them off to Rome, where they
were arranged by the grammarian Tyrannion, and
served as the text for the later editions issued by
the Roman publishers. 8
1 Stahr, Aristotle, 45.
* Athenasus, i. f 4.
8 Stahr, Aristotle, 70.
Greece 91
It is probable, says Schmitz, that Ptolemy secured
only a portion of the collection, while a number of
the manuscripts came into the possession of Apel-
likon, and reached Rome through Sylla. Another
large library, according to Memnon, one of the
largest of the time, was that of Clearchus, 1 Tyrant
of Heraclea, who had been a student of Plato and
Isocrates.
From the instances above quoted, it appears that
it was as a rule only persons of considerable wealth
who were able to bring together collections of books.
An exception to this is the case of Euripides, who
possessed no great fortune, but who had in his slave,
Cephisophon, a perfect treasure. Cephisophon not
merely took charge of the household affairs, but, as
a skilled scribe, prepared for his master's library
copies of the most noteworthy literary works of the
time. 2 Educated slaves were in the time of Euripi-
des still scarce among the Greeks, while later it
was principally from Greece that the Roman
scholars and publishers secured the large number
of copyists who were employed on literary work in
Rome.
These references to the earlier collections of books
1 Memnon, reported by Photius, 322.
2 Aristophanes, Frogs, v., 944, 1408.
92 Authors and Their Public
are of interest in indicating something of the value
in which literature was held as property, and of the
estimates placed on books by their readers, while it
must be admitted that they do not throw much
light on the relations of these readers with the
authors to whom they were indebted, and they are
absolutely silent as to any remuneration coming to
the authors for their labors. The earlier collections
were comprised almost exclusively of works of
poetry, and it is only when we get to the time of
Aristotle that we begin to find in the libraries a fair
proportion of works of philosophy and science,
although Boeckh 1 mentions references to works on
agriculture as early as the lifetime of Socrates. For
a long period, however, poetry formed by far the
most important division of the libraries, indicating
the great relative importance given in the earlier
development of Greek culture to this branch of litera-
ture. It is interesting to bear in mind that at
a somewhat similar stage of their intellectual develop-
ment, the literature of the Egyptians was almost
exclusively religious and astronomical, that of the
Assyrians religious and historical (provided the
rather monotonous narratives of the royal campaigns
are entitled to the name of history), while that of
1 Boeckh, Gesprdche des Sokratikers Simon, 226.
Greece 93
the Hebrews was limited to the sacred chronicles
and the law.
It appears from such references as we find to the
prices paid that, as compared with other luxuries,
books remained very costly up to the time of the
Roman occupation of Greece, or about 150 B.C. This
is a negative evidence that there was as yet no effec-
tive publishing machinery through which could be
provided the means required for keeping up a staff
of competent copyists, and that the multiplication
of books was therefore practically dependent upon
the enterprise of such individual owners as may have
been fortunate enough to be able to secure slaves of
sufficient education to serve as scribes. Plato is re-
. ported to have paid for three books of Philolaiis,
which Dion bought for him in Sicily, three Attic
talents, 1 equal in our currency to $3240, and the
equivalent, of course, of a much larger sum, esti-
mated in its purchasing power for food. Aristotle
paid a similar sum for some few books of Speu-
sippus, purchased after the death of the latter. 8
If such instances can be accepted as a fair expres-
sion of the market value of literature, it is evident
that the ownership of books must have been limited
1 Diog. Laert., iii., 9.
2 Gellius, iii., c. 17.
94 Authors and Their Public
to a very small circle. The cost of books depended,
of course, largely upon the cost of papyrus, for which
Greece was dependent upon Egypt. An inscription
of the year 407 B.C., quoted by Rangab, gives the
price of a sheet of papyrus (o xaprrfS') at one
drachme and two oboli, the equivalent of about
twenty-five cents.
On the other hand, Aristophanes, in his comedy
of The Frogs, represented in 405 B.C., or about fifty
years before the above purchase of Aristotle, uses
some lines which have been interpreted as evidence
of some general circulation, at least of dramatic
compositions. According to the scheme of the play,
^Eschylus and Euripides, contestants for the public
favor, have set forth each for himself the beauties
and claims of their respective masterpieces. The
Chorus then speaks, cautioning the poets that it will
be proper for them to present more fully the distinc-
tive features of their tragedies, and to explain the
same for the judgment of the audience. That the
audience is capable of such judgment is asserted in
the following words (paraphrased by Muller ' ) :
" Are you troubled with the fear that your hearers lack the intelli-
gence to appreciate the fine points of your analyses ? Let such fear
vanish, for there can be no lack of understanding with these hearers.
Some of them are men of experience in campaigns ; others are in
1 Muller, Lustspiele des Aristophanes, 1041 ff.
Greece 95
the habit of instructing themselves from books, and have come to
the performance each furnished with a scroll with which to freshen
his memory, while each also is fully armed with mother-wit. Have
no fear therefore. They will have full understanding of all that you
may wish to discuss before them."
M tiller proceeds to make an analysis of the pur-
port of the references in this passage, pointing out
that the experience of old campaigners would help
them to the appreciation of the robust and stirring
compositions of ^Eschylus, while the scholarly habits
of the lovers of books would keep them in close
sympathy with the complex intellectual problems
considered by Euripides.
The sharper edge of the comparison is directed
against Euripides, who is always referred to by
Aristophanes as a book-worm. Mtiller further con-
tends that the references to each hearer being " pro-
vided with his little book " (or book of the play)
must be understood as merely a piece of humorous
exaggeration, as during the last years of the Pelo-
ponnesian war, when the resources of Athens had
been seriously diminished, when poverty was general,
and men's minds were agitated with the excitement
of the campaign, few people could have had the
money for the buying, or the leisure for the reading,
of books.
Athenaeus concludes, from a fragment of the
96 Authors and Their Public
comedy writer Alexis (a contemporary of Alexander),
that it was not until the time of Alexander that the
reading of books played any important part in the
intellectual life of the Greeks. 1 In the comedy of
Prodicus, entitled The Choice of Hercules, portions
of which have been preserved in the Memorabilia
of Xenophon, Linus, the instructor of Hercules, is
represented as directing his pupil to select for his
reading one out of a number of books which are
lying before him. Among the authors whose works
are specified in the list are Orpheus, Hesiod, Homer,
Chcerilus, and Epicharmus. (The last named is the
first Greek writer of comedy of whom we have any
trustworthy account. His first work was produced
about 500 B.C.) a Hercules, passing by the poetry,
seizes a volume on cookery, the .work of an actor
named Simos, who was also famous as a cook.*
Artemon, a grammarian of Cassandria in Mace-
donia, who wrote shortly after the death of Aris-
totle and who made a collection of the letters of
Aristotle, published a dissertation on the collecting
and the use of books, which gives ground for the
impression that in his time there was already in
Macedonia or Northern Greece a circle of bibliophil-
1 Athenaeus, iv., 57.
'Aristotle, Poet.,v. t 5.
Athenzeus, xii., n.
Greece 97
ists, ready to give attention to the counsels of this
forerunner of Dibdin, and possibly able also to pay
for the books.
A piece of evidence against the contention that
the price of books was high in the time of Plato, is
supplied, according to certain commentators, by
Plato himself. From a paragraph in the Apology
Boeckh * understands that some kind of book-trade
must have been carried on in the orchestra of the
theatre (during the time, of course, when no per-
formance was going on), and that the writings of
Anaxagoras were offered for sale for one drachme ;
and Buchsenschutz 2 takes the same view of Plato's
reference. The words used by Plato are put into the
mouth of Socrates, who is represented as contend-
ing; first, that the opinions for the utterance of
which he has been charged with heresy or impiety,
are in substance the same as those already given to
the world by Anaxagoras and others ; second, that
these views have been so widely published that
they have become public property, for the quoting
of which no single person can properly be held re-
sponsible ; and thirdly, that they can be obtained
in the theatre for a drachme. The particular writ-
1 Boeckh, Staatsk., p. 68.
3 Buchsenschutz, JBesitz und Rrwerb im Griech. Alterthum, 572.
98 Authors and Their Public
ings of Anaxagoras to which Socrates here refers,
contain his theories concerning the nature of the
sun, the moon, the earth, and the creating power of
divinity. Schmitz is, however, inclined to believe
not that the books containing these doctrines could
be purchased in the theatre, but that the theories of
Anaxagoras were at the time freely quoted in the
popular dramas (such as those of Euripides), and
that it was in listening to these plays in the theatre
that the public could without difficulty obtain a
knowledge of the new views. 1
The usual price of admission to the Athenian
theatres was, in the time of Pericles, two oboli, or
about six cents, but on special holidays, when the
performance continued three days, this price was
often raised to a drachme, or eighteen cents.' In
the absence of any other references to this sup-
posed practice of turning orchestra stalls into book-
stalls, the weight of probability appears to favor the
conclusions of Schmitz rather than those of Boeckh.
Schmitz admits that it is not practicable to find
in the existing dramas of Euripides examples of such
presentation of the Anaxagorian theories of the uni-
verse, but he points out that a large portion of the
'Schmitz, Schriftsteller in A then, 68.
* Hermann, Stoats Altcrthum, 466.
Greece 99
writings of this author was undoubtedly lost in the
destruction of the great war, and that this same war
prevented any wide distribution of the authenticated
copies, although many of the tragedies were so
popular that the songs from them were sung
throughout the land. By the end of the war
the fame of the tragedies had reached Sicily,
although very few of the manuscripts could yet have
got across the sea. After the defeat of the Athen-
ians before Syracuse, some of those who had been
captured or who, escaping from the Syracusans, had
wandered over the island, found a temporary liveli-
hood or even purchased their freedom by reciting
the plays of Euripides, and on their return to Athens
they took occasion to express to the poet their grati-
tude for the timely service rendered by his genius. 1
To the coast cities of Asia Minor, as well as
throughout the Greek colonies of the Mediterra-
nean, had come the fame of the new tragedian, al-
though here also copies of the plays themselves
appear to have been very scarce. Plutarch relates '
that the inhabitants of Caunus (a city of Caria), when
besought for shelter by an Athenian vessel chased
by pirates, wanted first to know whether the Athen-
ians could recite for them the songs of Euripides. 2
1 Plutarch, Nicias. * Ibid.
i oo Authors and Their Public
It is to be hoped that the Caunusians did not insist
upon being paid in advance, and upon having the
recitations made before they permitted the hard-
pressed vessel to gain the shelter of the harbor. In
all places and among all classes where Greek was
the language, the songs of Euripides appear to have
secured an immediate popularity, while by the
scholars also was given an appreciation no less
cordial. Both Plato ' and Aristotle 3 ranked Euripides
above Sophocles and ^Eschylus.
Alexander the Great entertained the guests at his
banquets by reciting long passages from Euripides. 8
Throughout Greece these tragedies appear for many
years to have been the compositions most frequently
selected for public readings. Lucian relates 4 that
the Cynic Demetrius, who lived in Corinth in the
first century, and whom Seneca refers to as a new
friend, heard an " uneducated man " read before an
audience The Bacchantes of Euripides. As the
reader came to the lines in which the messenger
announces the " terrible deed " of Agave and the
fearful fate of Pentheus, Demetrius snatched the
book from his hands with the words : " It is better
1 Plato, De Republica, viii., 568.
1 Aristotle, Poet., xiii.
8 Athenseus, xii., 53. Cited by Schmitz, 39.
4 Lucian, Adv. Indoct. t c. 19.
Greece 101
for poor Pentheus to be murdered by me than by
you." The point of interest for Lucian (who wrote
about 150 A.D.) was the play on the term "mur-
dered," and for us the example of the practice, in
the first century, of the public reading of standard
literature, so general that an audience (rather than
not to hear the composition) would listen even to an
" ignorant reader."
Returning to the question of the distribution and
price of books, we find a reference by Xenophon *
to some " chests full of valuable books " having
been saved " with other costly articles " from the
cargo of an Athenian vessel shipwrecked at Salmy-
dessus, a city on the Euxine.
This appears to be the earliest reference on record
to any sending of supplies of books from Greece to
the colonies, but even here there is no evidence that
the volumes were forwarded by dealers, and it is
probable that the " chests " contained the private
library of some wealthy Athenian collector who had
migrated to Pontus. There is no question, how-
ever, but that in the time of Xenophon (445-
355 B.C.) Athens was the centre not only of the
literary activity of Greece, but of any book-trade
that existed.
1 Anabasis, vii., c. 5.
IO2 Authors and Their Public
It seems evident that in Greece, as later in Rome,
the earliest booksellers were the scribes, who with
their own labor had prepared the parchment or
papyrus scrolls which constituted their stock in
trade.
The next step in the development of the business
was a very natural one, namely, the introduction of
the capitalist, who, instead of working with his own
hands, employed a staff of copyists and sold the
products of their labor. It is only surprising that
the continued high price paid for fair copies of
noted works and the steady demand for such copies,
should not have tempted dealers more rapidly into
the business. The principal obstacle was for many
years the difficulty of securing a sufficiency of skilled
copyists the accuracy of whose work could be trusted.
According to Schmitz, there is no mention of the
appearance of booksellers in Athens earlier than the
fifth century B.C.
The Athenian comedy, which touched with its
keen raillery every phase of life, whether public or
private, did not overlook this new mode of occupa-
tion. The references are as a rule not compliment-
ary, but, as the comedians spared nothing in their
mockery, the fact need not stand to the discredit of
the first booksellers. Possibly the earliest mention
Greece 103
of the trade is by Aristomenes, who, in a comedy
entitled The Deceivers (performed about 470 B.C.),
speaks of a " Dealer in Books." Cratinus, in his
play The Mechanics (written about 450 B.C.), men-
tions a copyist (fiifiXioypdpo?) 1 ; Theopompus, writ-
ing about 330 B.C., uses the term " bookseller " 2
(fiifiXioTtGbXrfS) ; Nicophon gives a list of " men who
support themselves with the labor of their hands "
(xsipoytxffTopst), and in this list groups the bibliopoles
in with the dealers in fish, fruit, figs, leather, meal,
and household utensils. 3 It would seem as if in this
instance the term fiifi\wnGokr]$ must have been
used as synonymous with or at least as including
fiifiXioypdcpoZ, the scribe and the seller of the manu-
scripts being one and the same person. Antiphanes,
born in Rhodes B.C. 408, who is credited by Suidas
with having written over three hundred dramas,
which were very popular in Athens, refers to " book-
copyists," and also to books which had been " sewed
and glued." 4 The comic writer, Plato, who was a
contemporary of Socrates, makes first mention of
" written leaves," i. e., papyrus. The term used by
1 Meineke, Fragm. Comic., ii., 2732 ; Pollux, vii., 211.
2 Meineke, ii., 2821 ; Zonaras, Lex., 388.
3 Meineke, ii., 2852.
4 Meineke, iii., 114 ; Pollux, vii., 21 ; and Meineke, iii., 88 ; Pollux,
vii., 201.
IO4 Authors and Their Public
him, ^a/orm, was, according to Birt, when standing
alone, more usually applied to leaves of papyrus
prepared for writing, but still blank ; -^aprai ysypap-
H&voi standing for the inscribed leaves.
We may conclude from Nicophon's having included
the booksellers in his list of traders that they had
their shops or stalls on the market-place. Eupolis
also speaks of the " place where books are sold,"
(ov T<X fiif$\ia QOVIOL}* and it appears therefore that
as early as 430 B.C. a special place in the market
must have been reserved for the book-trade an
Athenian Paternoster Row, or, more nearly perhaps,
a Quai Voltaire. It was, however, not until the
time of Alexander the Great that the business of
making and selling books that is, attested copies
of the works of popular writers appears to have
developed into importance.
Until the business of book-making had become
systematized, the admirers of a poet or philosopher
were obliged to supply themselves with his works
through their own handiwork, unless they were for-
tunate enough to possess slaves educated as scribes.
This test of the reader's admiration was assuredly
rather a severe one. It is certain that the number
of disciples of modern authors would be enormously
'Meineke, Hi., 378 ; Pollux, vii., 211.
Greece 105
limited if, as a first condition for the enjoyment of
their writings, the would-be readers were under the
necessity of transcribing the copies with their own
hands. Imagine the extent of the task for the ad-
mirers of Clarissa Harlowe, or for those who absorbed
their history through the ninety odd romances of
G. P. R. James !
As the supply of educated slaves increased, there
was, of course, less need for individual scholars to
devote their own handiwork to copying of manu-
scripts for their libraries. It was cheaper to employ
the labor of slaves, and to use their own time for
more important work. The names of some of the
slaves who did good service as scribes have been
preserved in history. Mention has already been
made of Cephisophon, the slave, secretary, and
personal friend of Euripides. One of Plato's dia-
logues is distinguished by the name of Phcedon of
Elis, who had been sold as a slave in his youth and
had been employed as a scribe. The attention of
Socrates was attracted by his capable work, and he
persuaded Crito to purchase his freedom. 1
The poet Philoxenus of Cythera was sold as a
slave to Melanippides (the younger), whom he served
as a scribe, and whose poetry he was said to have
1 Diog. Laert., ii., 105.
io6 Authors and Their Public
surpassed with his own productions. There are many
similar instances both of slaves who succeeded in se-
curing an education and in doing noteworthy literary
work, and of men of education who had, through
the fortunes of war or through the loss of their
property, fallen into the position of slaves, and who
were then utilized by their masters for literary work.
There is also evidence that the state caused
intelligent slaves to be instructed in writing in order
to be able to use them for work on the public records
or as clerks for the officials. 1
It is to be borne in mind that the (to us) extra-
ordinary extent to which the Greeks were able to
develop their power of memorizing enabled them
often to trust to their memory where modern stu-
dents would be helpless without the written (or the
printed) word. " My father," says Niceratus in The
Banquet of Xenophon, " compelled me to learn by
heart all the poetry of Homer, and I could repeat
without break the entire Iliad and Odyssey'"" The
boys in school were given as their daily task the
memorizing of the works of the poets, and what was
begun under compulsion appears to have been con-
tinued in later life as a pleasure.
1 Schol. to Demosth., Olynth., ii., 19. Cited by Schmitz, 44.
8 Xenophon, The Banquet of Philosophers, iii., 5.
Greece 107
Such an exceptional development of the power of
memory, making of it almost a distinct faculty from
that which the present generation knows under the
name, may properly be credited with some influence
upon the slowness of the growth among the ancients
of any idea of property in an intellectual produc-
tion. As long as men could carry their libraries
in their heads, and when they desired to enter-
tain themselves with a work of literature, needed
only to think it to themselves (or even to re-
cite it to themselves) instead of being under the
necessity of reading it to themselves, they could
hardly have the feeling that comes to the modern
reader (if he be a conscientious person) of an in-
debtedness to the author, an indebtedness which is
in large part connected with the actual use of the
copy of the work. In the early Greek community,
a very few copies (or even a single copy) of a great
poem were sufficient in a short space of time to
place the work of the poet in the minds of all the
active-minded citizens, such men as would to-day
be frequenters of the bookstores. In the Homeric
times it proved, in fact, to be possible to permeate a
community with the inspiration of the national epics
without the aid of any written copies whatever. For
the service rendered by these early bards, the com-
io8 Authors and Their Public
munity might, and very possibly did, feel under an
obligation of some kind, but the individual reciter
who had absorbed the poems into the possession of
his memory, and the readers to whom he transmitted
the enjoyment of these poems, could not have sug-
gested to them any such feeling of personal obliga-
tion to the poet as is experienced by the reader of
to-day who is called upon to buy from the author,
through the publisher, the text of any work of which
he desires the enjoyment. The Greek of these
earlier times needed no texts and dreamed of no
bookseller. He inherited from his ancestors the
poetry of the preceding generation with the same
sense of natural right as that with which he took
possession of his ancestral acres ; and he absorbed
into his memory for his daily enjoyment the poetry
of his own day with the same freedom and almost
the same unconsciousness as that with which he
took into his lungs the air about him. In this way
the literature with which he had to do became really
a part of himself, and he may be said to have be-
come possessed of it in a way which would hardly be
possible for one who was simply a reader of books.
It is not easy to realize how much we have lost in
these days of printed books in losing this magnificent
power of memorizing our literature and carrying it
Greece 109
about with us, instead of going to our libraries for it
and taking it in by scraps. How much more to us,
for instance, would Shakespeare's plays stand for, if
they could be stored in our heads ready for use
when wanted, instead of being available, as at pres-
ent, only in the occasional reading circle, or the still
less frequent Shakespearian revival.
An author who seems to have taken exceptional
pains to secure a circulation for his productions was
Demosthenes, but it is to be borne in mind that his
interest as a politician, or perhaps it is fairer to say
as a statesman, desiring to arouse public opinion in
behalf of his policy, was probably even keener than
his ambition as an author hoping for a popular appre-
ciation of his eloquence. Whatever the motive or
combination of motives, it appears that after the
delivery of an oration he would act as his own
reporter, writing out revised copies and distributing
the same among his friends for distribution. 1 He
had a special interest in securing a wide popular
circulation for his speeches in the matter of the
guardianship, and for those against ^Eschines and
in behalf of Phormion, and the copies of these, 2 pre-
pared by his own hand or under his orders, certainly
1 Schaefer, Demosthenes und seine Zcit., i., 322.
2 Isocrates, Letters to Philip, ii.
no Authors and Their Public
came into the hands of many readers. Copies of
the speeches made by Demosthenes against Philip
must have been brought to the latter by some of the
orator's opponents. Such at least is the interpreta-
tion given by Schmitz to the well known exclamation
of Philip: " If I had heard him speak these words,
I should myself have been compelled to lead the
campaign against Philip." *
An early reference to the practice of making
publication of a book in any formal manner (as dis-
tinguished from the permission accorded to friends
to make transcripts for their own use) is given by
Isocrates, writing about 400 B.C. He speaks of
hesitating to publish his Panathenaicus ((pavepav
noirjGai, 6ia6i66rat). He began the work, says Birt,
when he was already ninety-four, was obliged to
leave it on account of illness, but took it up again
three years later, and it was then that (conscientious
author as he was) he hesitated to give the volume to
the public, because some friend to whom he had
read it was not fully in accord with its conclusions. 9
The development of the trade of making and sell-
ing books came but slowly, but received no little
impetus through the taste for literature implanted by
1 Plutarch, Philip, 17.
' Birt, 435.
Greece 1 1 1
Aristotle in his royal pupil Alexander. The latter
appears to have given frequent commissions to his
friend Harpalus for the purchase of books. From
the mention by Plutarch 1 it has been thought Har-
palus must have been sent from Asia with instruc-
tions to procure for Alexander a long series of works
whose titles are given. Schmitz points out, how-
ever, that Alexander could hardly have been in a
position during his Asiatic campaigns and journey-
ings to collect a library, and these commissions to
Harpalus must have been made at an earlier date,
before Alexander had left Macedonia and while
the " friend of his youth " was sojourning in
Athens.
The one point that is clear and that is of interest
to us in this connection is that, at about 330 B.C.,
Harpalus was able to purchase in Athens, which was
already referred to as the centre of the book-trade of
Greece, " many tragedies of Euripides, ^Eschylus,
and Sophocles, dithyrambic poems by Telestes and
Philoxenus, the historical writings of Philistus of
Syracuse, together with a number of rare works."
From Athens also, at about the same time, Mnaseas,
the father of Zeno, brought to his son, in the course
of " various business journeys," copies of all the
1 Plutarch, Alexander, c. 8.
12 Authors and Their Public
" published writings of Socrates." ' There is also a
reference in Dionysius of Halicarnassus a to the
many volumes of Isocrates which had been published
(literally " placed among the people " ) by the Athen-
ian booksellers. Schmitz speaks of the great impetus
given to the production of books, that is, to the
reproduction of copies of the works of the writers
accepted as standard, by the literary taste and ambi-
tion of many of the successors of Alexander, notably
the Ptolemies in Alexandria and the Attali of
Pergamum. He mentions further that as one result
of the greater and more rapid production of manu-
scripts there was a considerable deterioration in the
quality and standard of accuracy of the copies. The
complaints of readers and collectors concerning the
errors and omissions in the manuscripts begin from
this time to be very frequent. It would, in fact,
have been very surprising if the larger portion of the
manuscripts that came into the market had not been
more or less imperfect. As soon as their production
became a matter of trade instead of, as at first, a
labor of love on the part of scholars, the work of
copying came into the hands of scribes working for
pay, or of slaves, and partly from lack of literary
1 Diog. Laert., vii., 31.
* Dionysius Hal., De Isocrale, 18.
Greece 113
interest, partly also doubtless from pure ignorance,
the many opportunities for blunders appear to have
been taken full advantage of. Fortunately it was
only the readers who suffered, and the authors, long
since dead, were spared the misery of knowing how
grievously their productions were mutilated. Differ-
ent sets of copyists naturally came to have varying
reputations for accurate or inaccurate manuscripts.
Diogenes Laertius 1 speaks of skilled scribes sent
from Pella by Antigonus Gonatas to Zeno, the Stoic,
to be employed in making trustworthy transcripts of
that philosopher's works, for which the Macedonian
king had a great admiration. Diogenes tells us
further that when Zeno, who came from Citium in
Cyprus, first arrived in Athens, he had suffered ship-
wreck and had lost near the Piraeus, just as he was
reaching his journey's end, both his vessel and the
Phoenician wares which constituted its cargo. Dis-
couraged by his misfortune, he strolled gloomily
along the avenue from the harbor ("by the dark
rows of the olive trees ") toward the city in which he
was now a poverty-stricken stranger. As he reached
the market-place and passed a bookseller's shop, he
heard the bookseller read aloud. He stopped to
listen, and there came to him words of good counsel
1 Diog. Laert., viii., 36.
ii4 Authors and Their Public
from the Memoirs of Xenophon. " Cultivate a cheer-
ful endurance of trouble and an earnest striving
after knowledge, for these are the conditions of a
useful and happy life." Cheered by this hope-
ful counsel, Zeno entered the bookseller's shop
and inquired where he should find the teachers
from whom he could learn such wise philosophy.
In reply, the bookseller, evidently well informed
as to the literary life of his city, pointed out the
cynic Crates who happened to be passing at the
moment. '
The intellectual life of Athens, which a century
before had centred about the dramatic poets, appears
at this time to have been principally devoted to the
study of philosophy. Among the other noteworthy
changes that had been brought about during the
hundred odd years since the death of Euripides,
was the evolution of the bookseller or publisher who
had now evidently become a permanent institution,
and whose shop is recognized as a centre of literary
information.
We can imagine some European student landing,
two thousand years later, in Boston and applying,
with an inquiry similar to that put by Zeno, at the
corner shop of Ticknor & Fields. How easy would
have been the answer if at the moment had passed
1 Diog. Laert., vii., 2.
Greece 1 1 5
along Washington Street the slender figure of
Emerson !
The question has been raised whether the passage
from Diogenes, above quoted, might not indicate
that booksellers or others, owning manuscript copies
of popular works, made a regular business of reading
aloud to hearers paying for the privilege. Such a
practice would apparently have fitted in very well
with the customs of the time, and would have met
the needs of many of the poorer students for whom
the purchase of manuscripts was still difficult. It
would also have formed a very natural sequence to
the long-standing custom of the recital from memory
of the works of the old poets. While it seems very
possible from the conditions that public readers
found occupation in this way, there is no trustworthy
evidence to such effect.
While Zeno was teaching in Athens, a certain Cal-
linus appears to have won distinction among the
scribes of Athens for the accuracy and beauty of his
manuscripts. The Peripatetic philosopher Lycon,
who died aboMt 250 B.C., bequeathed to his slave
Chares such of his writings as had already been
" published," while the unpublished works were left
to Kallinus " in order that accurate transcripts of the
same might be prepared for publication." '
'Diog. Laert., v., 73.
n6 Authors and Their Public
As the rivalry which continued for some time be-
tween the Ptolemies and the Attali in the collecting
of libraries caused the price of books in Athens to
remain high, a further result was the establishing of
other centres of book-production, of which for a
long time the island of Rhodes was the most impor-
tant. By about 250 B.C., the literary activity of the
Alexandrian scholars, encouraged by Ptolemy Phila-
delphus, to whom the founding of the great library
was probably due, caused Alexandria to become one
of the great book-marts of the world.
After the first conquest of Greece by the Romans
had been practically completed by the capture of
Corinth in 146 B.C., there appears to have been a re-
vival in Athens of the trade in books, owing to the
increased demand from the scholars of Rome, where
Greek was accepted as the language of refined litera-
ture and where Greek authors were diligently studied.
Lucullus is said by Plutarch ' to have brought from
Rome (about 66 B.C.) many books gathered as
booty from the cities of Asia Minor, and many more
which he had purchased in Athens, together with a
great collection of statues and paintings.
The great hall or library in which his collections
were stored became the resort of the scholarly and
1 Plutarch, Lucullus, c. 42.
Greece 1 1 7
cultivated society of the city, and its treasures of
art and literature were, according to Plutarch, freely
placed at the disposal of any visitors fitted to ap-
preciate them. Sulla, without claiming to be a
scholar, was also a collector of Greek books. He
secured in Athens the great library of Apellicon of
Teos, which included the writings of Aristotle arid
of Theophrastus. Apellicon, who died in Athens in
the year 84 B.C., had a mania for collecting books,
and was reputed to be by no means scrupulous as to
the means by which he acquired them. If he saw a
rare work which he could not purchase, he would, if
possible, steal it ; and once he was near losing his
life in Athens in being detected in such a theft. His
Aristotle manuscripts, which were said to be the
work of the philosopher's own hand, had been found
in a cave at Troas where they had suffered greatly
from worms and dampness. 1 After the manuscripts
reached Rome they were transcribed by Tyrannion
the grammarian. He sent copies to Andronicus of
Rhodes, which became the basis of that philosopher's
edition of Aristotle's works. 2 Pomponius Atticus
utilized his sojourn in Athens (in 83 B.C.) not only
to familiarize himself with the great works of Greek
1 See on page 90 another version of the same story.
2 Ritter, Hist. Ancient P kilos., iii., 24.
u8 Authors and Their Public
literature, but to cause to be made a number of
copies of some of the more popular of these, which
copies he afterwards sold in Rome " to great advan-
tage." '
There is a reference in Pliny to a miniature copy of
the Iliad prepared about this time, which was so
diminutive that it could be contained in a nutshell.
He speaks of it as I lias in nuce. Pliny refers to
Cicero as his authority for the existence of this manu-
script, in which he is interested principally as an
evidence of the possibilities of human eyesight. Its
interest in connection with our subject is of course
as an example of the perfection which had been at-
tained in the first century before Christ in the art of
book production. 8
Notwithstanding the stimulus given to the pro-
duction of manuscripts by the increasing demand for
these in Italy, books continued to be dear, even
through the greater part of the first century. The
men of Ephesus who were induced under the teach-
ings of Paul to burn their books concerning "curious
arts " counted the price of them and found it to be
fifty thousand pieces of silver.
The history of Greek literature presents few
'Drumann, v., 66, quoting Cicero, Epist. ad Atticum.
Plin., Hist. MxA, vii., 85.
Greece 119
other instances of the destruction of books, whether
for the sake of conscience or for the good of the com-
munity, or under the authority of the state. There
are, however, occasional references to the exercise on
the part of the rulers of a supervision of the literature
of the people on the ground of protecting their
morals or religion. Probably the earliest instances
in history of the prosecution of a book on the ground
of its pernicious doctrines is that of the confiscation,
in Athens, of the writings of Protagoras, which were
in 41 1 B.C. condemned as heretical.
All owners of copies of the condemned writings
were warned by heralds to deliver the same at the
Agora, and search was made among the private
houses of those believed to be interested in the
heretical doctrines. The copies secured were then
burned in the Agora. Diogenes Laertius, by whom
the incident is narrated, goes on to say that the de-
struction was by no means complete, even of the
copies in Athens, while no copies outside of Athens
were affected. 1 The attempt to suppress the doctrines
of the philosopher by means of putting his books
on an index expurgatorius was probably as little suc-
cessful as were similar attempts with the doctrines of
other " heretics " in later centuries.
'Diog Laert.,ix., 52.
I2O Authors and Their Public
The fact that high prices could be depended upon
for copies of standard works ought to have insured a
fair measure of accuracy in the manuscript. Com-
plaints, however, appear repeatedly in the writing
of the time (/. ^., the century before and that suc-
ceeding the birth of Christ) of the bad work fur-
nished by the scribes. Much of the copying appears
to have been done in haste, and with bad or careless
penmanship, so that words of similar sound were
interchanged and whole lines omitted or misplaced,
and the difficulties of obtaining trustworthy texts
of the works of older writers were enormously and
needlessly increased. In order to enable a number
of copyists to work together from one text, it ap-
pears that the original manuscript was often read
aloud, the work of the scribes being thus done by
ear. This would account for the interchanging of
words resembling each other in sound.
Strabo, writing shortly before the birth of Christ,
refers to an example of this unsatisfactory kind of
bookmaking.
The grammarian Tyrannion, in publishing in com-
pany with certain Roman booksellers his edition of
the writings of Aristotle, confided the work to
scribes, whose copies were never even compared
with the original manuscript. And, says Strabo,
Greece 1 2 1
editions of other important classics, offered for sale
in Alexandria and Rome, had been prepared with
no more care. 1 The reputation of the manuscripts
transcribed at this period in Athens appears to have
been but little better. The making, that is to say
the duplication and publishing of books, had come
to be a trade, and a trade of considerable import-
ance, but the men who first engaged in it appear. to
have had little professional or literary standard, and
not to have realized that profits could be secured from
quality of work as well as from quantity, and that
for a publisher a reputation for accurate and trust-
worthy editions could itself be made valuable capital.
The publishers of Greece appear to have been
characterized by modesty, for not one of those who
did their work at the time of the greatest prosperity
of the book-trade in Greece has left his name on
record for posterity. The days were still to come
when every book would bear its imprint bringing
into lasting association the name of its publisher
with that of the author. The Greek publishers ap-
pear not to ha^e assumed, like the later Tonson, an
ownership in their poets, nor do we, on the other
hand, find in the utterances of the poets any expres-
sions corresponding to the famous " My Murray " of
1 Strabo, xiii., c. 54.
122 Authors and Their Public
Lord Byron. Curtius speaks of a reference in an
inscription to the " Ptolemy " or " Ptolemaic " book-
store, but the name of the bookseller is not given.
It is only later, when the Greek book-trade was in
its decline, that we come across the names of two
dealers in books, Callinus and Atticus. They are
mentioned as famous during the lifetime of Lucian
(about 1 20 to 200 A.D.), the former for the beauty
and the latter for the accuracy of his manuscripts.
It is an interesting coincidence that this Callinus,
noted for the beauty of his texts, bears the same
name as the scribe commended three centuries be-
fore by Zeno for the beauty and accuracy of his
manuscripts. Their copies were much prized and
brought high prices, not in Athens only, but in
scholarly circles elsewhere. It is evident that each
of these booksellers began business as a scribe, sell-
ing only the work produced by his own hands, but
that as their orders increased it became necessary
for them to employ a number of copyists, whose
script, receiving a personal supervision and doubt-
less a careful collation with the original texts, could
be guaranteed as up to the standard of their own
handiwork. Of the other booksellers who were in
Athens in his time Lucian speaks very contemp-
tuously. " Look," he says, " at these so-called book-
Greece
123
sellers, these peddlers! They are people of no
scholarly attainments or personal cultivation ; they
have no literary judgment, and no knowledge how
to distinguish the good and valuable from the bad
and worthless." ] Lucian had evidently a high
standard of what a publisher ought to be.
Some of these Athenian booksellers whom Lucian
thus berates for stupidity, appear also to have borne
a poor reputation for honesty. Among other mis-
deeds charged against them was one, the ethics of
which might have belonged to a much later period
of bookmaking. In order to give to modern manu-
scripts the appearance of age, and to secure for them
a high price as rare antiquities, they would bury them
in heaps of grain until the color had changed and
they had become tattered and worm-eaten. Lucian
also satirizes the ambition of certain wealthy and
ignorant individuals to keep pace with the literary
fashion of the time, and to secure a repute for learn-
ing by paying high prices for great collections of
costly books, which, when purchased, gave enjoy-
ment " to none but the moths and the mice." 2 It
was partly due to the competition of wealthy collec-
tors of this kind that, notwithstanding the great
1 Lucian, c. iv., as quoted by Schmitz, 55.
8 Lucian, Adv. Ind., 4, quoted by Schmitz, 56.
124 Authors and Their Public
increase in the production of copies, the price of
books remained high, much to the detriment of all
impecunious students.
The beauty of the calligraphy of the manuscripts
of Callinus is known to us only through Lucian, but
there are several writers who bear testimony to the
accuracy of the transcripts prepared by his rival
Atticus, who must, by the way, not be confused with
the Roman Atticus, the friend of Cicero. Harpocra-
tion of Alexandria, known principally as the author
of one of the first Greek dictionaries, makes several
references to the authority of the Atticus editions of
the speeches of ^Eschines and Demosthenes. The
famous Codex Parisinus of Demosthenes is believed
by Sauppe to be based upon the excellent textual
authority of a manuscript of Atticus, and Sauppe
further contends that, if Atticus did not work from
an absolute original, he must have had before him a
very well authenticated copy. In the fragment of a
work by Galen (who wrote in Rome about 165 A.D.)
upon certain passages in the Timceus of Plato which
had to do with medicine, Galen makes Atticus his
authority for the passages quoted by him, as if we
were indebted to this bookseller for the text of the
Timceus that has been preserved. 1
1 Schmitz, 57.
Greece 125
From the time of Lucian the interest in books
steadily increased, book-collecting became fashion-
able, especially in Rome, and bibliophiles and biblio-
maniacs were gradually evolved. At this time the
beautifully written and carefully collated manuscripts
which emanated from Athens bore a high reputation
as compared with the much cheaper but less attract-
ive and less trustworthy copies, which were produced
in Alexandria and in Rome. In the book-shops of
these two cities, during the first two centuries, a
swifter and less accurate system of transcribing ap-
pears to have prevailed, the work being largely done
by slaves or by scribes who did not have accurate
knowledge of the literature on which they were en-
gaged, while the necessity of a careful collating of
each copy with the original appears frequently to
have been overlooked. Origen, writing about 190
A.D., speaks of confiding his works to the "swift
writers of Alexandria " in order to secure for them
a speedy and a wide circulation. He was looking
for no other return for his labors than a large circle
of readers, a*id a large influence for his teachings,
and the proceeds of the sales of these " swiftly writ-
ten copies " were in all probability entirely appropri-
ated by the booksellers who owned or who employed
the scribes.
126 Authors and Their Public
After the conquest of Greece by the Romans the
centre of book production passed from Athens first
to Alexandria and later to Rome. For centuries
to come, however, the book production of the world
was chiefly concerned with the works of Greek
authors, and the literary activity of successive genera-
tions drew its inspirations from Greek sources ; and
the writers of Greece, whose brilliant labors brought
no remuneration for the laborers, gave to their coun-
try and to the world a body of literature which at
least in one sense of the term can properly be called
a magnificent literary property.
CHAPTER III.
Alexandria.
DURING the middle of the third century be-
fore Christ, the centre of literary activity
was transferred from Athens to Alexandria, which
became, under Ptolemy Philadelphus, and for more
than three centuries remained, the great book-pro-
ducing mart of the world. The literature of Alex-
andria was not, like that of Athens, and later that
of Rome, something of slow growth and gradual
development ; the literary ambition and the resources
of the second Ptolemy proved sufficient to bring
together in a few years' time a great body of writers
and students and to place at their disposal the
largest collection of books known to antiquity.
The most important step in the undertaking of
securing for the royal young city of the Nile the
literary leadership of the world was the establish-
ment of the great Museum, which appears to have
comprised in one organization a great lending and
127
128 Authors and Their Public
reference library, a series of art collections, a group
of colleges endowed for research (of the type of
" All Souls " at Oxford), a university of instruction,
and an academy with functions like those of the
Paris Academy, assuming authority to fix a standard
of language and of literary expression, and possibly
even to decide concerning the relative rank of
writers. The Museum (whose name is of course
evidence of its Greek origin and character) is said to
date from the year 290 B.C., in which case the found-
ing of it must be credited to Ptolemy Soter, the
father of Philadelphus, but its full organization and
effective work certainly belonged to the reign of
the latter.
Schools of instruction and courses of lectures had,
as we have seen, existed at Athens for a century
or more, and Athens had also possessed as early
as 300 B.C., at least one public library. Alexandria,
however, presents the first example of a university
established on a state foundation, and offering to
literary and scientific workers an assured income
through salaried positions. Mahaffy finds in these
positions a fair parallel to the institution of fellow-
ships existing in the British universities. He says:
" The fellows of the Alexandrian University, brought
together into a society by the second Ptolemy, de-
Alexandria 129
veloped that critical spirit which sifted the wheat
from the chaff of Greek literature, and preserved for
us the great masterpieces in carefully edited texts." '
A peculiarity of the literature of the Alexandrian
school was that it had no connection with the
country in which it was produced. No inspiration
was derived by the Alexandrian writers from Egypt.
The traditions and the accumulated learning of the
civilization of the Nile (possibly the oldest civiliza-
tion the world has known), appear to have been
contemptuously ignored by the immigrant writers of
the Museum, whose interests and whose literary con-
nections remained exclusively Greek. The literature
of Alexandria, as well during the reign of the
Ptolemies as after the absorption of Egypt into the
empire of Rome, remained a direct outgrowth of
that of Greece (including, of course, in the term,
Magna Graecia as well as the Peninsula). It pre-
sented certain distinctive characteristics of its own,
but these seem to have been due rather to the
academic influence, and in the later period to the
growth of the theological spirit, than to the Egyptian
environment or to the relations of the city with im-
perial Rome.
Of the several divisions of the Museum, that most
1 Greek Life and Thought, 195.
130 Authors and Their Public
frequently referred to in literature, and therefore the
best known to later generations, is the Library, but
concerning this the accounts are in many respects
conflicting. John Tzetzes, a Greek scholar of the
twelfth century, writing in Constantinople, tells us
on the authority of the Alexandrian writer, Callima-
chus, that " the outer library " contained 42,000
rolls, while in the inner were placed 490,000 rolls.
Callimachus noted " from an examination of the
catalogue " that of the latter, 90,000, were /3ifi\oi
ajiuyfi? or " unmixed " rolls, that is, rolls containing
each only a single work, while 400,000 were fiifihoi
ffvjAjMyei? or "mixed" rolls, containing each two or
more distinct works. 1 Josephus quotes Demetrius
Phalerius as saying to Ptolemy Soter (the first
Ptolemy) that the library already contained 200,000
volumes, and would soon include 500,000. In con-
sideration of what is known of the extent of the
literature of the time in existence, these figures have
been considered by many authorities as too large
to be credible. Birt points out, however, that the
wholesale purchases which Philadelphus caused to
be made throughout Greece and the Greek cities of
Asia Minor had unquestionably brought to Alex-
andria not only single copies and duplicates of all
1 Birt, 486.
Alexandria 131
the existing works, but supplies of them by the
dozens or hundreds. The unlimited prices offered
from the King's treasury by the librarians of the
Museum caused a steady flow of books to set in tow-
ards Alexandria from all parts of the civilized world,
and in addition to the purchase of all the manu-
scripts that were offered, the representatives of the
King appear to have made a thorough ransacking of
all the public and private collections that could be
reached, and even to have taken by force volumes
which the owners did not wish to sell. Ptolemy is
said to have refused food to the Athenians during a
famine except on condition that they would give
him certain authenticated copies of the tragedies of
^schylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. It is fair to
add that he paid for these tragedies, in addition to
the promised shipment of corn, the sum of fifteen
talents in silver, the equivalent of about $16,200.
One result of this absorption of the book supplies in-
to Alexandria was that the Greek world was now, and
for a considerable time to come remained, dependent
upon Alexandria for copies of all of the old writers.
The measures of the King had succeeded not only in
making it necessary for students and scholars to come
to Alexandria for their reading, but in compelling
book-buyers to come to Alexandrian dealers for their
132 Authors and Their Public
books. The publishers of Alexandria secured at once a
monopoly for their editions, and through their enter-
prise in training numbers of skilled scribes (including
now not only educated slaves but many of the impe-
cunious scholars of the university) and by means of
the distributing facilities afforded by the commercial
connections of their capital, these publishers retained
in their hands for about three centuries the control
of the greater part of the book production of the
world. The publishers of Athens disappeared, and
the publishers who in the last century B.C. and
the first century A.D. were carrying on book busi-
ness in Rome, were obliged to have done in Alex-
andria the work of transcribing such of their issues
as were in the Greek language, forming until the
time of Trajan a very large, if not the larger,
portion of their total production. The writers who
formed what is known as the earlier Alexandrian
school, comprised a considerable group of poets, of
whom the most noteworthy were Theocritus, Calli-
machus, Timon, and Lycophron, and some original
workers in original science, of whom the most im-
portant were Euclid, the father of geometry, Nico-
machus, the first scientific arithmetician, Apollo-
nius, whose work on conic sections still exists, and
Aratus, the astronomer. If the first named of these
Alexandria
133
scientists could have discounted some small portion
even of the compensation due to him from the many
generations of students who have utilized his prob-
lems in geometry, he would have been one of the
nabobs of literature.
The writers who were perhaps the most character-
istic of the academic circle of Alexandria, were, how-
ever, the so-called " grammarians," who rendered to
their own generation and to posterity the invaluable
service of preparing authoritative editions of the
great writers of the past. It is to these Alexandrian
editions that we are indebted for the larger portion
of the works of the Greek writers which have been
preserved, while the fact of the existence of many
works of which the texts have been lost is known
only through the references to their titles made by
Alexandrian commentators. One of these gram-
marians was Zenodotus, the Ephesian, who is
credited with having established the first grammar
school in Alexandria (about 250 B.C.). Among
others whose names have been preserved are Era-
tosthenes, Crates, Apollonius, Aristophanes, Aristar-
chus, and Zoilus. The term " grammarian " was
evidently used to designate philologists and literati,
whose work was by no means limited to the explana-
tion of words, but corresponded more nearly to that
134 Authors and Their Public
done by the French cyclopaedists. By this group of
scholars was produced what is known as the Alex-
andrian Canon, a list of Greek authors whose writ-
ings were thought worthy of preservation as classics.
This list included, according to Scholl, 1 five epic
poets, five iambic poets, nine lyric poets, fourteen
tragic poets, thirteen comic poets, seven poets, of the
group known as the Pleiades, eight historians, ten
orators, and five philosophers, or in all seventy-nine
authors, of whom fifty-six were poets. The academic
or official character thus given to the authors named
in the Canon was of undoubted service to the world's
literature in giving the needed incentive for the
preservation of their writings through the multiplica-
tion of well edited copies. Moore suggests, however,
that this service may in some measure have been
offset by the injury caused to literature through the
comparative neglect into which were sure to fall a
vast number of writers who had failed to be honored
with the stamp of the Canon, and the consequent
loss of their works for posterity. 5
Theocritus was a native of Syracuse, and appears
to have divided his time between that city and Alex-
andria. In like manner Aratus, who belonged in
1 Hist. Lit. Gr., iii., 1 86.
9 Moore's Lectures, 55.
Alexandria 135
Macedonia, did his literary work partly under the
patronage of King Antigonus, and partly under that
of Philadelphus. It appears to have been difficult
for Greek authors, in whatever city they belonged,
to escape the centripetal influence of the Alexan-
drian Academy, and the attractions presented by so
powerful, a patron of literature as Philadelphus,
while it is also probable that the inducements offered
by the Alexandrian publishers had some part in
making it desirable for authors of note to make fre-
quent visits to the city. Mahaffy points out that
the literature of Alexandria under the Ptolemies
possessed little popular character, and was in the
main the work of court writers and of scholastic
pedants rather than of authors in sympathetic touch
with the people. As one evidence of the accuracy
of this description, he mentions the omission of any
reference in the writings of contemporary Alexan-
drian writers to the great Galatian invasion which in
the early part of the third century B.C. desolated a
large part of Asia Minor. While speaking appreci-
atively of the service rendered to literature by the
liberal patronage of Philadelphus, Mahaffy is of
opinion that the Museum fellowships came to be
utilized (as has been the case in later times with other
literary circles supported by royal bounty) by a num-
136 Authors and Their Public
ber of lazy incompetents. In his trenchant phrase,
he refers to these deteriorated fellowships as " liter-
ary hencoops filled with overfed and idle savants."
His description recalls some at least of the features
of the literary circle brought together by Frederick
the Great, but the Prussian monarch was probably
much more of a barbarian, even in his literary meth-
ods, than the Ptolemies of Alexandria.
The most noteworthy literary undertaking ema-
nating from Alexandria was the Greek version of
the Old Testament, known as the Septuagint, which
was begun by certain learned Jews (according to
tradition seventy Rabbis) about 285 B.C., and was
completed in the course of years by various hands.
The work of the translators had, of course, no con-
nection with Greek literature other than as a recog-
nition of the necessity of putting into Greek any
writings for which a general distribution was planned.
Eckhard says that the first use of the term Ppa/spareiS,
in the sense of copyists, was as applied to these
Hebrew scholars who were devoting themselves to
the interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures. He
adds that, in order to leave them undisturbed in
their scholarly undertaking, the king assigned to
them a special quarter of the city called Kiriath
Sepher, or, in the Septuagint, 7to\is Fpa^aToov, the
Alexandria 137
first literary quarter or Grub Street of which history
makes mention. 1
Among the grammarians who rendered important
service in the editing of the older classics was Calli-
machus, whose name also appears in the list of poets.
This is the same Callimachus whose report concern-
ing the number of the books contained in the library
is quoted by Tzetzes. Very few of the other names
of the Alexandrian editors have been preserved,
their editions having in most cases been modestly
sent forth with the names of the authors only.
The publishers of Alexandria must also have been
modest, for not a single firm has sent its name down
to posterity. There are many references in later
literature to the existence in Alexandria of great
book-producing concerns, and, as Birt remarks, an
active production of literature must have necessi-
tated an effective machinery for the distribution of
literature.
Strabo speaks of the excellent organization of the
book scribes of Alexandria, and states that Roman
methods of bookmaking were derived from Alex-
andria. The fact that for a number of centuries the
entire supply of the most important of the materials
required was derived from Egypt, gave an enormous
1 Geraud, 106.
138 Authors and Their Public
advantage to the development of publishers in
Alexandria. Even after the perfection of the meth-
ods for the preparation of parchment, papyrus re-
tained its place in the preference of writers, Greek
and Roman, and until about the fourth century A.D.
the use of parchment continued very inconsiderable.
But the papyrus was produced only in Egypt. It was
therefore a serious blow at the literary undertakings
of the kings of Pergamum when Philadelphus, in
pursuance of his policy of concentrating in Alex-
andria the production of literature, prohibited for
some years the export from Egypt of papyrus.
It was this embargo that gave a temporary stimulus
in Pergamum to the production of dressed skins, and
the special interest taken by Pergamum in this in-
dustry caused the most carefully finished of the
skins (very different in their appearance from the
old time dicpSspat) to bear the name of parchment,
pergamentum. With the removal of the embargo,
however, the writers in Asia Minor appear in the
main to have speedily gone back to the use of the
more convenient papyrus ; the production of parch-
ment languished, and when in the latter Empire,
parchment again came into vogue, as its manufacture
could as well be carried on in many other places,
it did not remain an important product of Pergamum.
Alexandria 139
Not only in Pergamum but also in Antioch was
the attempt made, through the founding of museums
(i. e., libraries with schools attached) to create literary
centres, but these efforts met with no considerable
or lasting success. Mahaffy points out that these
cities were, during the larger portion of their exist-
ence as separate capitals, much more frequently
engaged in the excitement of campaigns than was
the case with Alexandria. The position of the latter,
practically secure against invasion and outside of
the great struggles and contests which kept Asia
Minor in a state of agitation, was peculiarly advan-
tageous for the development of literary and scholas-
tic interests.
Attractions were offered to literary men by the
Court of Antioch, and Syria became under Greek
and Macedonian influence a home of Hellenism, but
no important literary undertaking took shape under
the Seleucids except the translation by Berosus, the
Chaldean High Priest, of certain cuneiform records,
a work which was dedicated to Antiochus I. 1 The
only large example in literature of Syrian Greek is
presented by the New Testament, as the Septuagint
remained the most important record of the Greek
of Alexandria. 2 The library gathered at Antioch
1 Mahaffy, Social Life, 209. * Mahaffy, 209.
140 Authors and Their Public
appears after the Roman occupation to have been
destroyed or dispersed. The larger collection at
Pergamum was, according to Plutarch, given by
Antony to Cleopatra, and was absorbed into the
Museum of Alexandria.
It is probable that in Alexandria not only the
publishers but also the authors secured returns from
the profits of book-production. It is difficult to ex-
plain in any other way the gathering of authors in
Alexandria from all parts of the Greek world
and their frequent references to their business ar-
rangements for the production of their books. A
definite piece of evidence is also afforded by the
statement of Strabo, previously referred to, that the
publishing methods of Rome were derived from
those existing in Alexandria ; and in Rome, as we
shall see in a later chapter, a system of compensa-
tion to authors certainly came into practice. It is,
however, unfortunately, the case, that no trustworthy
data have been found from which can be gathered
the details of the business relations of the Alexan-
drian authors with their publishers. Birt points out
that the government itself went into the publishing
business on a considerable scale, and its compe-
tition may easily have caused perplexities to the
publishers. We have already seen that the Museum
Alexandria 141
had, under the directions of the King, taken pains
to purchase the most authoritative texts known
of the classic authors, while in certain cases they
secured the entire supplies of the copies known to
be in existence. Staffs of copyists were gathered in
the Museum, and under the editorial supervision of
the salaried Fellows, editions in more satisfactory
form than had heretofore been known were produced
for the public. It is not shown whether these copies
were offered for sale directly at the Museum, or
whether arrangements were entered into with the
leading booksellers for their distribution in Alexan-
dria and throughout the reading world. It is proba-
ble, however, that the latter course must have been
adopted, for it is not likely that the Museum under-
took to establish connections for the sale of its
editions in foreign countries, while it is certain that
for their university editions a wide and continual
sale was secured.
One of the changes introduced in book-making
methods under Philadelphus was the substitution of
papyrus rolls of small and convenient size for the
enormous scrolls heretofore in use. According to
Birt, the average length of these larger rolls had
not exceeded five hundred inches, or about forty-
one feet, but instances are cited, in the earlier
142 Authors and Their Public
Egyptian literature, of rolls (principally Hieratic)
reaching a length of one hundred and fifty feet. In
the fifth century there was burned in Byzantium a
Homeric roll one hundred and twenty feet in length. 1
It is possible that the writer of the Apocalypse may
have had one of these enormous scrolls in his vision
when he beheld the record of the sins of Babylon
reaching to the heavens.
Callimachus, the grammarian, who seemed to have
had as much responsibility as any man of his group
in shaping the literary work of the Academy of
Philadelphus, gave utterance to the dictum, " A big
book is a big nuisance," TO piya fiifiMov icsov e'Xeysv
slvai top jjeyahG) nanco? and from his time the cum-
bersome scrolls began to disappear, and as well for
the new editions of the classics as for the literature
of the day, the small rolls came into use. These
smaller rolls would contain in poetry from 350 to
750 lines each, so that for the Iliad and Odyssey, for
instance, thirty-six rolls were required. For works
in prose each roll would usually contain from 700 to
1500 lines, while specimens have been found with
as few as 150 lines.' Such rolls would comprise
from ten to at the most two hundred pages. 4
'Birt.439. Birt, 443.
1 Athenaus t 72. 4 Birt, 501.
Alexandria 143
Birt is of opinion that this question of the extent
of the sheets available for the writer and the nature
of the divisions in the subject suggested by the divi-
sion in the material, had a very marked influence
upon the style, proportioning, and subdivisions of
works of literature. He goes so far as to ascribe to
this cause the evolution of epigrammatic literature,
vers de socittd, and light and superficial court poetry
of the Alexandrian school, which formed so sharp a
contrast to the massive tragedies of the great poets
of Attica. I can but think, however, that Birt has
got the causation reversed, as it seems more proba-
ble that a certain style of writing should have
brought about a change in the method of dividing
writing paper than that the paper-makers should
have been in a position, simply by changing the
form of their rolls, to evolve a new style of litera-
ture, or even to play any important part in such
evolution.
This increasing use of small rolls must, of course,
be taken into account in calculating the number of
works contained 1 *n all the post-Alexandrian libraries
as well as in the great collection of the Museum of
Philadelphus.
Birt ascribes to the limitation presented by the
size of the rolls the division of narratives into
144 Authors and Their Public
" books," but it is certainly the case that there are
examples of such division in the works of writers of
a much earlier date, when large rolls were still cus-
tomary. Xenophon's Anabasis, for instance, is so
divided. 1 The books in this are also peculiar, as
before mentioned, in being preceded by summaries
of the preceding books. The length of a dramatic
poem was naturally determined by the time that
could be allotted for the performance. They con-
tained from 1300 to 1700 lines, and each drama
constituted a " book," although several books might,
even under the new fashion of smaller rolls, still be
included in one roll.
As fresh supplies of the classic writings came to
be distributed through the civilized world, more par-
ticularly, of course, among the Greek cities, the
monopoly established by the policy of the Ptolemies
for the Alexandrian editions gradually came to an
end, and the production of books took a fresh start
in other centres. The monopoly of the paper-
makers, however, continued, for nowhere but in the
valley of the Nile could the papyrus be made to
grow, and during the first two or three centuries of
the Roman Empire the extent of the book-making
markets supplied by the paper industries must have
been so enormous that it is difficult to understand
1 This division was, however, probably not made by the author.
Alexandria 145
how the growth of the papyrus, in the limited dis-
trict suitable for it, could have been sufficient to
meet the requirements. To modern Egypt, accord-
ing to Wilkinson and other authorities, the plant is
unknown, for it has entirely disappeared from its
ancient habitat on the banks of the Nile. It would
seem, therefore, that, like flax and the cotton plant,
it required for its existence certain special conditions
which could be insured only through careful cultiva-
tion. The words of the Hebrew prophet have thus
been realized : " The paper reeds by the brooks, by
the mouth of the brooks, . . . shall wither, be
driven away, and be no more." ] It is probable that
the cultivation was finally brought to a close in the
seventh century, when the Saracens took possession
of Egypt.
The importance of Alexandria as one of the chief
sources of book-production endured for three cen-
turies or more after its conquest by the Romans in
the year 30 B.C. As long as the language and litera-
ture of the Greeks continued to be the fashion
among the cultivated circles in the Roman Em-
pire, the supplies of books prepared by the Greek
copyists continued to be largely drawn from Alex-
andria. By the close of the first century, however,
1 Isaiah, xix., 7.
146 Authors and Their Public
the centre of literary activity had been transferred
to Rome, and it was no longer to Alexandria but to
Rome as the literary as well as the official capital of
the world, that men of letters now journeyed from
all parts of the empire.
The Alexandrian Academy of letters was suc-
ceeded by the Alexandrian school of theology, and
to the city of the Ptolemies is probably to be cred-
ited the evolution of the odium tJieologicum, and the
beginning of the long series of fierce and bitter the-
ological contests which have unfortunately played so
large a part in the history of the Christian Church,
and have had so marked an influence on the his-
tory of the world. The names of Philo, Ammonius,
and later of Plotinus, lamblichus, Clemens, Origen,
and Porphyry are the best known of the Alexandrian
lecturers and writers of the first two centuries after
Christ, whose teachings in philosophy and theology
exercised influence on the thought of their time and
on the metaphysical and theological conception of
generations to come. In the fourth century came
the more noteworthy Athanasius, and in the fifth
Cyril, of whom such a vivid picture is given in
Kingsley's Hypatia. That curious combination of
Oriental mysticism with the Hebrew and Christian
creeds known as Gnosticism, if it did not originate
Alexandria 147
in Alexandria, was largely taught there during the
first two centuries A.D., among the earlier teachers
being Basilides, Valentinus, Heracleon, and Theod-
otus.
From the various schools of metaphysics and
theology was poured out during the first three cen-
turies after Christ a great body of writings, which
found their way into the remotest corners of the
Christian world, and the persisting influence of which
can be traced in not a few of the creeds even of to-
day. It is probable, however, that important in
other ways as this literature was, it presented few
examples of literary property in the shape of returns
to its author. The writers on metaphysical, theo-
logical, and religious subjects were, in fact, so keenly
interested in extending the knowledge of their spe-
cial views and tenets, and in furthering the influence
of the creeds and systems of belief with which they
had identified themselves, that they were very ready
to facilitate by every possible means the distribution
of their works, and to give to all who desired the
fullest possible freedom for the multiplication of
copies. The booksellers may have profited to some
extent by the activity of the public interest in the
rivalries of the various schools, but it appears as if
the compensation of the authors must, like that of
148 Authors and Their Public
the Athenian philosophers of five or six hundred
years earlier, have been limited to such payments as
were made by the attendants on their lectures.
Our consideration of the relations of authors
with their readers, and concerning the nature and
extent of the remuneration secured for literary
undertakings, must now be transferred to imperial
Rome, the city from which what is known as classical
literature derives its largest heritage, a heritage
second in importance only to that to be credited
to Athens.
CHAPTER IV.
Book-Terminology in Classic Times.
BEFORE proceeding to the consideration of the
conditions under which works of literature in
Rome were prepared by the writers and were brought
within reach of the hearers or readers, it will be
convenient to give consideration to the different
forms of books which existed among the ancients,
the various names by which these forms were known,
and the nature of the material from which they were
prepared.
The history of the different materials used in the
writing of books and of the various terms employed
to designate the books themselves, throws light on
the conditions and the development of the produc-
tion and distribution of literature. The baked clay
tablets of the Chaldeans and Assyrians have already
been referred to. Layard speaks of those found by
him as of different sizes, the largest being flat and
measuring nine inches by six and a half, while the
149
150 Authors and Their Public
smallest were slightly convex, and in some cases not
more than an inch long, with but one or two lines of
writing. The cuneiform characters on most of them
were singularly sharp and well defined, but so
minute in some instances as to be illegible without
the aid of a magnifying glass. Curiously enough, in
the same ruins with the tablets have been found
specimens of the glass lenses which were probably
used by their readers. Specimens have also been
found of the instrument which was employed to
trace the cuneiform characters, and its form suffi-
ciently accounts for the peculiar shape of these
characters, a shape which was imitated by the en-
gravers on stone. The tracer is a little iron rod (a
stylus), not pointed but triangular at the end. By
slightly pressing this end on the cake of soft moist
clay held in the left hand, no other sign could be
obtained but that of a wedge, the direction being
determined by a turn of the wrist, presenting the
instrument in various positions. The tablets, having
been thus inscribed on both sides and accurately
numbered or foliocd, were baked in the oven.
An astronomical work discovered by George
Smith comprised seventy such tablets, say one hun-
dred and forty pages. The first of these begins
with the words " When the gods Anu," and this
Book-Terminology in Classic Times 151
seems to have been taken as the title of the work,
for each successive tablet bears the notice " First
(second or third) tablet of ' When the gods Anu.'
Further, to guard against all chance of confusion,
the last line of one tablet is repeated as the first line
of the following one a fashion which we still see in
old books, in which the last word or two at the
bottom of a page is repeated at the top of the
next. ... If the tablets were to be impressed with
figures or hieroglyphics in place of or in addition to
the cuneiform characters, engraved cylinders were
used of some hard stone, such as jasper, cornelian,
or agate. . . . Tablets have also been found (usually
in foundation stones) of gold, silver, copper, lead,
and tin." '
Referring to the care with which each monarch
gathered into his palace the chronicles of his reign,
building long series of inscribed tablets into the walls
and burying others beneath the foundation stones,
Menant says :
" It was not mere whim which impelled the kings of Assyria to
build so assiduously. Palaces had in those times a destination which
they have no longer in ours. Not only was the palace indeed the
dwelling of royalty, but, as the inscriptions indicate, it was also the
Book, which each sovereign began at his accession to the throne, and
in which he was to record the history of his reign."
1 Ragozin, Chaldea, 112 et seq.
152 Authors and Their Public
Painstaking and slow as the method appears to
have been in which the Babylonians and Assyrians
recorded the earliest known literature of the world,
in one respect at least they achieved a success greater
than that of any of the literature-producing nations
who were to follow them. Their books were made
to last, and through forty centuries of vicissitudes
such as would have crumbled into unrecognizable
dust the collections of the Vatican or of the British
Museum, the mounds of Mesopotamia have safely
protected the libraries of the Chaldean kings, and it
is probable that, notwithstanding the completeness
of the devastation that overwhelmed the Assyrian
lands, a larger proportion of the entire body of
Assyrian literature has been preserved for the stu-
dents of to-day than of any national literature
which came into existence prior to the invention of
printing.
The book of Egyptian literature was nearly always
written on papyrus, that is, on the tissue prepared
from the stems of the papyrus plant, a species of
reed which in ancient times abounded on the banks
of the Nile. In the earlier days, there are instances
of palm-leaves being used for certain classes of docu-
ments. According to Wilkinson, the papyrus plant
has now entirely disappeared from Egypt. So im-
Book-Terminology in Classic Times 153
portant was the role played by papyrus in the
history of classic literature that ancient writers
speak as if their literature could hardly have existed,
or at least could hardly have been preserved,
without it.
Pliny, for instance, writes : Papyri natura dicetur,
cum chartce usu maxime humanitas vita constet, certe
memorial Birt renders this : It is on literature that
all human development depends, and assuredly to
literature is due the transmission of history. 2 Pliny
here uses the word charta (i. e., paper made of
papyrus) as a general term for literature, and speaks
as if papyrus were the only material in use for
books. He was writing about the middle of the
first century.
From their own land the Greeks could secure no
materials for book-making, and their literature,
which was to inspire and to enlighten future genera-
tions, could be preserved for these generations only
by the use of substances imported from other
countries. By far, the most important of their
book-making materials was the same papyrus plant
which had long been utilized by the Egyptians. To
the stem of this plant, from which the book " paper "
was prepared (the English term being, of course,
1 Plin., xiii., 68. 2 Birt, 55.
154 Authors and Their Public
derived from the Egyptian plant), the Greeks gave
the name of fiv/3\o$, or fiifiXos. These terms, with
the diminutives pvfi\iov, fiifiXzor, and fiifiXapiov
speedily came to stand for the book itself instead
of for the book-paper, the " book " comprising a
series of prepared papyrus sheets, gummed together
into a roll. fivfiXoS usually denoted a single work
only, although such work might comprise several
volumes or rolls. Suidas, however, whose Lexicon
was written about 1000 A.D., asserts that it was also
used for a collection of books. The word fiv(3Xo$
was in like manner used for cordage, /. e., the ropes
of ships, for the making of which the papyrus stem
was also employed.
We have named first in order papyrus, as the
material most universally used by the Greek writers,
and fivfiXoS as the term for book most frequently
occurring in Greek literature.
Centuries, however, before the introduction of the
papyrus, or of the dressed skins, other materials
were employed for writing, such as thinly rolled
sheets of lead, used for public documents, and slips
of linen sheets, and wax tablets, used for private
records and correspondence. Wax tablets were
known to Homer, and twelve hundred years after
Homer were still in use among the Romans. The
Book-Terminology in Classic Times 155
Homeric Greeks also utilized slabs of wood and the
bark of trees, another material which remained useful
for many generations, and which gave to the Romans
the term for book, liber. Another term in which
the roll nature of the book is clearly indicated is
Hvhivdpo?, a cylinder. 1 This brings us back to one
of the Assyrian forms, arrived at, however, in a very
different way.
The papyrus book, whether Egyptian, Greek, or
Roman, was gotten up very much like a modern
mounted map. A length of the material, written on
one side only, was fastened to a wooden roller,
around which it was wound. The Egyptian name
for such a roll was tamd. Such rolls were often
twenty, thirty, or even forty yards long. 2 Herodotus
tells us the whole of the Odyssey was written on one
such roll. He also refers to an Egyptian priest roll-
ing a book about the horns of a sacrificial bull. 3 As
the inconvenience of these long rolls became appar-
ent, the practice obtained of breaking up the longer
works into sections. Certain suitable sizes became
normal, and the conventional length of the roll possi-
bly exercised some influence on the length of what
1 Diog. Laert., x., 26.
9 Birt, Das Antike Buchwesen, 439.
3 Herod., ii., 38.
156 Authors and Their Public
are still called the " books," i. e., divisions of the
classical authors. The Egyptian rolls were kept in
jars, holding each from six to twelve. 1
The term an\a was applied to a " book " or writing
completed on a single strip of papyrus and compris-
ing therefore only one leaf. 9
The word To'//o(from which comes our English
tome) occurs only after the Alexandrian era. It
means literally a slice or a cutting, and when used
with precision stood, as to-day, for a portion or divi-
sion of the entire work. A diminutive of this is
TOJJldplOV.
r O XttP 7 *?* indicated originally a papyrus sheet or
roll which had not yet been written upon, but came
later to be used also for a papyrus manuscript. 8
Tfvxo?, which had for its earlier signification tool
or implement, was later used for a chest, repository,
or book-case, and, after the Alexandrian age, came
finally into use as a term for a set or series of
(literary) works.
rpdjA/Mx, meaning in the first place " that which is
graven or written," and then "the letter" or the
scripture, is used, although but rarely, for book,
1 Johnson's Cyclo., 300.
9 Ritschl, Die Alexandria Bibliothek.
* Plato, Com., ii., 684. Meineke.
Book-Terminology in Classic Times 157
occurring more often in the plural Fpa^fjiara^ and
still more frequently in the form \2vyy pa^paTa,
"words written together." The ^vyypot^a was a
collection of manuscript rolls tied together in a
bundle or faggot, called by the Latins fasces.
The famous term AoyoZ, meaning in the first
place that which is said, the word, the utterance,
and then the story or narrative, came occasionally to
be referred to as the book, or in the plural form,
Aoyot, as the books, writings, or works of a particular
writer. It was, however, the substance of the writ-
ings and not their physical form which was then
referred to, and the expression seems to have been
applied only to writings in prose.
The previous terms (with the exception of Aoyo?,
which, having to do with the thought of the writer
and not with the form of the writing, could stand
for any intellectual production) were all employed
only for books written on papyrus. A material
which preceded the use of papyrus, and which, with
improved methods of preparation, long outlasted this,
although occupying a far less important place in
ancient literature, was obtained from skins or hides.
The use of this material for writing was borrowed
from the Phoenicians, from whom were also purchased
1 Plutarch, Ccesar, 60 ; Galen, i., 79.
158 Authors and Their Public
the skins themselves. The dressed skins were called
6i(p6epai, and writings upon skins came to be known
by the same name. Ctesias speaks of the diydepai
fiaffiXixat, royal books (or writings or documents)
of the Persians, and Herodotus says that such skins
were used in the earlier times for book-material not
only in Greece, but even in Egypt, the home of the
papyrus. In Greece, the papyrus, introduced from
Egypt through the Phoenician traders, appears at one
time to have almost entirely replaced the dressed
skins, while later, owing to the improved methods
for the preparation of the skins, these again found
favor. It was, however, not until the production of
parchment (membrana o>r pcrgamend), that the value
of skins for literary purposes began to be properly
understood, and even parchment made its way but
slowly among writers in competition with the long-
established papyrus, which it was, however, destined
to outlast for many centuries. The name parchment,
pergamena, is derived from the city of Pergamum,
where, according to the tradition, it was first prepared
under the direction of King Eumenes II., about 190
B.C. It seems certain, however, that parchment had
been produced considerably before this date, but a
great impetus was doubtless given at this time to its
use, and its manufacture was improved, owing to the
Book-Terminology in Classic Times 159
embargo placed by Ptolemy Philadelphia on the ex-
portation from Egypt of papyrus. Ptolemy was, it
appears, jealous of the growing fame of the great
library of Pergamum, which was beginning to rival
that of Alexandria, and he hoped that by cutting
off the supply of book-material from other countries
he could compel the scholars of the world to resort
to Alexandria.
Pliny, writing about 250 years later, appears not
to have believed that the new parchment could serve
as in any way an adequate substitute for the papy-
rus. He considered it very fortunate that the Ptole-
mies had finally consented to withdraw the interdict
on the exportation of papyrus, as otherwise the
history of mankind in the past (immortalitas homi-
num) might have been utterly lost.
Excepting for the temporary impetus given to the
use of the parchment among the writers of Perga-
mum during the embargo on the Egyptian papyrus,
its introduction among literary circles proceeded
but slowly. It came into competition more directly
with wax tablets for private notes and memoranda
than with papyrus for use in books.
For correspondence, at least for the longer letters,
papyrus seems for some centuries to have been found
the most convenient material. The author of the
160 Authors and Their Public
Second Epistle of John evidently wrote on papyrus, 1
and in the long series of letters between Cicero and
his several correspondents, all the references are to
the same material.
The Latin terms for book, like those used by the
Greeks, indicate the nature of the material used, or
the method of its arrangement. The word liber,
which occurs perhaps the most frequently in Latin
literature, has been already referred to. It means
originally bark, and by some antiquarians is sup-
posed to give evidence of some prehistoric use by
the Italian writers of tablets of wood or bark. It
was applied finally to books of all kinds, but when
used with precision, it indicated books of papyrus
arranged in leaves as opposed to a roll or a series of
rolls. The roll, whether composed of papyrus sheets
or of parchment, was called volumen. Its use as a
general term for a book of any kind appears to date
from the time of Cicero. Liber was also used for a
division of a literary composition, in the sense in
which the term " book " is employed to-day, the en-
tire work being called volumen, or opus. The latter
term, however, had, like Xoyo?, no reference to the
material or form, but only to the literary produc-
tion.
1 2 John, 12.
Book-Terminology in Classic Times 161
The next term in order of importance was codex.
The word, which means originally the trunk of a
tree, was in the first place used for wooden tablets
smeared, for writing purposes, with wax. It was
later applied to large documents and manuscripts,
whether of papyrus or parchment. A still later
meaning was that of a collection or series of writ-
ings, in the sense in which we should to-day speak
of " a body of literature." A codex rescriptus, or
palimpsest, was a parchment on which the original
writing had been erased or defaced to make room
for a later inscribing. The erasing was sometimes
imperfectly done, so that it became possible to de-
cipher the text of the original writing through that
which had been superimposed. A number of im-
portant works of antiquity have in this manner been
recovered through the labors of modern scholars,
the list including Cicero's De Republica, some of the
books of Livy, certain books of Pliny the Younger,
and portions of the Septuagint.
The term libellus, literally a small writing, was
used for a memorandum book, a petition, a memo-
rial, a summons, a complaint in writing, and finally
for a small volume. Birt explains that in the latter
sense it always stood for a book of verse, on the
ground that, according to the usual arrangement, a
1 62 Authors and Their Public
volume of verse contained half as much material as
one of prose.
The wooden case containing the papyrus roll was
called a capsa, or a scrinium. The latter term was,
possibly, more generally applied to a case large
enough to hold several rolls. The term umbilicus
was applied to a reed or stick fastened to the last
leaf or strip of the manuscript, around which it was
rolled.
It is to be borne in mind that as the inspiration
for Roman literature came from Athens and Alexan-
dria, and the earlier Roman authors were accus-
tomed to use Alexandria as a convenient centre for
book-production, the Greek terms for books and for
things connected with books came into general use
with Latin writers, and probably for some time con-
tinued to be employed in place of or indifferently
with the Latin terms.
CHAPTER V.
Rome.
ROMAN literature may be said to date from
about 250 B.C., or, to take an event which
marked an important era in the life of the Republic,
from the close of the first Punic War, 241 B.C.
With the Romans, literature was not of spon-
taneous growth, but was chiefly the result of the in-
fluence exerted by the Etruscans, who were their
first teachers in everything mental and spiritual.
The earliest literary efforts of the Greeks, or at
least the earliest which are known to us, were, as we
have seen, epic poems, setting forth the deeds of the
gods, demi-gods, and heroes. The earliest literary
productions of the Romans were historical narratives,
bald records of events real or imaginary.
Simcox refers to the curious feature of Latin lit-
erature, that " It is in its best days a Roman litera-
ture without being the work of Romans." * The great
1 Simcox, History Latin Lit., i., 31.
163
164 Authors and Their Public
writers of Athens were Athenians, but from Ennius
to Martial, a succession of writers who were not
natives of Rome lived and worked in the metropolis
and owed their fame to the Roman public.
Authors came to Rome from all parts of the civil-
ized world, there to make their literary fortunes.
They needed, in order to secure a standing in the
world of literature, the approval of the critics of the
capital, and in the latter period, they required also,
for the multiplying and distributing of their books,
the service of the Roman publishers.
Graud points out that the Romans came very
near to the acquisition of the art of printing. It
was the aim of Trajan, in his Asiatic expeditions, to
surpass Alexander in the extent of his conquests and
journeyings eastward. "If I were but younger!"
murmured Trajan, as he stood on the shores of the
mysterious Erythrean Sea (the Indian Ocean). And
there was in fact probably little but lack of time to
prevent him from passing Alexander's limit of the
Indus, and, marching across the Indian peninsula,
from arriving within the borders of the " everlasting
empire " of the Chinese. In the time of Trajan,
however (100 A.D.), the Chinese had already mastered
the art of xylographic printing, or printing from
blocks. If, therefore, Trajan had arrived at the im-
Rome 165
perial power say ten years earlier, literary property
might have saved thirteen centuries in securing the
most essential condition of substantial existence.
There are, however, compensations for all losses.
If printing had come into Europe in the first century,
the world might to-day be buried under the accumu-
lated mass of its literature, and my subject, already
sufficiently complex, would have assumed unman-
ageable proportions.
With the knowledge of the language and literature
of Greece, which came to the Romans partly through
the commerce of the Greek traders of the Mediter-
ranean, partly through the Greek colonies in Italy,
and partly, probably, through the intercourse
brought about by war, a new literary standard was
given to Rome. The dry annals of events, and the
crude and barely metrical hymns or chants, which
had hitherto comprised the entire body of national
literature, were now to be brought into contrast with
the great productions of the highest development of
Greek poetry, drama, and philosophy. As a result
the literary thought and the literary ideals of Rome
were, for a time, centred in Athens.
It would not be quite correct to say that from the
outset Athenian literature served as a model for
Roman writers. This was true only at a later stage
1 66 Authors and Their Public
in the development of literary Rome. The first step
was simply the acceptance of the works of Greek
writers as constituting for the time being all the
higher literature that existed. Greek became and
for a number of years remained the literary language
of Rome. Such libraries as came into existence were
at first made up exclusively, and for centuries to
come very largely, of works written in Greek. The
instructors, at least of literature, philosophy, and
science, taught in Greek and were in large part them-
selves Greeks. In fact the Greek language must
have occupied in Italy, during the two centuries be-
fore Christ, about the place which, centuries later,
was held throughout Europe by Latin, as the recog-
nized medium for scholarly expression.
There is, however, this difference to note. The
Latin of mediaeval Europe, though the language of
scholars, was for all writers an acquired language,
and its use for the literature of the middle ages gave
to that literature an inevitable formality and artificial-
ity of style. The Greek used in early Rome was
the natural literary language, because it was the
language of all the cultivated literature that was
known, and it was learned by the Romans of the
educated classes in their earliest years, becoming to
them if not a mother tongue, at least a step-mother
Rome 167
tongue. In the face of this all-powerful competition
of the works of some of the greatest writers of an-
tiquity, works which were the result of centuries of
intellectual cultivation, the literary efforts of the
earlier Roman authors seemed crude enough, and
the development of a national literature, expressed
in the national language, progressed but slowly.
With the capture of Corinth in 146 B.C., the last
fragment of Greek independence came to an end,
and the absorption of Greece into the Roman em-
pire was completed. But while the arms of Rome
had prevailed, the intellect of Greece remained
supreme, and, in fact, its range of influence was
enormously extended through the very conquests
which gave to the Romans the mastery, not only of
the little Grecian peninsula, but of the whole civilized
world.
The second stage in the development of Roman
literature was the wholesale adaptation by the
Roman writers of such Greek originals as served
their purpose. It was principally the dramatic
authors whose productions were thus utilized, but
the appropriations extended to almost every branch
of literature. In a few cases the plays and poems
were published simply as translations, due credit
being given to the original works, but in the larger
1 68 Authors and Their Public
number of instances in which the adaptation from
the Greek into the Latin was made with consider-
able freedom and with such modifications as might
help to give a local or a popular character to the piece,
the Roman playwright would make no reference
to the Attic author, but would quietly appropriate
for himself the prestige and the profits accruing from
his literary ingenuity and industry. It is proper to
remember, however, that in few cases could living
Greek authors have had any cause for complaint. It
was the writings of the dead masters, and particu-
larly, of course, of those whose work, while distinc-
tive and available, was less likely to be familiar to a
Roman literary public, which furnished an almost
inexhaustible quarry for the rapacity of the plagiarists
of the early Republic.
The bearing of this state of things upon the de-
velopment of real Roman literature and upon any
possibility of compensation for the writers of such
literature, is obvious. Why should a Roman pub-
lisher or theatrical manager pay for the right to
publish or to perform a drama by a native writer,
when he could secure, for the small cost of a trans-
lation or adaptation, a more spirited and satisfactory
piece of work from the Attic quarry ?
What encouragement could be given, in the face
Rome 169
of competition of this kind, to the young Latin
poet, striving to secure even a hearing from the
public ? The practice of utilizing foreign dramatic
material by adapting it for home requirements, has,
as we know, been very generally followed in later
times, the most noteworthy example being the whole-
sale appropriations made by English dramatists from
the dramatic literature of France, prior to the estab-
lishment between the two countries of international
copyright.
There must also have been a further difficulty on
the part of the earlier Roman publishers in the way
of finding funds for the encouragement of native
talent. Their own work was for many years being
carried on at a special disadvantage in connection
with the previously referred to competition of Alex-
andria. As late as the middle of the first century
A.D., a large portion, and probably the larger portion,
of the work of the copyists in preparing editions had
to be done in Alexandria, as there alone could be
found an adequate force of trained and competent
scribes, the swiftness and accuracy of whose work
could be depended upon. Alexandria was also not
simply the chief, but practically the sole market in
the world for papyrus. The earlier Roman publisher
found it, therefore, usually to his advantage to send to
170 Authors and Their Public
Alexandria his original text, and to contract with some
Alexandrian correspondent, who controlled a book-
manufacturing establishment, for the production of
the editions required, while to this manufacturing
outlay the Roman dealer had further to add the cost
of his freight. There is record of certain copying
done for Roman orders during the first and second
centuries B.C. in Athens, but this seems in the main
to have been restricted to commissions from indi-
vidual collectors, like Lucullus (B.C. 115-57). The
mass of the book-making orders certainly went to
Alexandria, which bore a relation to the book-trade
of Rome similar in certain respects to that borne to
the London publishers in the first half of the present
century by the literary circle and by the printers of
Edinburgh. The earlier Roman publishers, there-
fore, in losing the advantage of the manufacturing
of books issued by them, found their margin of
possible profit seriously curtailed, and the chances
of securing for the authors any remuneration from
the sales of their books must for many years have
been very slight. It seems, in fact, probable that
compensation for Roman authors began only when,
through the development of publishing machinery,
it became possible for the making of books to be
done advantageously in Rome. This period corre-
Rome 171
spends also with the time when a real national
literature began to shape itself, and when the de-
velopment of a popular interest in this literature
called for the production of books in the Latin
language, which could be prepared by Latin scribes.
The two sets of influences, the one mercantile, the
other intellectual and patriotic, worked together,
and were somewhat intermingled as cause and effect.
The peculiar relation borne to the earlier intellec-
tual development of Rome by the literature of a
foreign people has never been fully" paralleled in
later history. The use of Greek in Italy as the
language of learning and of literature, was, as said,
very similar to the general acceptance of Latin by
the scholars of mediaeval Europe as the only tongue
worthy of employment for literary purposes. But I
can find no other instance in which the literature of
one people ever became so completely and so exclu-
sively the authority for and the inspiration of the
first literary life of another. During the eighteenth
century, North Germany had, under the direction of
its Court circles accepted French as the language of
refined society, and German literature was to some
extent fashioned after French models ; but important
as this influence appeared to be, at the time, say, of
Frederick the Great, it does not seem as if it could
172 Authors and Their Public
have had any large part in shaping the work of the
German writers of the following half century.
The literary life of the American Republic has,
of course, during a large portion of its independent
existence, as in the old colonial days, drawn its
inspiration from the literature of its parent state,
Great Britain. There has been, in this instance, as
in the relation between Rome and Greece, on the
part of the younger community, first, an entire ac-
ceptance of and dependence upon the literary pro-
ductions of the older state; later, a very general
appropriation and adaptation of such productions ;
still later (and in Q&rt part passu with such appropri-
ation), a large use of the older literature as the
model and standard for the literary compositions of
the writers of the younger people; while, finally,
there has come in the latter half of the nineteenth
century for America, as in the second half of the
first century for Rome, the development, in the face
of these special difficulties, of a truly national
literature. For America, as for Rome, this develop-
ment was in certain ways furthered by the knowl-
edge and the influence of the great literary works of
an older civilization, while for America, as for Rome,
the overshadowing literary prestige of these older
works, and the commercial difficulties in the way of
Rome 173
securing public attention and a remunerative sale
for books by native authors in competition with the
easily " appropriated " volumes of older writers of
recognized authority, may possibly have fully offset
the advantage of the inspiration.
In certain important respects the comparison fails
to hold good. For America the literary connection
with and inspiration from Great Britain was in every
way a natural one. In changing their skies, the
Americans could not change their mother-tongue,
and in the literature of England, prior to 1/76, they
continued to claim full ownership and inheritance.
The peculiar condition for Rome was its acceptance,
as the foundations of its intellectual life, of the
literature of a conquered people, with which people
its own kinship was remote, and whose language
was entirely distinct.
The estimate in which the Greeks were held by
their conquerors is indicated in the fact that, while
the Greeks held all but themselves to be barbarians,
by the Romans the term was applied to all but
themselves anci the Greeks.
While a republican form of government has not
usually been considered as unfavorable for intel-
lectual activity, history certainly presents not a few
instances in which an absolute monarch has had it
174 Authors and Their Public
In his power, through the direct use of the public
resources, to further the literary production of the
State in a way which would hardly have been practi-
cable for a republic. It is not to be doubted, for
instance, that a ruler in Rome, with the largeness of
mind and persistency of will of Ptolemy Philadel-
phus, could by some such simple measures as those
which proved so effective in Alexandria, have
hastened by half a century or more the development
of a national literature in Italy. But, until the
establishment of the Empire, the rulers of the Re-
public had their hands too full with the work of
defending the State and of extending its sway, to be
able to give thought to, or to find funds for any
schemes for, "Museums," Academies, or Libraries,
planned to supply instruction for the community,
and to secure employment and incomes for literary
men, under whose direction literary undertakings
could be carried on at the expense of the public
treasury.
No institution of learning received any endowment
from the treasury of the Roman Republic, and the
scholars who undertook literary work received no
aid or encouragement from the government. Under
the limitations and conditions controlling the literary
life of the time, it is not to be wondered at that the
Rome 175
many attractions held out by the Ptolemies should
have caused Alexandria rather than Rome to be-
come the literary centre of the world, a distinction
which it seems hardly to have lost until, half a cen-
tury after, through the conquest of Egypt by Octa-
vius (B.C. 30), it had fallen to the position of a
capital of a Roman province.
A still further consideration to be borne in mind
in connection with the slow development of Roman
literature, is the attitude of Roman writers to their
work. Many of those whose names are best known
to us would have felt themselves lowered to be
classed as authors. They were statesmen, advocates,
men about town, or, if you will, simple citizens, who
gave some of their leisure hours to literary pursuits.
To the Greek author, whether poet, philosopher, or
historian, literature was an avocation, an honored
and honorable profession. The Roman writer pre-
ferred as a rule to consider his writing as a pastime.
Cicero says : Ut si occupati profuimus aliquid civibus
nostris, prosimns etiam, si possumus, otiosi. 1
Cornelius Nepos, in writing the life of Atticus,
omits the smallest reference to the connection of
Atticus with literature, as if any association with
authorship or with publishing was either of no im-
1 Tusc., i., 5.
176 Authors and Their Public
portance, or might even have impaired the
tion of an honored Roman.
It was this feeling that authorship was not in itself
an avocation worthy of a Roman citizen, which
unquestionably stood very much in the way of any
arrangements under which authors could secure
compensation for their productions, and doubtless
postponed for a considerable period the recognition
by the publishers and the reading public of any
property rights in literature. The evidences, or, as
it would be more exact to say, the indications, con-
cerning such compensation for Roman writers are
but fragmentary and at best but inconclusive. They
will be referred to later in this chapter.
The first Latin playwright whose name has been
preserved, was Titus Livius Andronicus of Tarentum.
Andronicus added to his labors as a dramatist the
work of an instructor of Greek literature, and he
prepared for school use (about 250 B.C.) an abridg-
ment of the Odyssey. A volume of this kind, writ-
ten for use as a text-book, could hardly have been
undertaken for the sake of the literary prestige, but
must have been published for the purpose of secur-
ing profit from the sale of copies. If this inference
is a just one, the book will stand as the earliest
known instance in Latin literature of property in the
Rome 1 77
work of an author, and the example is peculiarly
characteristic, because the work of Andronicus, like
the literature of his country, rested upon a Greek
foundation.
A large proportion of the works of the early
Roman dramatists have been identified as being ver-
sions, more or less exact, of known Greek originals,
and in a number of cases the substance of Greek
productions of which the titles and perhaps some
descriptive references have come into record but the
original texts of which have disappeared, have been
preserved only by means of these Latin versions.
The presumption is strong that very few of the
dramatic writings which appeared in Rome during
the century following the date of Andronicus, say
280 B.C. to 1 80 B.C., even of those whose Greek con-
nection has not been traced, were not in great part
based upon Greek originals. 1 It would not be easy
to decide whether this exceptional relation between
the two literatures, and this enormous indebtedness
of the younger to the older, furthered or hindered
the wholesone development of the literary produc-
tiveness of Italy. It seems probable that the gain
in refinement, and in the cultivation of literary form,
was largely offset by the check to the work of the
1 Simcox, 32 et seq.
178 Authors and Their Public
creative faculty and the lessening of sturdiness and
individuality. Emerson's saying that " every man
is as lazy as he dares to be," was probably as true of
the writers of Rome as it would have been of any
other group of writers placed in a similar position.
It is much easier to build one's house from the
finished blocks of the neighboring ruin, than to do
the original hewing of new stones out of the side of
the mountain.
The next name of importance among the writers
of the period of the Punic Wars was Ennius, often
spoken of as " the father of Latin literature." Of
his dramatic work Simcox remarks : " A play of
Ennius was generally a play of Euripides simplified
and amplified." ' It is in order to remember that
Ennius, though doing all his literary work in Latin,
was himself not a Latin, but a Calabrian that is, at
least half Greek in his ancestry and early environ-
ment. The work by which he is best known is the
Annals, a historical or rather legendary poem, giving
evidence of the Greek bias of the author in under-
taking to present history (from Romulus to Scipio)
as a poem rather than as a chronicle of facts in sober
prose. Ennius translated a Sicilian Cookery-book
(issued about 175 B.C.), a piece of work which, as the
1 Simcox, 34.
Rome 1 79
translator was poor, earning a modest livelihood by
teaching, could only have been undertaken as a busi-
ness commission. Whether it was paid for by a
bookseller or by a patron is not recorded, but the
probability is in favor of the latter, as Ennius, while
frequently mentioning his patrons, makes no refer-
ence to any booksellers. An early instance of the
possibility of making money by writing is afforded
by Plautus, whose comedies date between 202 and
184 B.C. He is reported to have written plays with
such success as to have been able with the proceeds
to set himself up as a miller, and when his business
failed, he returned to play-writing until he had again
secured a competence. 1 His success was the more
noteworthy, as it was difficult to understand how
there could have been much demand for comedies in
Rome during the anxious years when Hannibal was
encamped at Capua. Caecilius, who was a late con-
temporary of Plautus, is for us little more than a
name, as of his comedies, commended by others as
great, but fragments have been preserved. Terence
was one of the writers possessing a large apprecia-
tion of Greek literature. He translated a hundred
plays, chiefly from Menander, but there is nothing
to tell us how far his literary undertakings proved
1 Simcox, 46.
180 Authors and Their Public
commercially successful. 1 A historical work of sub-
stantial importance was the Origines of Cato the
Censor, completed about 149 B.C. (three years before
the fall of Carthage and of Corinth), which dealt
with the institutions of Rome and with the origin
of the allied Italian States. This was followed by
the Annales Maximi of Mucius Scaevola (issued in
133 in no less than eighty books), by further Annals
by Calpurnius Piso, and by the Histories of Hostius
(125) and of Antipater (123). I have, of course, no
intention of presenting in a sketch like this, a sum-
mary of early Roman literature, or a schedule of
Latin writers. I only desire to point out that
during the century preceding the birth of Cicero
(106), while there is no definite information concern-
ing the existence in Rome of any organized book
trade, or of publishing machinery, by means of which
books could be manufactured and sold, and business
relations be established between the authors and
their public, a number of important literary enter-
prises, involving no little labor and expense, were
undertaken. I think there are fair grounds for the
inference that the continued production of books
addressed to the general public implied the existence
of a distribution machinery for reaching such public,
and that there were, therefore, publishers in Rome
1 But six have been preserved. Ritschl, Op. 3, 257.
Rome 181
who found it to their advantage to pay authors for
literary labor many years before the founding of the
firm of that prince of publishers, Atticus, whose
business methods are described by Cicero.
In Rome, as in Athens, the men who first inter-
ested themselves in publishing undertakings, or at
least in the publishing of higher class literature, were
men who combined with literary tastes the control
of sufficient means to pay the preparation of the
editions. Their aim was the service of literature and
of the State, and not the securing of profits, and, as a
fact, these earlier publishing enterprises must usually
have resulted in a deficiency. As the size of the
editions could easily be limited to the probable de-
mand, and further copies could always be supplied
as called for, it seems at first thought as if the ex-
pense need not have been considerable. The high
prices which, under the competition of a literary
fashion, it became necessary to pay for educated
slaves trained as scribes, constituted the most serious
item of outlay. Horace speaks of slaves competent
to write Greek as costing 8000 sesterces, about
$4OO. 1 Calvisius, a rich dilettante, paid as much as
10,000 sesterces, $500, for each of his servi literati?
1 Epistles, ii., 2, 5.
2 Seneca, Epist., 27.
1 82 Authors and Their Public
In one of the laws of Justinian, in which the relative
price of slaves is fixed for estates to be divided,
notarii, or scribes, are rated fifty per cent, higher
than artisans. 1
Certain proprietors found it to their advantage,
partly for their own service and partly for the sake
of making a profit later through their sale, to give to
intelligent young slaves a careful education. Such a
training, in order to produce a really valuable scribe,
had to include a good deal beside reading and pen-
manship. A servus literatus, to be competent to
prepare trustworthy copies, needed to have a good
knowledge of Greek, and such acquaintance with the
works of the leading authors, Greek and Latin, as
would enable him to decipher with some critical
judgment doubtful passages in difficult manuscripts.
It is probable that better work, that is more accurate
work, was done by these selected scribes of the house-
hold than by the copyists employed by the book-
dealers. Strabo tells us that as the making of books
became a common undertaking, there was constant
complaint at the inaccuracies and deficiencies of the
copies offered for sale, which had in many cases been
prepared by ignorant scribes writing hastily and
carelessly, and which had not afterwards been col-
1 Cod. Just., vi., 43.
Rome 183
lated with the original text. 1 Strabo refers to book-
making establishments in Rome as early as 80 B.C.,
which was before the founding of the concern of
Atticus, but he does not give us the names of their
managers.
Marcus Crassus, whose staff of skilled slaves in-
cluded readers, copyists, and architects, took upon
himself the general supervision of their education,
and presided over their classes of instruction. 2 As
is shown by the correspondence of Cicero, Atticus,
Pliny, and others, these educated slaves frequently
came into very close personal relations with their
masters, and were cherished as valued friends. The
writers who were employed in the duplicating of
books were called librarii, correspondence clerks,
amanuenses, and the official clerks of public function-
aries, scribce. An inscription quoted by Gruter indi-
cates that the work of book-copying was sometimes
confided to women Sextia Xanta scriba Libraria.
Copyists who devoted themselves to deciphering and
transcribing old manuscripts, were known as anti-
quarii. The term notarii was applied to those who
wrote at dictation, taking reports of speeches and of
public meetings, testimony of witnesses, notes of
1 Strabo, L. xiii., 419.
8 Plutarch, Crassus, 2.
184 Authors and Their Public
judicial proceedings, etc. They were called notarii
because they took notes, often in a kind of short-
hand. Such a man was Tiro, a freedman of Cicero.
The man whose name is most intimately connected
with the work of publishing in the time of Cicero
was Titus Pomponius Atticus, who is perhaps best
known to us through his correspondence with Cicero.
Atticus organized (about 65 B.C.) a great book-manu-
facturing establishment in Rome, with connections
in Athens and Alexandria. He was himself a thor-
ough scholar, and it was because he was so well
versed in the Greek language and literature that the
name Atticus had been given to him. It is probable
that his earliest publishing ventures were editions of
the Greek classics, and it is certain that these always
formed a very important proportion of his under-
takings. He had himself brought from Greece an
extensive and valuable collection of manuscripts,
which he placed at the service of Cicero and of other
of his literary friends, and the development of the
work of his scribes from the transcription of a few
copies for their friends to the publication of editions
for the reading public was a very natural one.
The editions issued by Atticus, which came to be
known as "Attikians," 'Arrmiavd, secured wide
repute for their accuracy, and came to be referred
Rome 185
to as the authoritative texts. The term "Attikians "
appears to have been used as we might to-day, in
referring to Teubner's Greek classics, say " the
Teubners." Haenny speaks ' of the " Attikians " as
welcomed by scholars for their accuracy and com-
pleteness. H. Sauppe tells us that the text of the
oration of Demosthenes against Androtion is based
upon the issue of Atticus. 2 Harpocration refers to the
"Atticus texts" of this oration, and also of ^Eschines.'
Galen makes mention of the Atticus edition of Plato's
Timczus* Haenny points out that some question has
been raised as to whether the term "A ttikiana " always
referred to the editions of Titus Pomponius Atticus. 5
He concludes, with Birt, that this term may, later,
having come to stand for accurate texts and care-
fully prepared editions, have occasionally been ap-
plied to issues of a later period which could prop-
erly be so described or as a term of compliment.
When, however, it was used in connection with
works presumably issued between 65 and 35 B.C., it
must be understood as referring to the publications
of Titus Pomponius. Fronto always spoke of him
1 Haenny, pp. 31, 32.
2 Sauppe, Epist. Crit., p. 49.
3 Harpocration, pp. rq, 24, 32, 15.
4 Daremberg, Commentaire, Paris, 1848, p. 12.
5 Haenny, 33.
1 86 Authors and Their Public
simply as Atticus, and he is so referred to several
times by Plutarch. Hemsterhuis * quotes a reference
by Lucian. "You appear to think," says Lucian to
the " book-fools," bibliomaniacs, " that it is essential
for scholarship to possess many books. Therein,
however, you show your ignorance."
Atticus brought to Rome skilled librarii from
Athens, and gave personal attention to the training
of young slaves for his staff of copyists. He seems
also to have sent manuscripts for copying to both
Athens and Alexandria, probably while he was still
completing the organization of his own staff. Such
commissions may also have been due to the fact
previously referred to, that of many works the well
authenticated texts could be found only in those
two cities, and after the time of Philadelphus, more
particularly in Alexandria.
Atticus was a large collector of books, and won
also some reputation as an author, although his prin-
cipal work, a series of chronological tables, belonged
perhaps rather to records than to literature proper.
Cicero speaks warmly both of the excellent literary
judgment and of the warm liberality of his publish-
ing friend, and it seems certain that Atticus took an
important part in furthering the development of
1 Anecd. t i., 24.
Rome 187
Latin literature, and in organizing the publishing
machinery which was thereafter to make it possible
for Latin writers to secure some remuneration for
their labors. He seems, in fact, in every way to
have been a model publisher, and to have well de-
served the honor of being the first of his guild whose
name has been preserved in the history of Latin lit-
erature. While giving due credit to his wide-minded
liberality in his dealings with authors, and to his
public-spirited expenditure in behalf of literature, it
is in order to bear in mind that with Atticus pub-
lishing, while probably carried on with good business
methods, was rather a high-minded diversion than a
money-making occupation. His chief business was
that of banking, in which he became very wealthy.
It is not so difficult to be a Maecenas among pub-
lishers if one is only a Maecenas to begin with. It is
probable from the little that can be learned concern-
ing the expenses of book-making and the possibili-
ties of book-selling, that the publishing interests
of Atticus brought him (as far at least as money is
concerned) denciencies instead of profits, but he
doubtless considered that he was, nevertheless,
a gainer by literature when he had taken into ac-
count at its full value the friendship of Cicero.
Among the earlier writings of Cicero certainly pub-
1 88 Authors and Their Public
lished by Atticus were the Letters, the De Ora-
tore, the Academic Discourses, and the Oration for
Ligarius. 1
Cicero seems to have been especially well satisfied
with the account of sales rendered for this last, for
he writes : " You have done so well with my Dis-
course for Ligarius, that I propose hereafter to place
in your hands the sale of all my writings " Ligari-
anam prceclare vendidisti ; posthac, quidquid scripsero,
tibi prceconium defer am?
Several pieces of information are given by this
letter. It appears that Cicero was in the habit of
securing remuneration from the sale of his published
works, and that this remuneration was proportioned
to the extent of the sales, and must therefore have
been in the shape either of a royalty or of a share of
the net profits. It is further clear from the emphasis
given to his decision that Atticus should publish his
future works, that some other publishing arrange-
ments were within his reach, and therefore that
there were already other publishers whose facilities
were worth consideration in comparison with those
of Atticus.
In this same letter Cicero tells his publishers that
he has discovered an error in this Ligarian Oration
1 Ad Atlicum, xii., xv., xvi.
* Ad Atticutn, xiii., 12,2.
Rome 189
(he had spoken of a certain Corfidius who had been
dead for some years as if he were still living), and
that before any more copies were sold, at least three
of the librarii must be put to work to make the
necessary correction, from which it appears that the
" remainder " of the edition comprised a good many
copies.
A passage in another letter shows that the ancient,
like the modern, publisher had to keep a record of
complimentary copies given away under instructions
of the author, so as to avoid the risk of including
these among the copies accounted for as sold. " I
am obliged to you," writes Cicero, " for sending me
the work by Serapion. I have given orders that the
price of. this should be paid to you at once, so that
you should not have it entered on your register of
complimentary copies." J
While the De Orator e was in course of publication,
Cicero discovered that a quotation had been ascribed
to Aristophanes which should properly have been
credited to Eupolis. Some copies had already been
sold, but Cicero begs Atticus to have the correction
made in all the copies remaining in the shop, and, as
far as possible, to have the buyers looked up so that
their copies might also be corrected.
Simcox says that " Cicero's smaller treatises, the
1 Ad Atticum, ii., 4.
190 Authors and Their Public
Lcelius and the Cato, were probably, like the De
OJficiis, based upon Greek works, which he adapted
with a well founded confidence that as a great
writer he could improve the style, and that a Roman
of rank ought to be able to improve the substance." *
The suggestion is interesting as indicating a change
in the mental attitude of a Roman writer towards
Greek literature.
Cicero used Atticus not only as a publisher but
as a literary counsellor and critic, and evidently
placed great confidence in his friend's critical judg-
ment. He speaks of waiting in apprehension for
the " crayon strokes " (across the papyrus sheets)
Cerulas enim tuas miniatas illas cxtimescebam?
Atticus criticises freely, indicates misused words
and erroneous historic references, and suggests
emendations. 8
It seems evident, from the wording of certain ref-
erences, that the copies prepared for sale were usually
at least themselves the property of the bibliophile.
Cicero speaks of libri tui* and says also, ilia qua
habes de Academicis? On the other hand, the au-
1 Simcox, i., 174.
* Ad Atl., xvi., II, i.
8 AdAtticum, xii., 5, 3 ; xiii., 21, 3 ; xvi., 2, 6.
4 Ad Atticum, xii., 6, 3.
* Ad Atlicum, xiii., 13.
Rome 191
thor and publisher, occasionally, at least, assumed
equal shares of the cost of the paper (papyrus).
Cicero writes to Atticus, quoniam impensam fecimus
in macrocolla, facile patior teneri. 1 This share
taken by the author in the outlay in addition to
his investment of literary labor, may very properly
have been taken into account in arriving at a di-
vision of the profits, but we have no figures to show
on what basis such division was made. While the
Discourse on Ligarius produced, as we have seen, a
profit, the publication of the first series of Academic
Discourses (Academica Priord] resulted in loss, and
the full amount of this loss appears to have been
borne by the publisher. Cicero, referring to the
large portion of the edition remaining unsold, writes,
tu illam jacturam feres cequo animo, quod ilia, quce
habes de Academicis, frustra descripta sunt ; multo
tamen hcec (i. e., academica posteriora, the later or
the revised series) erunt splendidiora, breviora,
meliora? " You will bear the loss with equanimity,
since the copies that you have left on your hands of
the Academic Discourses comprise in fact but a por-
tion of the venture. The revised editions of these
will be more brilliant, more compact, and in every
1 Ad Atticum xiii., 25, 3, quoted by Birt, p. 353.
* Ad Atticum, xiii., 13.
1 92 Authors and Their Public
way better." Cicero wishes to show that this re-
vision should certainly prove popular and salable,
and should more than make up the loss incurred on
the first edition.
Birt points out ' the difference in the publishing
arrangements entered into by Cicero from those re-
ferred to by Martial. Cicero has apparently a direct
business interest in the continued sale of his books,
an interest, therefore, probably based upon a per-
centage. Martial, on the other hand, appears to
have accepted from the publishers some round sum,
zprcemium libellorum, for each of his several works,
a sum which is evidently too small to make him
happy. On this ground he says it is, from a pecu-
niary point of view, a matter of indifference to him
whether his writings find few readers or many Quid
prodest? nescit sacculus ista meus* Unfortunately
no catalogue or even partial list of the publishing
ventures of Atticus has been preserved, and the ref-
erences in the letters of Cicero are almost the sole
source of information in regard to them. Cicero
speaks of the treatise of Aulus Hirtius upon Cato as
one of the publications of Atticus. 8 Birt finds record
of the issue by him of a series of carefully edited
1 Birt, 354. * Martial, xi., 3, 6.
* Ad Atticutn, xii., 41 ; i., 45.
Rome 193
Greek classics (published in the original), for the
texts of which the trustworthy manuscripts of the
Athenian " calligrapher," or copyist, Callinus were
followed. 1 Birt is also my authority for the conclu-
sion that Atticus did not confine his book business
to his publishing house, but that he established retail
shops, tabernarii, in different quarters of Rome, and
possibly also in one or two of the great provincial
capitals. 3
While no publisher of the time occupied any such
prominent position in the world of letters as Atti-
cus, it seems evident from the references made by
Roman authors to the arrangements for the sale of
their books, that other publishing concerns already
existed in Rome, although no other names have
been preserved. It is probable that no one of his
contemporaries possessed the exceptional advantages
afforded by the wealth of Atticus in carrying on lit-
erary undertakings of uncertain business value, and
it is probable also that the competition of a pub-
lisher to whom the financial result of his venture
was a matter of ^mall importance, must frequently
have been perplexing to the dealers whose capital
was limited and whose income was dependent upon
their publishing business. In fact, the exceptional
1 Birt, 284. 2 /to/., 357.
13
194 Authors and Their Public
business methods of Atticus may easily for a time
have discouraged or rendered difficult the develop-
ment on sound business foundations of publishing
in Rome.
Important as the undertakings of Atticus unques-
tionably were for the furthering of the production
and the distribution of literature, in Rome, we
should have known practically nothing concerning
his work as a publisher if it were not for the fortu-
nate preservation of the series of letters written to
him by Cicero. If these letters had been destroyed,
the name of Atticus would have come into the his-
tory of his time only as that of a rich banker and a
public-spirited citizen. The honorable friendship
between this old-time publisher and his most im-
portant author was of service to literature in more
ways than one. Other Roman publishers of greater
importance must have taken up the work of Atticus,
but no similar series of letters has been preserved to
commemorate their virtues and their services. Bois-
sier ' is of opinion that Tiro acted as publisher for
certain of Cicero's writings; he uses the phrase
Tiron et Atticus ; les deux tditeurs de Cictron. The
evidences, however, concerning Tiro's career as a
publisher do not appear to be conclusive. Tiro was
1 Recherches, p. 27.
Rome 1 95
a favorite slave of Cicero, a Greek by birth, and evi-
dently a man of education. He served as Cicero's
secretary, and, as the correspondence shows, was
regarded by his master as a valued friend. As sec-
retary, he unquestionably had during Cicero's life-
time a full share of responsibility in preparing
Cicero's writings for publication, and after the death
of his master he appears to have acted as a kind of
literary executor.
It is probably to this class of service that Quin-
tilian referred when he spoke of him as the compiler
and publisher of the writings of Marcus Tullius. 1
Gellius, in quoting the fifth oration against Verres,
speaks of the edition or the " book " as one of ac-
cepted authority, prepared under the supervision
and personal knowledge of Tiro. 2
Haenny is of opinion that Tiro never had any
publishing business, but that his services were
simply those first of a secretary and later of an
editor and literary executor. Seneca is authority
for the statement that after the death of Cicero his
works and the right to their continued publication
were bought from Atticus by the bookseller Dorus ; 8
see also Birt. 4 This same Dorus was, says Seneca,
1 Orationes, vi., 3, 3. * N. A., i., 7. i.
Benef., vii., 6. 4 Birt, 358, n. 2.
196 Authors and Their Public
the publisher of the history of Livy : Sic potest T.
Livius a Doro accipere aut cmere libros suos.
The writings of Catullus and the famous treatise
on the Nature of Things of Lucretius were the most
important of the works published between 75 and
50 B.C. during the time of Cicero's correspondence
with Atticus. Lucretius appears to have had little
personal vanity concerning his work, which did not
appear until after his death. It is probable, but not
certain, that the former was issued by Atticus.
Graud says that there were at this time in Rome
a large number of public writers, or professional
copyists (librarii\ who devoted themselves to tran-
scribing for sale the older classics, and who also took
commissions from authors for the production of
small editions of volumes prepared for private cir-
culation. 1 Their work might in fact be compared to
that of the typewriters of to-day, whose signs are
multiplying in all our large cities. These "writers "
were principally Greeks, and it was probably for
this cause that their Latin work not infrequently
evoked criticism. Cicero, writing to his brother
Quintus, concerning some Latin books which Quin-
tus had asked him to purchase, says it was difficult
to know where to go for these, because most of the
1 Geraud, 171.
Rome
197
texts offered for sale were so bad ita mendose et
scribuntur et veneunt. 1
These librarii took upon themselves the work not
only of transcribing but of binding and decorating
the covers of the books sold by them. The contrast
between a scribe of this kind, working at book-
making in his stall like a cobbler making shoes, and
the great establishment of the banker-publisher At-
ticus, must have been marked enough.
Non modo hoc tibi, sake, sic abibit ;
Nam, si luxerit, ad librariorum
Currant scrinia, Ccesios, Aquinos
Suffenum, omnia colligam venena^
Ac te his suppliciis remunerabor?
Atticus died, full of years and honors, in the year
32 B.C. If he had only had the consideration to
leave some memoirs for posterity, we should have
much more satisfactory knowledge than is now pos-
sible concerning the relations of Roman authors
with their publishers and with the public during the
first century before Christ. We have not even,
however, any of his letters to Cicero, letters which
would of course have had a special interest in mak-
ing clear the nature of his publishing arrangements
with his authors.
1 Ad Quintum, in, 5, 6. 2 Catullus, ed. Vossius, 14.
Authors and Their Public
In the year 48 B.C. appeared a work whose vitality
has proved exceptional, and which, thanks to the
school-boys, is to-day, nineteen hundred years after
the death of its author, in continued demand. I refer
to Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic Wars. This
book could certainly have been made a magnificent
"property" for its author, but as he was literally
intent upon " wanting the earth," the ownership
of one book was hardly worth any special thought.
As a fact, we have no details whatever of Caesar's
publishing arrangements, although we do know that
by means of some distributing machinery copies of
the Commentaries speedily reached the farthest
(civilized) corners of the Roman dominion.
Virgil's AZneid was, we are told, given to the
world through Varius andTucca, about 18 B.C. The
sixth book was read to Augustus and Livia in 22,
the year of the death of Marcellus. The publication
of the ALneid took place at a time when the machin-
ery for the production and distribution of books was
beginning to be adequately organized. It seems
evident that it was only after the institution of the
Empire that the publishers of Rome were in a posi-
tion to reach with their editions any wide public
outside of Rome and the principal cities of Italy.
About the year 40 B.C. the poet Horace, then
Rome 199
twenty-five years old, came to Rome with the hope,
as he states, of obtaining a living through literature.
His estate at Venusia had been confiscated, owing
to his having borne arms at Philippi on the defeated
side, and he was now dependent upon his own
exertions. 1 He found at Rome a literary circle of
growing importance. It was the beginning of the
Augustan age, and literature was the fashion with
the court circles of the new Empire, and therefore
with the society leaders who took the court fashions
for their model. Through the kindness of Virgil,
the young poet was introduced to Maecenas, the
wealthy statesman whose princely patronage of
literature has become proverbial.
The liberality of Maecenas supplied the immediate
needs of the poet, and he appears never to have had
an opportunity of finding out whether, apart from
the aid of patronage, he could actually have sup-
ported himself through the sale of his poems. In
fact, a little later, when for a time at least he pos-
sesses, through the friendship of Maecenas, an assured
income he appears to have taken the position of re-
fusing to permit his books to be sold, and of writing
only for the perusal of his friends. 2
His first expectancy, however, in regard to the
1 Epist., 2, 2, 49. * Simcox, i., 287.
2OO Authors and Their Public
possibilities of a literary career, give grounds for the
belief that at the time of the beginning of the
Empire the publishing machinery of the capital was
already adequately organized, and that the writers
whom Horace found in Rome, including Virgil,
Tibullus, Propertius, Varius, Valgius, and many
others, were securing, apart from the gifts of the
emperor or of other patrons of literature, some
compensation from the reading public. On this
point, however, Horace has himself given other
evidence, which, if somewhat unsatisfactory concern-
ing the matter of author's compensation, is at least
clear as to the existence of machinery for the making
and distributing of books, and which also indicates
that his resolution not to offer his books for sale had
not been adhered to. He refers to the brothers
Sosii as his publishers, and complains that while
his works brought gold to them, for their author
they earned only fame in distant lands and with
posterity.
Hie meret cera liber Sosits, hie et mare transit,
Rt longum noto scriptori prorogal avum.*
A complaint so worded is of course perfectly com-
patible with the existence of a publishing arrange-
ment under which Horace was to receive an author's
1 Art. Poet., 345.
Rome 201
share of any profits accruing. Precisely similar com-
plaints are frequent enough to-day when all new
books are issued under the protection of domestic
copyright and under publishing agreements, and
while sometimes an indication that the publisher has
managed to secure more than his share of the pro-
ceeds of literary labor, they are much more frequently
simply the expression of the difference between the
author's large expectations concerning the public
demand for his books and the actual extent of such
demand.
If publishing statistics could be brought into print,
they would show numberless instances in which the
author's calculations concerning the number of
copies of their books which the public " could be
depended upon " to call for, or " must certainly have
called for," were as much out of the way as have
been the estimates of defeated generals as to the
numbers of the forces by which they had been over-
whelmed. It is certainly to be regretted that the
brothers Sosii* have not left us some records from
which could be gathered their side of the story of
their dealings with the court poet. There are
instances in later times of firms which have found
the honor of being publishers for a poet-laureate
bringing more prestige than profit.
2O2 Authors and Their Public
The shop of the Sosii was in the Vicus Tuscus,
near the entrance to the temple of Janus. In the
first book of Horace's Epistles we find the lines:
Vertumnum Janutnque, liber, spectare videris,
Scilicet ul prostes Sosiorum pumice mundus. 1
Horace finds occasion to inveigh against plagiarists
as well as against publishers, and here his indigna-
tion is probably better founded. The literature of
Rome was, as before pointed out, based on a long
series of " appropriations " and adaptations from the
Greeks, and the habit, thus early initiated, doubtless
became pretty deeply rooted. Virgil complains :
Hos ego vcrsiculos feet ; tulit alter honores,
Sic vos non vobis nidificatis aves?
Horace writes : "
O imitatores, servum pecus ut mihi scrpe,
Bilem, scepe jocum vestri mover e tumultus.
It seems probable that by this stage in the devel-
opment of literature, the indignation of an author
against plagiarists was not merely on the ground of
interference with literary prestige or of the wrong-
fulness of a writer's securing honor falsely, but be-
cause plagiarism might involve an actual injury to
1 Epist., i., 19, 19.
9 Lines placed on the doorway to the Palace of Augustus, quoted
in P. Virgilii Maronis Vita, (author unknown) Paris, 1780.
ist., i., 19.
Rome 203
literary property. The first application to literary
theft of the term plagium (from which is derived the
French plagiaire and the English " plagiarism "), was
made by Martial. In the legal terminology of
Rome, plagium was used to designate the crime of
man-stealing, and a plagiarius was one who stole
from another a slave or a child, or who undertook
to buy or to sell into slavery one who was legally
free. The use of so strong a term to characterize
literary "appropriations" is sufficient evidence of
the opinion of Martial that such a proceeding was a
crime. Martial's word has been adopted, but later
generations of writers do not appear to have fully
accepted his views of the criminal nature of the
practice. 1
Simcox is of opinion 2 that the poets of the Au-
gustan age certainly expected to make a certain
profit by the sale of their books. They also had
expectations of profiting by the gifts of the emperor
or of other rich patrons of literature, but there must
have been not a few writers who were not fortunate
enough to secure the favor either of the court or of
the grandees who followed the fashion of the court,
and to whom the receipts from the booksellers would
have been a matter of no little nmportance and
1 Plagius is from TtXdyioS. * Lat. Lit., i., 349.
2O4 Authors and Their Public
might frequently have provided only the means for
continued sojourn in the capital. It could only have
been the receipts from sales that Horace had in
mind when he wrote that mediocrity in poets is in-
tolerable, not only to gods and men, but to book-
sellers, as if to the poets the approval of the book-
sellers was of more importance than that of either
the gods or their fellow-men. 1 It would seem as if
either the gods or the publishers must have been too
lenient during the past eighteen centuries in their
treatment of the poets, for the amount of mediocre
verse turned out from year to year is certainly no
smaller, considered in proportion to the entire mass
of poetry, than it was in the days of Horace.
The scanty references which can be traced in
Latin literature of the first century to the relations
of authors with the book-trade appear, as might be
expected, almost exclusively in the writings of the
society poets. In such chronicles as those of Sallust
and Livy, narratives written for other purposes than
for literary prestige or for bookselling profits, and
which had perhaps almost as much to do with the
politics of the day (" present history ") as with the
history of the State (" past politics "), there was natu-
rally no place for such an insignificant detail as the
1 Simcox, i., 249.
Rome 205
arrangements of the authors for placing their books
upon the market. References to booksellers would
have been equally out of place in such a national
epic as the ^Eneid or a great didactic poem like the
Georgics.
What little is known, therefore, concerning the
bookselling methods of the time must be gathered
from the casual allusions found in the verses of
such writers as Horace, Ovid, Juvenal, and Martial,
and particularly of the last-named.
When (about / A.D.) Ovid was banished by the
aged Augustus to Tomi, a dreary frontier town
somewhere near the mouth of the Danube, he com-
plains that he finds there no libraries, no booksellers.
He is surrounded by the din of weapons and the
tedious talk of soldiers. He has no single associate
who is interested in literature, or whose taste or
judgment he could call upon for literary counsel.
Non hie librorum^per quos inviter alarque,
Copia ; pro libris arcus et arma sonant^
Nullus in hac terra, recilem si carmina, cujus
Intellecturis auribus utar, adest,
From expressions like these, one can gather an im-
pression of the circles the gay society poet had left
behind him in his mourned-for Rome the libraries
and book-shops, where he could always find literary
206 Authors and Their Public
friends to whose appreciative criticism he could sub-
mit his latest lines. The picture recalls the literary
resorts of London in the time of Wycherley and
Congreve.
Ovid sends one of his productions to a friend in
Rome, whom he requests to supervise its publica-
tion. He writes :
" O thou who art an instructor and a priest among
the learned ! I commend to your care this my off-
spring. Bereft of its parent (an exile), it must place
its dependence upon you its guardian. Three of my
(literary) progeny have preceded this. See that my
future productions are given to the world through
yourself." '
Martial presents himself to the public with a
cordial appreciation of his own merits :
Hie is quern legis ille, quern requiris,
Tola notus in orbe Martialis
Argutis epigrammaton libellis?
" This is he whom you read and whom you seek
Martial, famous throughout the world for his bril-
liant volumes of epigrams." He goes on to say :
Ne tamen ignores ubi sim venalis, et erres
Urbe vagus iota, me duce certus cris.*
1 Trist., iv., I, 3. 2 P.p., i., I. * /;>., i., 2.
Rome 207
"Lest, however, you should perchance not know
where I am for sale, and should go astray and
wander over the whole city, you shall be made sure
of your way by my directions." He then adds the
direction :
Libertum docti Lucensis queers Secundum
Liminapost Pads Palladiumque forum.
" Look for Secundus, the freedman of the learned
citizen Lucensis, (you will find him) behind the
threshold of Pax and the forum of Pallas."
Secundus appears to have been the Tauchnitz of
his day, and to have prepared editions in compact
form for travellers :
Qui tecum cupis esse meos ubicunque libellos
Et comites longce quceris habere via:,
Hos erne, quos arctat brembus membrana tabellis.
"You who desire to have my books with you
wherever you are, and to make them the com-
panions of your long journeys, buy those which
have been put up in compact form " (literally, " which
the parchment compresses into small pages ").
Martial was apparently a chronic grumbler, and
the record of his various complaints about his pub-
lishers and his public has been of not a little service
in throwing light upon certain details of the publish-
208 Authors and Their Public
ing methods of his time. He was evidently one of
the writers who kept a close watch on the receipts
from the sales of his books. He maintained that a
poet was perfectly justified in refusing to give pres-
entation copies, because these interfered with the
receipts from his booksellers.
He writes, for instance, to his friend Lupercus:
Occurris quotiens, Luperce nobis
Vis mittam puerum, subinde dicis,
Cut tradas cpigrammaton libellum
Lectum quern tibi protinus remittam ?
Non est quod puerum, Luperce, vexes,
Longum est, si velit ad Pyrum venire,
Et scalis habito tribus, sed altis.
Quod quaris proprius petas licebit ;
Argi nempe soles subire letum.
Contra Casaris est forum tabema
Scriptis postibus hinc et inde totis,
Omnes ut cito perlegas poetas.
Illinc me pete ; nee roges A tree turn,
(Hoc nomen dominus gerit tabernee) ;
De primo dabit, alter o-ve nido
Rasum pumice purpuraque cultum,
Denariis tibi quinque Martialem.
" Tanti non es" ais I Sapis, Luperce.*
" Every time you meet me, Lupercus, you say something about
sending a slave to my house to borrow a volume of my Epigrams.
Do not give your slave the trouble. It is a long distance to my part
of the city, and my rooms are high up on the third story. You can
get what you want close to your abode. You often visit the quarter
of the Argiletum. You will find there, near the Square of Caesar, a
1 L. i., ep. 118.
Rome 209
shop the doors of which are covered on both sides with the names of
poets, so arranged that you can at a glance run over the list. Enter
there and mention my name. Without waiting to be asked twice,
Atrectus, the master of the shop, will take from his first or second
shelf a copy of Martial, well finished, and beautifully bound with a
purple cover, and this he will give you in exchange for five deniers.
What ! Do you say it is not worth the price ? O wise Lupercus ! "
Martial takes occasion to recommend to another
acquaintance (but on an entirely different ground)
the propriety of purchasing rather than appropriating
his productions.
He writes to a certain Fidentinus :
Fama refert nostros te, Fidentine, libellos
Non aliter populo quam recitare tuos.
Si mea vis did, gratis tibi carmina mittam,
Si did tua -vis, haec erne, ne mea sint. 1
" It is said, Fidentinus, that in reciting my verses you always speak
of them as your own. If you are willing to credit them to me, I will
send them to you gratis. If, however, you wish to have them called
your verses, you had better buy them, when they will no longer be-
long to me."
It is possible that Martial intends by this to sug-
gest to Fidentinus the purchase of the author's
" rights " in these verses, " * rights,' which he was
willing to sell for a price." It is more probable,
however, that he wanted to shame the plagiarist at
least into the buying of some copies.
1 L. i., ep. 30.
2io Authors and Their Public
Martial writes in a similar strain to Quintus:
Exigis ut donem nostros tibi, Quinte, libellos.
Non habeo j sed habet bibliopola Tryphon.
^j dabo <pro nugis et eniam tua carniina sanus?
Non, inquis, faciam tarn fatue. Nee ego. 1
" You ask, Quintus, that I shall make you a present of my poems.
I, myself, have no copies, but the bookseller Tryphon has some. You
may say to yourself, ' Shall I give money for such trifles ? ' ' Shall I,
being of sound mind, buy your verses ? ' ' No, indeed,' you conclude,
' I will commit no such folly.' Neither, then, will I."
It was Martial's idea that the proper use of pres-
entation copies was not for needy friends but for
influential patrons, from whom substantial acknowl-
edgments could be looked for in the shape of hono-
raria. He begs the court chamberlain, Parthenius,
to bring his modest little book (timida brevisqnc
chartd) to the attention of the Emperor." He asks
Faustinus to give a copy to Marcellinus, 8 and begs
Rufus to present two copies to Venulejus. 4
The hopes of the author in connection with these
presentation copies are indicated by such lines as the
following :
Editur en sextus sine te mihi Rufe Camoni,
Nee te lectorem sperat, amice, liber. 1
1 L. iv., ep. 72. 2 xii., i. * vii., 80.
4 iv.,82. 5 vi., 85.
Rome an
Or by these :
O quantum tibi nominis paratur
O qua gloria ! quam frequens amator !
Te convivia, te forum sonabit,
^Edes, compita,porticus t taberna,
Uni mitteris, omnibus legeris.
It is evident that a book frequently secured
through such personal distribution on the part of
the author a certain circulation and publication be-
fore copies were placed upon the bookstands, or
before it was given into the hands of any bookseller
acting as its publisher. Haenny is of opinion that
the anxiety of authors like Martial to come into
relations with patrons and to secure from them
honoraria may be taken as indicating that they could
depend upon no receipts from the booksellers. It
seems to me that another interpretation is equally
plausible. We find an author like Martial needy,
eager for money, taking pains to cultivate the favor
of the wealthy and the influential in the hopes of
securing benefits at their hands. We find him also
doing all in his power to push the sale of his books
through the booksellers, telling the public where to
go and how much they will have to pay, himself
writing the publishing announcements of his new
books, and in every way evincing the keenest in-
terest in the sales secured for them. It seems
212 Authors and Their Public
natural enough to conclude that he derived a direct
business advantage from these sales, and such a con-
clusion is in accord with what we know of the
character of the man, and is borne out by various
references in his writings.
In one epigram * Martial laments that no one of
his readers has felt moved, in return for the gratifica-
tion secured from his writings, to make him a present
such as Virgil received from Maecenas : tantum gratis
pagina nostra placet, an expression which has been
interpreted as indicating that this author received no
return either direct or indirect from those buying
his books. In another utterance, however, he mourns
his loss of receipts when for a long time he has pub-
lished no new thing, but even then he considers
that the loss to the public has been much more
serious. 2
In thus speaking of his indifference to the number
of his readers, he appears to have either forgotten,
or as a matter of affectation to have ignored, the fact
that while a large sale for a particular book already
paid for by the publisher, could not increase the
author's gains for that particular work, it would
certainly put him in a position to secure a higher
price from the publisher for his next similar work.
1 v., 16, 10. *xi., 25.
Rome 213
In this way the author would have a very direct
pecuniary interest in securing the largest possible
number of readers even for books which had been
purchased outright by the publisher.
A. Schmidt is one of the students of the subject
who believes there is evidence to show that, accord-
ing to the usual practice, the author received com-
pensation from the publisher not in the form of a
royalty, but as an advance payment on the delivery
of the manuscript or on the publication of the book. 1
Among other quotations he cites the following :
Quamvis tarn longo possis satur esse libello,
Lector, adhuc a me disiicha pauca petis,
Sed Lupus usuram puerique diaria poscunt,
Lector, solve. Taces, dissi mulasque ? Vale.
The reader, however much pleased with the poem
given, is supposed to be expecting a few additional
verses; but the usurer Lupus is calling upon the
poet for his money, and the poet's children are cry-
ing for bread. (Therefore) O reader, make payment
(to me, in need, from whom you have received bene-
fit). (What !) You make no response. You pretend
(not to understand). Farewell ! (" I have no use for
you," would be the modern slang.)
1 Gesch. der Denk- und Glaubensfreiheitim ersten Jahrhundert der
Kaiserherrschaft, p. 138.
214 Authors and Their Public
The passage presents difficulties, and has been
variously interpreted. Schmidt reads for " solve "
" salve" I base my reading on the text given by
Haenny.
In another epigram he notes that the edition of
his Xenii could be bought from his publisher, Try-
phon, for four sesterces (the equivalent of about
twelve and a half cents).
He grumbles at the price as being too high, con-
tending that Tryphon could have secured a fair
profit from half the amount. He adds : " These
verses, O reader, you will, however, find convenient
for presents for your friends, at least if your purse
is as scantily furnished as is my own."
Omnis in hoc gracili xeniorwn turba libello
Constabit nummis quatuor empta tibi.
Quatuor est nimium ? poterit constare duobus,
Et fadet lucrum bibliopola Tryphon.
Gtzc licet hospitibus pro muncre dislicha miitas,
Si tibi tarn rarus quam mi hi nuininus frit. 1
Nulla remisisti parvo pro inunere dona,
Decipies altos vcrbis vultuqtte benigno,
Nam mi hi jam notus dissimulator eris.*
Here we have a reproach (which may also serve as
a suggestion) to the reader. " You have sent me no
l Ep. t xiii., 3. Mv., 88, i.
Rome
215
gift [or honorarium} as an acknowledgment [of the
pleasure given to you]. Others may be deceived by
your words and your smiling countenance [into be-
lieving you to be a fair-minded man who would
recognize his obligations]. To me it is evident you
are a dissembler." (The term is apparently used
here to describe one shirking an obligation.)
Martial is quite clear in his mind that no one who
has read his productions and has not felt an in-
debtedness to their author, and who has not taken
measures to discharge the same, can be an honorable
man.
Et tantum gratis pagina nostr a placet. 1
" My book gives so much pleasure at no cost " (to
the receiver).
Dicitur et nostros cantare Britannia versus.
Quid pr ode st ? nescit sacculus ista meus?
" It is said that (even in distant) Britain my verses
are sung. What advantage is that ? [to me]. My
purse knows nothing of it."
Such a complaint may be interpreted in one of
several ways. The author may have had payment
for his Italian editions, but have been unable to ex-
ercise control over unauthorized issues of his books
1 v., 16, 10. 2 xi., 3.
216 Authors and Their Public
in distant parts of the empire ; or he may have sold
to his distributing publisher, Tryphon, all rights in
the verses, in which case the direct advantage of
extended sales would accrue only to the publisher ;
or there may have been no actual sales in Britain,
but single copies carried by officers or travellers may
have found their way there, and their presence, re-
ferred to in correspondence or by returning travellers,
have given to the author the impression that a large
reading public in the far north was appreciating his
poetry. A very slight reference would serve to
excite the imagination of so self-confident an author
as Martial.
Martial seems to have been in the habit, not un-
known to modern writers, and particularly to English
writers, of pitting one publisher against another, in
order to secure the largest bid for a new work. At
one time he had no less than four publishers in
charge of the sale of his works, Tryphon, Atrectus,
Polius, and Secundus.
The last named issued a special pocket edition of
the Epigrams.
Atrectus, Secundus, and Tryphon have already
been referred to. To the fourth, Quintus Valerianus
Polius, had it seems been given over the earlier pro-
ductions of the poet, which he terms \usjuvemlia.
Rome 2 1 7
He commends Polius to the reading public in the
following lines :
Quczcunque lusi juvenis et puer quondam
Apinasque nosiras, quas nee ipse jam novi
Male collocare si bonas voles horas
Et invidebis otio tuo, lector,
A Valeriano Polio petes Quinto,
Per quern per ire non licet meis nugis. 1
" The trifles that I scribbled in the callow days of
my youth, productions which I myself hardly re-
member, these you may secure (if you have a grudge
against your leisure and are willing to waste a few
hours) from Polius, through whose care my trifles
are preserved from oblivion."
It seems probable that Atrectus gave special at-
tention to the more elaborate and artistic editions,
such as are to-day rather clumsily described as
editions de luxe. It is in his shop that the volumes
are to be found with the ornate purple covers. As
far as can be judged from the references, Atrectus,
Polius, and Secundus had simply a local trade.
Tryphon, on the other hand, we know to have pos-
sessed a publishing and distributing machinery. As
Haenny remarks, it was no small matter to provide
with Martial's writings not only Rome, but Italy,
the provinces, and the outlying corners of the
1 i., 113.
218 Authors and Their Public
empire. While he was still a beginner in literature,
Martial had to be satisfied with the services of Polius,
who continued later to keep in sale the juvenilia.
It was only after the poet had become known in the
fashionable literary world that he was able to secure
the co-operation x of a leading publisher like Tryphon.
If we were to-day referring to such a publishing
relation, we should speak of securing the imprint of
the publisher. As has been explained, however, the
practice of associating with a work the name of its
publisher began with printed books. The Roman
publisher sent out his manuscript copies with no in-
dication of the address of the shop in which they
had been prepared.
The poet tells us that he prepared the advertise-
ments for the booksellers, putting these in the form
of epigrams, but not neglecting to specify the form
and price of each book as well as the place where it
was offered for sale.
Qui lecum cupis esse meos ubicunque libcllos,
Et comites longcc quccris Jiabere vitz t
Hos erne quos arctat brevibus membrana tabellis ;
Scrinia da magnis, me manus una capit,
Libertum docti Lucensis qu&re Secundum
Limina post Pads, Palladiumque forum, '
1 -/., i., 2.
Rome 219
The idea of an epigrammatic advertisement recalls
the announcement (identical with the rhyming title-
page) of the first edition of Lowell's Fable for Critics.
" Reader ! Walk up at once (it will soon be too late) and buy at a
perfectly ruinous rate,
A Fable For Critics, or better
(I like, as. a thing that the reader's first fancy may strike, an old-
fashioned title-page, such as presents
a tabular view of the volume's contents),
A glance at a few of our Literary progenies
(Mrs. Malaprop's word)
From the tub of Diogenes,
A vocal and musical medley, that is
A series of Jokes by a Wonderful Quiz,
Who accompanies himself with a rub-a-dub-dub,
Full of spirit and grace, on the top of the tub.
Set forth in October, the 2ist day,
In the year '48, G. P. Putnam, Broadway."
It is a pity that one of Martial's advertisements
could not have been preserved to compare with the
above, which strikes one as quite Martialesque in its
general style.
According to Schmidt, 1 Martial's activities in con-
nection with the sale of his books did not end even
with the preparation of the advertisements. In cer-
tain cases he was himself engaged in finding buyers
for copies. It is probable that such author's copies
formed part of the compensation paid by the pub-
1 Schmidt, p. 143 ; Martial, vii., 17.
220 Authors and Their Public
lisher for the manuscript, and while by the wealthier
authors these would be bestowed " with compli-
ments " upon their friends, the needy writers like
Martial would be compelled to turn them into cash.
In the eighteenth century in London we find a simi-
lar condition of things in the accounts of what was
then called publishing " by subscription," when the
needy author would, with his hat in one hand and
his subscription list in the other, wait upon his
" gracious patron " in expectation of an order for so
many copies of his new volume at a guinea or more
each.
In spite of the careful training given to their
copyists by a few high-class publishers like Atticus,
the complaints of inaccurate and slovenly texts,
libri mendosi, were frequent. In order to be really
trustworthy, each individual copy of the edition
ought, of course, to have been carefully collated
with and read verbatim by the original, but for an
edition of any size, prepared as rapidly as we are
told some of them were, such thorough verification
was of course impracticable. Martial states ' that a
poem of his (we infer that he means an edition of
the poem), comprising 540 lines, had been produced
in one hour, hcec una peragit hora nee tantum nugis
1 ii., i, 5.
Rome 221
serviet tile meis. Such work would of course have
been done by employing one or more readers to dic-
tate to a number of copyists. The number of copies
in the edition is not stated. It could only have been
on rare occasions that the author himself would un-
dertake to correct the copies. Martial speaks of
doing such correcting work in an exceptional case. 1
Cicero was evidently exacting concerning the ac-
curacy of his copies. He tells Atticus that by no
means must any copies of the treatise De Officiis be
allowed to go out until they had been carefully
corrected.
We find an occasional reference to a " press-cor-
rector " known to Atticus and Cicero by his Greek
name diopdoorrfp. As the author, except in rare
cases, did not get his manuscript again into his hands
after this had gone to his publisher, and saw his
work again only when the edition was completed and
about to be distributed, he was saved from the temp-
tation to make " betterments " by omissions or
additions. All such revision he had attended to
with due care before handing over his manuscript as
" ready for publication," and authors and publishers
of classic times were thus saved the vexation of
" extra corrections," which so frequently forms a
1 vii., II and 17.
222 Authors and Their Public
serious addition to the expense account and to the
annoyance account of modern book-making.
The risks of errors in the transcription must cer-
tainly have been materially increased if in the larger
publishing establishments the practice was followed
of writing from dictation, one " reader " supplying
simultaneous " copy " to a number of scribes. It
seems probable that in no other way would it have
been practicable to produce with sufficient speed and
economy the editions required, and I find myself in
accord with Birt in the conclusion that dictating was
the method generally followed, at least in the more
important establishments and for the larger editions.
The scribes must of necessity have had a scholarly
training, and ought also to have possessed some
familiarity with the texts to which they were listen-
ing ; while with the most skilful and scholarly
scribes a careful revision of their copies would have
been essential.
Haenny is of opinion that dictation was rarely if
ever employed. He lays stress on the fact that
the term employed by Cicero in referring to the
multiplication of copies was describcre, and he con-
tends that this stands simply for copying and
cannot be translated as writing from dictation. 1
1 Haenny, p. 39.
Rome 223
One indication of the size of the editions prepared
of new books is given in the many references to the
various uses found for the " remainders " or unsold
copies. The most frequent fate of unsuccessful
poetry was for the wrapping of fish and groceries,
while large supplies of surplus stock found their
way from the booksellers to the fires of the public
baths. 1 Cooks also were large buyers of remainders
of editions. An author who was voluminous and
who had not been able to secure a publisher, might
even, as the wags suggested, find it convenient to
be burned upon a pile of his own manuscripts. It
is evident that in these earlier days of publishing it
was no easier than at present for authors or publish-
ers to calculate with accuracy the extent of the
public interest in their productions, while it is also
probable that then as now an author would rather
pay for the making of an abundant supply than incur
the dreadful risk of not having enough copies to
meet the immediate demand.
While the Augustan age witnessed a decided de-
velopment in the literary interests of the Roman
community, and while the organization of such
bookselling establishments as those of Atticus,
Tryphon, and the Sosii gave to authors the needed
1 Simcox, p. 249.
224 Authors and Their Public
machinery for bringing their writings before the
public, it is probable that for the larger number of
the writers of the time the receipts from the books
were very inconsiderable.
As before pointed out, question has in fact been
raised by more than one student of the subject as to
whether the Roman authors secured from the sales
of their books any money return at all. Of the
writers who find no satisfactory evidence for such
returns, Haenny is by far the most important. I
am myself, however, inclined to accept the conclu-
sions of Birt, Schmitz, Graud, and others to the
effect that Roman authors, from the time of Caesar
down, were able to secure from the publishers
or booksellers through whom their books were sold
some portion of the proceeds of such sales. The
absence of any protection under the law for either
author or publisher, the competition of unauthorized
editions, the competition (of a different kind) of
books published solely for the amusement or the
literary satisfaction of their wealthy or fashionable
authors, and written without any desire for money
return, and the lack of adequate publishing and dis-
tributing machinery, unquestionably all operated to
make the compensation of such Roman authors as,
like Martial, needed the money, fragmentary, un-
Rome 225
certain, and at best but inconsiderable. The weight
of the evidence, however, seems to me certainly to
favor the conclusion that compensation there was,
and that it served as one of the inducements for
authorship as a career (or as a partial occupation),
and served also to attract to the capital (where
alone publishing facilities could be secured) literary
aspirants from the rest of Italy and from the
provinces. Schmitz gives his views as follows 1 :
Mihi quoque persuasum est, plurimos auctores Ro-
manos glories tantum ac honoris causa scripta sua
bibliopolis divulganda tradidisse, quod tamen non im~
peditj quominus illi interdum pretium a bibliopolis
acceperint. Et vere acceperunt.
In Rome, as centuries before in Greece, the com-
pensation for stage-rights and the rewards for
playwrights were much more assured and more
satisfactory than any that could be secured by
writers of books. Comedy writers like Plautus and
Terence were able to sell their plays to the ^Ediles.
Haenny contends that the payments made by the
^Ediles ough^- not strictly to be described as given
for the purchase of the plays, but as a recognition
on the part of the community, made through its
official representatives, of a service rendered a
1 De Bibliopolis fiomanorum, 10-12.
15
226 Authors and Their Public
recognition that took the shape of an honorarium.
I imagine the playwrights cared very little what the
arrangement was called as long as they got the
money. As a fact, however, it was the business of
the ^Ediles to provide plays for the public theatres,
and I do not see why the arrangements made by
them with Plautus and Terence did not constitute
as definite an acknowledgment on the part of the
State of the rights of dramatic authors as was the
case with similar arrangements made fifteen hundred
years later with Moliere or Beaumarchais by the
State manager of the Theatre Frangais.
Schmitz goes on to say :
Sin autem script a ab auctoribus cuiusvis generis
vendebantur, non video cur non bibliopole quoque Jiuic
illive auctori pro scriptis certam mercedem solverint.
Is it likely, he contends, that Plautus and
Terence, having been paid for their stage-rights
(which they practically transferred or sold to the
State), would have been satisfied to hand over to the
publishers, without compensation, the book-rights of
these same plays, the popularity of which had already
been tested ?
It seems to me possible, however, that in this con-
tention Schmitz proves too much. The publisher
might take the ground that a play which had been
Rome 227
paid for by the ALdiles for the public welfare had
become public property and belonged to the com-
mon domain, and that the author had surrendered
or assigned to the State such rights in it as he had
possessed. Such a theory would have given to the
publisher a fair pretext for declining to pay com-
pensation or honorarium for any play that had
already been paid for by the ^Ediles.
A similar suggestion was made as late as 1892 in
the case of the official poems written by Tennyson
as poet-laureate. It was contended that the nation
paid to the laureate an annual stipend as a specific
consideration for the production of poems on certain
official occasions, and that the poems thus paid for
were the property of the nation. This theory did
not prevent the laureate from securing, first from the
publication in a monthly, and later from a reissue
(with other pieces) in book-form, a large compensa-
tion for his royal birthday odes and jubilee hymns.
I am inclined to think, however, that if the question
had been put to the test, the courts would have
decided that the copyright of these productions had
become vested in the nation, and that the poems
belonged to the public domain.
In calling attention to the frequently quoted
twenty-fourth epigram of Martial, Schmitz says :
228 Authors and Their Public
Quantulumcunque fuit, merebatur nosier libdlis suis et quum
dona ab amicis non acciperet, mereri tantum potuit a bibliopolis, qni
carmina sua vendebant. . . . Qrtce sentcntia probatur alio loco
Martialis, quo damnum se accepisse qtieritur, quum carmina non
scripserit, doletque prope jam triginta diebtts vix utiam paginam
peractam esse.
The epigram in question reads as follows :
Dum te prosequor et domum reduce,
Aurem dum tibi prasto garrienti,
Et quidquid loqueris facisque laudo,
Quot versus poter ant, Labulle, nasci?
Hoc damnum tibi non videtur esse,
Si quod Roma legit, requiril hospes,
Non deridet eques, tenet senator,
Laudat causidicus, poeta carpit,
Propter te perit? Hoc, Labulle, verum est?
Hoc quisquam ferat ? ut tibi tturum
Sit major numerus togatulorum,
Libroruw mihi sit minor meorum ?
Triginta prope jam diebus una est
Nobis pagina vix peracla. Sic fit,
Cum cenare domi poeta non vult.
In translating, I attempt only to present the general
purport.
" During the time in which I am in your company, Labullus, and
while escorting you homeward I am listening to your chattering, and
am expected to give attention and praise to whatever you may be say-
ing or doing, how many verses do you think could I have produced ?
Do you not realize how grievous a loss it is [to both author and public]
that what Rome reads, what the stranger asks for, what the knight
does not scorn, what the Senator cherishes as a possession, what the
lawyer praises, what the poet eagerly seizes, that all this should perish
[i. e., fail to come into existence], O Labullus, through your fault?
Yet is not this the case ? Is it a thing to be approved that simply to
Rome 229
swell the number of your followers, my literary productions should be
diminished ? During a whole month I have hardly been able to com-
plete a page. This is the inevitable result when the poet is tempted
to dine away from home."
The interpretation placed by Schmidt on these
and similar verses, that the damnum stood for a
pecuniary loss to the author, and that productions
which secured for themselves popular favor brought,
therefore, to their authors pecuniary gain, is upheld
by Becker. He maintains that authors were evi-
dently attracted to Rome by the prospects of such
receipts, and that, to a considerable extent at least,
they depended upon the same for their support.
" It is not easy to believe/' Becker continues, " that
a needy author like Martial, always in want of money,
would have been willing to permit Tryphon, Secun-
dus, and Polius to make profits out of his produc-
tions without arranging to secure any portion of
these profits for himself." ' Birt, who, as we have
before seen, is a firm believer in the conclusion that
Roman writers secured compensation for their work,
is of opinion that this compensation must usually
have taken the shape of a pr<zmium> as Martial puts
it, a round payment or honorarium, made probably
on the delivery of the manuscript, rather than that
of a royalty. 2
1 Callus (Deutsche Ausgabe), ii., 450. 2 P. 354-
230 Authors and Their Public
One of Martial's references to the customaiy
pr&mium occurs in these verses. 1 The poet has
been protesting against the weary and unprofitable
role of a client or follower. He asks that Rome
may spare him from any such thankless and trivial
tasks as those which come upon the weary " con-
gratulator," who, for his dreary service, earns through
the day at best but a hundred miserable pennies
(plumbeos), while Scorpus (the gladiator) carries off
in an hour, as victor, fifteen sacks of gleaming gold.
Then follow the lines :
Non ego meorum pramium libeller urn,
(Quid enitn merentur ? } Appulos velim campos,
Non Hybla, non me spicifer capit Nilus,
Nee qucB paludes delicata Pomptinas
Ex arce clivi spectat uva Setini.
Quid concupiscam quarts ergo ? dormire.
" As a reward (pramiuiri) for my books (for what
indeed, are they worth ?) I ask not for the Appulian
fields ; neither Hybla nor the fruitful Nile attracts
me, nor the luscious grapes which from the Setian
hillside hang over the Pontine marshes. You ask
what do I then desire ; I reply to sleep."
These lines should, of course, be interpreted in
connection with the poet's other utterances, which,
as we have seen, are not marked by any lack of
'x. 74.
Rome 231
appreciation of the importance of his literary pro-
ductions. It seems probable that the query, " what,
indeed, are they worth ?" is meant as a merefa^on
de parler, and is intended to be answered with a full
appreciation of the inestimable value of his poems
to the reader and to the community. I judge further
that the poet in naming the attractive things of this
world which he would not demand as his reward,
while, of course, speaking with a certain hyperbole
of phrase, is at the same time making a kind of
undercurrent of suggestion that fruitful hillsides, or
even great provinces, would not, in fact, be a dis-
proportioned reward for talents and services like his.
The lines remind one of what Dickens (in his sketch
of the election of a beadle) describes as the " great
negative style " of oratory. " I will not speak of
his valiant services in the militia, I will not refer to
his charming wife and nine children, two at the
breast," etc. The important detail in the lines,
however, for our present purpose is the reference
to a prcemium or compensation of some kind or
amount as naturally to be looked for and to be
depended upon for successful literary production.
Taking this reference in connection with others of
similar purport, it is, I think, safe to conclude that,
notwithstanding the lack of protection of the law,
232 Authors and Their Public
Martial and other writers of his time who were not
too rich to require such earnings or too proud to
demand them, earned money with their pens, or
rather with their styli.
I add references to a few other instances of pay-
ments or returns to authors.
One of the earliest is mentioned by Suetonius. 1
Pompilius Andronicus, the grammarian, sold his
treatise for 1600 sesterces. This sale must have
comprised the original manuscript, together with
such author's and publishing " rights " as existed.
The younger Pliny is quoted by Birt 2 as saying
that Pliny the elder had, while in Spain, declined an
offer from a certain Lucinus of 40,000 sesterces
(about $1800.00) for his commentaries. Lucinus
was not a publisher, but apparently some enthusiastic
admirer of the author.
In another epigram 8 Martial makes a curious slap
at two contemporary poets :
Vendunt cartnina Callus et Lupercus.
Sanos, Classice, nunc nega poetas.
" Gallus and Lupercus sell their poetry. Now deny,
O Classicus ! that they are real poets (or poets in
their right minds, or poets of common sense )."
1 De Gramm., Reiff., p. 106, 12. 5 P. 355. 3 xii., 46.
Rome 233
As Haenny suggests (citing Schrevel), no one
dares to deny the sanity of a poet who can get
money for his productions, but one might question
the sanity of the publisher who pays the money.
Haenny thinks that Martial is sneering at the
practice (unworthy of poets) of writing for gain.
Such a position seems to me entirely inconsistent
with Martial's other expressions. It seems to me
much more likely that Martial is sneering at the idea
that these particular writers have produced any
poems that are worth money. Lupercus is probably
the same person whom Martial rebuked for trying
to secure his, Martial's, poems without paying for
them.
In one epigram 1 Martial advises a friend, who
comes to him for counsel concerning a profession
for his son, by no means to permit him to become
a poet. If the boy has money-making desires, let
him learn to play on the cithara or the flute. If he
seems to have real capacity, he might become a
herald or an architect.
In another 2 he points out that no money can be
obtained from Phcebus or from Thessalian songs.
It is Minerva who has wealth she alone lends
money to the other gods. In a third 3 he complains
^.,56. 2 i., 76. 3 v., 16.
234 Authors and Their Public
that in writing poetry he may give pleasure to his
readers, but he does so at a serious sacrifice to him-
self, for if he chose, in place of giving his time to
verses, to serve as an advocate, to sell his influence
to anxious defendants, his clients " would become
his purse." As it is, however, he must console him-
self with the thought that his readers are bene-
fited although the poet works practically without
recompense.
Later, the poet likens his literary work to a die
or a cast from a dice-box, the result of the labor
being at best an uncertainty. 1
It was through patronage that literature became
remunerative, and fortunately for the authors the
patronage of literature became, under Octavius, fash-
ionable. I have already referred to the familiar
name of Maecenas, whose influence in interesting his
fellow-patricians and the young Emperor in the liter-
ary productions of the capital was most important.
The fashion of patronage thus initiated continued
to a greater or less extent until the days of Hadrian.
As Simcox expresses it, the poets got into the habit
of expecting to be treated "as semi-sacred pen-
sioners, as they have been at the courts of the
princes of the heroic age of Greece and Scandi-
1 xiii., ii.
Rome 235
navia as they are still at the courts of certain
princes in India who trace their descent up to
the heroic age." 1 In the age of Anne, English
poets passed through a somewhat similar experience,
and during the reigns of the first two Georges,
they were not infrequently haunted by the same
expectations. The bitter line, as paraphrased by
Johnson, after his experience with Lord Chesterfield,
commemorating the evil of the poet's lot, has be-
come proverbial
" Age, envy, want, the patron and the jail."
In Rome when, in the decline of the literary in-
terests of the Court, the hopes of patronage were
finally abandoned, the profession of poetry seems
for a time to have been practically given up.
Juvenal takes as the subject of his seventh satire
the poverty of men of letters. He complains that
the Emperor is their sole stay, and that authors can
make no money and have as a dependence only the
unprofitable patronage of the great. The poets
who recite their verses, the historians, the lawyers,
the rhetoricians who act as instructors for the young,
are made to pass in turn before him, and of each the
condition arouses the compassion of his irritable
1 Simcox, p. 250.
236 Authors and Their Public
muse. In this satire we find references to the
practice among poets of giving public readings of
their productions. " Macalonus will lend you his
palace and will provide some freedmen and some
obliging friends to applaud. But among all these,
you will find no one who will furnish you with
means to pay either for seats in the parquet or
orchestra, or even for places in the gallery." '
Or again, it is Statius who gives a reading of his
Theba'id.
" All the city comes to hear the reading. The audience is enthu-
siastic and applauds vociferously. But Statius would have died of
hunger if he had not been able to sell to the actor Paris his tragedy
of Agave. Paris distributes military honors and puts on the fingers
of poets the ring of knighthood. What the nobles do not give, an
actor may bestow." 2
The author of the dialogue on the decadence of
oratory (attributed to Tacitus) makes mention also
of these public lectures or readings, and of what
they cost to a certain Bassus, for hiring a hall, for
programmes, and for outlays in getting an audience
together.
Rogare ultro et ambire cogitur ut sint qui dignentur
audire ; et ne id quidcm gratis. Nam et domum
mutuatur, et auditorium exstruit, et subsellia conducit,
et libellos dispergit?
1 Juvenal, Saf., vii., 39-47. 8 Juvenal, v., 82-94. 3 Cap. ix.
Rome 237
Apart from the use of authorship as a profession,
it was of course pursued by many as an agreeable
means of beguiling leisure, the results being harm-
less for posterity if not entirely so for the neighbors
of the writer. In this respect, Rome, in the third
century, was not very different from London or New
York in the nineteenth. The dilettante tragedian
frequently restricted his literary ambition to securing
a hearing for his productions before an audience,
whether public or private, and did not venture to
plan for his works any wider publication.
There are not a few references to banquets at
which the guests paid for their dinners by listening,
with due appreciation, to the latest tragedy of their
host.
In some instances at least the guests must have
found occasion really to value their literary as well
as their gastronomic entertainment, as not a few
works which had been left by their authors uncopied
and uncared for, have been preserved for posterity
only through the care of admiring friends.
Donatus says that Virgil had planned before his
death to burn his ^Eneid, unwilling that it should
be published without further revision, and that the
work was only saved by the commands of Augustus. 1
1 Birt, 347.
238 Authors and Their Public
Other writers, either by reason of dread of critical
opinion or from an extreme standard of thorough-
ness, kept their manuscripts in their desks for a
number of years after completing them. As Catul-
lus says, after publication there can be no thought
of further emendation. He speaks of one of Cinna's
volumes as given to the world after the ninth winter
(edita nonam post hiemeni). 1
This term of nine years happens to coincide with
the advice of Horace, that a literary work should be
held back for nine years nonum prcmatur in annum,
for the word once published can never be recalled. 2
Pliny permitted his friend Saturninus to help him
with the revision of his Schedules, but is not even
then assured that he will be satisfied to permit them
to come before the public : Erit enim et post emenda-
tionem liberum nobis vel publicare vel continere " and
after the revision of the books it still rested with us
to decide whether to publish them or to hold them
back." 3
Fronto, who was tutor to Marcus Aurelius, had
written a pamphlet against a certain Asclepiodotus,
and had arranged with a publisher for the issue of
an edition. Hearing later that Verus (the adopted
1 Catullus, 95, quoted by Birt, 345.
Birt, 345. 8 Epist., i., 8, 3.
Rome 239
son of Antoninus Pius) was friendly to Asclepio-
dotus, he hastened to the publisher's office to cancel
the publication, but finds, to his regret, that he is
too late, a number of copies having already gone out
to the public, curavi quidem abolere orationem, sedjam
pervaserat in manus plurimum quam ut aboleri posset. 1
According to Birt, 3 the oldest book-shop that is,
retail book-shop known to have existed in Rome
was that in which Clodius hid himself (58 A.D.).
Later, we find the stalls of the bibliopoles placed in
the most frequented quarters of the city, by the Janus
Gate of the Forum, by the Temple of Peace, on the
Argiletum, in the Vicus Sandalarius, and on the
Sigillaria. Martial speaks in fact of the street
Argiletum as being chiefly occupied by booksellers,
with whom, curiously enough, he tells us, were asso-
ciated the fashionable tailors. 3 It would be pleasing
to think that there was ever a time or a city in which
the buying of books was as much of a fashionable
diversion as the buying of clothes.
Both Horace and Martial speak of the book-shops
as having become places of resort where the more
active-minded citizens got into the habit of meeting
1 Fronto, Epist. ad Verum, ii., 9.
2 Birt, 357 ; see also Cicero, Philipp., ii., 4.
3 /.,i., 4, "8.
240 Authors and Their Public
to look over the literary novelties and to discuss the
latest gossip, literary or social. On the door-posts
or on columns near the entrance were placed the
advertisements of recent publications and the an-
nouncements of works in preparation. Martial gives
us the description as follows :
Contra Ccesaris esl forum taberna
Scriptis postibus hinc et inde tolls,
Omnes ut cilo perlegas poelas.
De primo dabit alter ove nido
Rasum pumice purpuraque cullum
Denariis tibi quinque Martialem. 1
Birt finds evidences that before the close of the
first century, the book trade in Rome and through
many portions of the Empire had developed into
large proportions. Each week the packets from
Alexandria brought into Rome great cargoes of
papyrus from the paper-makers of Alexandria.
These papyrus rolls, first stored in the warehouses,
speedily find their way to the workrooms of the
publishers, where hundreds of skilled slaves follow
with swift pens the rapid dictation of the readers,
who relieve each other from time to time. Others
occupy themselves with the work of comparison and
revision, while a third group, the glutinatores, cover
1 Martial, Ep., i., 117.
Rome 241
the completed manuscripts with appropriate bind-
ings. In the book-shop, taberna, are attractively
presented for the attention of the scholars, the dil-
ettanti, the real collectors, and their fashionable
imitators, the collections of the accepted classics
and of the latest literary novelties. Here a cheap
edition of the ALneid is sold for school use for a few
pennies ; there great sums are expended for a verita-
ble " original " text of some work by Demosthenes,
Thucydides, Cato, or Lucilius 1 ; while a third buyer
is placing a wholesale order for a "proper assort-
ment " of literature to serve as an adornment for a
new villa.
From the Roman bibliopoles large shipments of
books are also regularly made to other cities, such
as Brundisium, fasces librorum venalium expositos
vidimus in Brundisio? or Lugdunum 3 (Lyons), or
Vienna (in Gaul). 4
It seems also to have been the practice (which
has not been abandoned in modern times) to ship
off to the provinces the over supplies or "remain-
ders " of editions of books which had in the capital
gone out of fashion. Aut fugies Uticam aut vinc-
tus mitteris Ilerdam*
1 Lucian, 58, 4. 2 Cell., 9, 4, i. 3 PI"*-, Ep., 9, II.
4 Martial, 7, 88. * Horace, Ep., 20, 13.
242 Authors and Their Public
Notwithstanding this extreme activity of the busi-
ness of making and selling books, Birt is inclined to
conclude that the lot of the poor student must have
been a difficult one.
Such libraries as existed in Rome and Italy had
not been instituted with reference to the work of
students, as had been done with the collections in
Alexandria, and the Roman State appears in fact to
have given very little attention to the requirements
of higher education.
An author, named Diogenian, writing in the time
of Hadrian, undertook to supply the needs of the
impecunious student of philology, the ntvifi nznai-
of Lucian, with his book entitled nepiepyo-
, which was so comprehensive in its informa-
tion as to enable its fortunate owner to " do without
any other work on its subject." '
Birt concludes from certain references that the
leading publishers in Rome had during the beginning
of the second century organized themselves into an
association for the better protection of their interests
in literary property, and that each member of such
association bound himself not to interfere with the
undertakings of his fellow-members. As Roman
literature increased in commercial importance, some
1 Birt, 363.
Rome 243
such arrangement or undertaking was, of course, in-
dispensable, as in connection with the cheapening
rates for the labor of slave copyists, indiscriminate
competition could only have resulted in anarchy in
the book-world, and have retarded indefinitely the
development of literature as a profession. Birt evi-
dently had in mind the existence of some such Pub-
lishers' Commission as was instituted by the book-
trade of Leipsic in the i/th century, but it is not
likely that the Roman association succeeded in
securing any such definite and effective organization.
It is on record, however, that the publisher Try-
phon claimed to possess a legal control over the
writings of Quintilian, while there is, unfortunately,
nothing to show by what means he was enabled to
retain such control. 1 Tryphon took credit to him-
self for having persuaded the reluctant Quintilian to
permit the publication of certain works which would
otherwise have been lost to posterity. 3 Quintilian
refers to Tryphon as a trusted friend, on whose
judgment he relied. 3 Tryphon was also one of the
numerous publishers of Martial. 4
The name of the librarius Dorus, mentioned by
Seneca as a contemporary of his own, is worthy of
1 Birt, 359. 3 Quint., Epist. ad Tryphon.
2 Birt, 348. 4 Mart., xiii., 3.
244 Authors and Their Public
note because he was one of the earliest buyers of
publishing rights or copyrights. Seneca understands,
namely, that Dorus had purchased from the heirs of
Atticus and from those of Cicero the publishing
rights and the " remainders " of the editions of
Cicero's works. 1
An ownership was claimed by the State in the
Sibylline books, but this was of course never exer-
cised in the form of a publishing right. It is related,
however, that the duumvir Attilius suffered the pun-
ishment of death, adjudged to a parricide, because,
being charged with the custody of the Sibylline
books, he suffered Petronius Sabinus to copy some
portions of the same. This might be called an in-
fringement of a copyright vested in the State, but in
the regard of the Roman law the deed was evidently
considered simply as a sacrilege."
Suetonius relates, in his Life of Domitian, an in-
stance in which the Emperor administered, on the
ground of certain objectionable passages in a work
of history, a penalty so severe that it is difficult to
accept the report as accurate. He says : Hermogenem
Tarsensemoccidit propter quasdam in historia figuras ;
librariis etiam qui earn descripserant cruce fixis. " He
1 Seneca, De Beneficiis, vii., 6, i. Quoted by Birt, p. 358.
5 Renouard, i., 15.
Rome 245
killed Hermogenes of Tarsus on account of certain
expressions in his history ; even the booksellers who
had circulated the work were crucified." '
If the account is correct, we have in this instance
a very early application of the present usage in re-
gard to the circulation of so-called "libellous"
matter. The bookseller of to-day no longer dreads
capital punishment at the hands of an irate monarch,
but it is perfectly possible for him to be forced into
bankruptcy through the penalties collected on ac-
count of the circulation (however unwittingly) of
volumes containing statements called by the law
"libellous."
The principal customers of the booksellers were
the schoolmasters and the so-called " grammarians."
To these should be added, from the beginning of the
first century, an increasing number of libraries. The
first public library in Rome is said to have been
founded as early as 167 B.C., but it was not until the
reign of Augustus that the Roman libraries became
important and that in the other cities also libraries
were instituted.
There was a library attached to the temple of
Apollo on the Palatine hill in Rome, which Simcox
refers to as an humble imitation of the Museum of
1 Sueton., Domitian, c. 10.
246 Authors and Their Public
Alexandria, but I do not know the date of its found-
ing. It is noted of Tibullus, who was usually indif-
ferent to fame, that he consented to send to this
library a copy of his collected writings, and there
are other references from which it appeared that,
either from public spirit or from a desire for pub-
lic appreciation, authors made a practice of present-
ing copies of their books to this Palatine library,
and that in this way a considerable collection was
brought together, of which the public had the
benefit ; but it is certain that there was no mu-
nicipal or imperial enactment prescribing such pres-
entation copies, and it does not appear that any of
the emperors took any such active interest in fur-
thering the development of literature and of the
literary education of the public as had been shown
by the Ptolemies of Alexandria.
In Rome there were, according to Birt, twenty-
nine public libraries founded between the reign of
Augustus and that of Hadrian, while there are
various references to the public libraries of the
smaller cities. Aulus Gellius ' speaks of the library
in Tibur (the modern Tivoli) in Hcrculis Tcmplo
satis commode instruct a libris. Comum (the modern
Como) possessed a library given to it by Pliny. 2 The
1 Aulus Gellius, 19, 5, 4, 9 ; 14, 3. 2 Epist., i., 8, 2.
Rome 247
Roman Athens had a public library connected with
the College of the Ptolemies, and the Emperor
Hadrian founded a second. 1 Strabo speaks with ap-
preciation of the library of Smyrna. 8
It appears probable that, at least for the first
three or four centuries after Christ, the larger pro-
portion of the books contained in the public libraries
(as in the private collections) were in Greek. Cicero
speaks more than once of the fact that the Greek
books were comparatively plenty, while those in
Latin were scarce. 3 Juvenal's character, the impe-
cunious Cordus, " possessed but few books, and
those in Greek. 4 Suetonius, in speaking of the
restoration by Domitian of the public libraries
which had been burned by Nero, states that the
Emperor collected from all sources trustworthy texts
and forwarded them to Alexandria for use in the
production of the many copies required. 6 It is evi-
dent, in the first place, that at this time (about 90 A.D.)
the supply of skilled copyists in Rome was still in-
adequate for any such extended undertakings, and
secondly, that there was question merely of works
in Greek, for Latin texts would hardly have been
sent to Alexandria.
1 Bursian, Geog. Griechenlands , p. 290. 2 Strabo, p. 646.
a Ad Quintum, iii., 4. 4 Juvenal, Hi., 206. 5 Sueton., Domitian, 20.
248 Authors and Their Public
Even without the aid of scholarly government
supervision and of liberal government appropriations,
the public libraries of Rome and of the leading
cities of the provinces must have been of no little
importance in furthering the literary interests of the
time, while they rendered to posterity the important
service of preserving not a few works which would
otherwise apparently have perished entirely. For
this latter service we are indebted, however, not
only to the libraries but to the vanity of the authors,
who for the most part took pains to place in one or
more of the public libraries copies of their writings
as soon as published. Of certain works of which
the originals have disappeared, such knowledge as
we have comes to us only in the fragments given in
the school readers, which for each generation of
young students were made up of extracts from the
books of the previous generation of writers.
Some of these " classical " readers of the period
of the early Empire were copied for use in the
monastic schools of some centuries later, but these
were in large part speedily superseded by the collec-
tions of legends and breviaries which came to be
accepted as the proper literature for the monastery
and the convent.
In addition to the " grammarians " buying books
Rome 249
for their professional needs, and the city libraries
purchasing for the public welfare, there were, during
the first two centuries, an increasing number of pri-
vate collectors, not a few of whom, however, bought
books, not from any scholarly interest, but simply
because it became the fashion to do so. Seneca
speaks of great collections of books in the hands of
men who had never so much as read their titles. 1
Such purchases must nevertheless have been import-
ant for the encouragement of literary work in Rome.
Many of the public baths were furnished with
libraries 1 ; a country house could not be complete
without a library, says Cicero 2 ; each one of the
villas of Italicus, according to Pliny, had its library 3 ;
Trimalchio, says Petronius, 4 possessed no less
than three. A statue of Hermes, found in Rome,
bears an epigram which speaks of fivfiXoi in the
grove of the Muses, and which undoubtedly had
been intended to be placed in the library of some
country villa. 5
Among some of the larger private collections re-
ferred to are those of the grammarian Epaphroditus,
who possessed 30,000 volumes, 6 and of Serenus Sam-
moaicus, who is credited with over 60,000 volumes. 7
1 Birt, p. 361. a Epist., iii., 7. 5 Birt, 361.
3 De Fin., ii., 7. 4 48, 4. 6 Suidas, Lexicon.
7 Capitolinus, Gordianus, 18, 2.
250 Authors and Their Public
The impecunious Martial, on the other hand, tells
us that his own collection comprised less than 120
rolls. '
We have already referred to the practical interest
taken by Martial in the details of bookselling. We
find him quoting the authority of the booksellers
against certain critics, who were not willing to rank
Lucian as a poet of repute, and showing that after
thirty years or more there was still a steady demand
for Lucian's poetical works.
Martial takes the ground that continued popular
appreciation is sufficient evidence of literary repute,
whatever the critics may say to the contrary. 9
The same satirist refers more than once to many
amiable and deserving authors, who, despite their
talents, succeeded in reaching no public at all other
than the unhappy guests who learned from experi-
ence to dread the admirable dinners which had to be
paid for by listening to literary productions. The
practice of recitations on the part of the host must
have been quite general, if when no such perform-
ance was intended it was considered desirable to
mention the fact in the invitations. Martial quotes
himself as promising to Stella in inviting him to
dinner, that under no provocation will he be tempted
1 Martial, 14, 190. 2 Simcox, ii., 49.
Rome 251
to recite anything, not even though Stella should
recite his own poem on the " Wars of the Giants." *
Martial explains the inferiority of the literary pro-
duction of the reign of Domitian by the fact that
there was no Maecenas to give encouragement to
authors. All the great poets of the Augustan age had,
as he recalls, been placed in easy circumstances (as far
as they were not so already) either through the direct
bounty of Maecenas or as a result of his influence
over the Court. According to the view of Martial,
literature possessing any lasting value is impossible
without the leisure and freedom from care which
comes from an assured income. Maecenas, and the
fashion of subsidizing literature initiated by him,
appear in a crude way, in presenting encouragement
for literary work, to have supplied the place of a
copyright law.
There may, of course, often have been question as
to what constituted a "proper compensation" for a
poetical effort. Tacitus speaks of a certain Roman
knight, C. Lutorius Priscus, who had won some
repute from a poem on the death of Germanicus.
He thereupon composed another poem on the death
of Drusus (son of Tiberius), who was at the time
seriously ill, but who was perverse enough to recover.
1 Simcox, ii., p. 77.
252 Authors and Their Public
Priscus had, however, already read his poem aloud,
after which he was promptly put to death under a
vote of the Senate, whether on account of the bad-
ness of the poem, or because he had prophesied the
death of the Prince, Tacitus does not state. 1
Juvenal joins with Martial in characterizing the
writing of poetry as an unsatisfactory profession,
and hints more strongly than Martial that the pro-
fession was spoiled by amateurs. He suggests as a
further ground for the absence of first-rate poetiy,
that all the subjects had been exhausted, meaning,
of course, all the mythological subjects. He arrives
at the conclusion that poetry and literature in general
are dying, and considers this is not to be wondered
at, since even if a man of letters makes a sacrifice
which ought not to be required of him, and turns
schoolmaster, he will be grossly underpaid, and often
not able to recover the beggarly pittance which will
be due him. a
This inadequacy of the legitimate returns for
literary work was doubtless considered by Martial
as a sufficient justification for utilizing his unques-
tioned literary cleverness in ways not always legiti-
mate, for, as has been pointed out by Cruttwell,
Simcox, and others, not a few of the epigrams look
'Tac., Ann., iii., 49. 'Simcox, ii., p. 77.
Rome 253
like demands for blackmail. " Somebody " the
poet declines to know who the somebody is " has
given offence " ; if the poet should discuss who,
so much the worse for somebody. He is full of
veiled personalities of the most damaging kind. He
deprecates guessing at the persons indicated, but
they must have recognized themselves, and have
seen the need of propitiating a poet who was at
once politic and vindictive. He insists repeatedly
upon his successful avoidance of all personal attacks,
while he had been lavish of personal compliments.
He tells us himself that these were not given gratis,
and when somebody whom he has praised ignores
the obligation he receives, the fact is published as
a general warning. We cannot doubt that when
Martial wrote that " there were no baths in the world
like the baths of Etruscus," and that " whoever missed
bathing in them would die without bathing," he ex-
pected to be paid in some form or other for the val-
uable advertisement he was giving to Etruscus. 1 In
like manner, when he answers numerous requests for
a copy of his poems with a reference to his book-
seller, adding a jocose assurance that the poems are
not really worth the money, it is fair to assume that
the bookseller had paid something for the manu-
1 Martial, vi., 12.
254 Authors and Their Public
script or that the author had some continued interest
in the sales. 1
In being obliged by the narrowness of his means
to watch thus closely the sales of his booksellers,
and in believing himself compelled to pick up sesterces
by writing complimentary epigrams or threatening
abusive ones, Martial may well have envied the
assured position of his contemporary Quintilian,
who received from the imperial treasury as a rhetor-
ician a salary, which, with his other emoluments,
gave him an income of 100,000 sesterces (about
$4000). Quintilian appears to have been the first
rhetorician to whom an imperial salary was given.
It is evident that at this time the art of the
rhetorician or reciter was still one of importance.
The great books of the Claudian period were evi-
dently written to be recited or to please a taste
formed by the habit of recitation. 2 After the reign
of Claudius the noteworthy works, with the excep-
tion perhaps of the Theba'id of Statius, were cer-
tainly written to be read. How many readers they
found is a more difficult thing to determine. There
was certainly, on the part of some writers at least,
no lack of persistency. Labeo, the jurist (who died
13 A.D^), is credited, for instance (or should we say
'Martial, iv., 72. Simcox, p. 107. a Simcox, ii., p. 142.
Rome 255
debited ?), with the production of no less than four
hundred works. 1
The average editions of works addressed to the
general public are estimated by Birt to have com-
prised not less than five hundred copies, and in
many cases a thousand copies. 2 Pliny, writing about
60 A.D., makes reference to a volume by M. Aquilus
Regulus (a memoir of his deceased son), of which
the author caused to be made one thousand copies
for distribution throughout Italy and the provinces.
Pliny thinks it rather absurd that for a volume like
this, of limited and purely personal interest, the
piety and the vanity of the author should have
caused an edition to be prepared larger than that
usually issued of readable works. 3 Birt is of opinion
that there is sufficient evidence in the references of
Horace, Propertius, Ovid, Martial, and others, to
show the existence of a well organized system for
the distribution and sale of books, not only in Italy,
but throughout the distant provinces of Gaul,
Britain, Germany, and Scythia. Such a distribution,
even if restricted to the larger cities, would have
been impracticable with editions of much less than
one thousand copies. 4 In support of this view
1 Simcox, ii., p. 236. 3 Pliny, Epist., iv., 7.
8 Birt. 4 Birt, 352.
256 Authors and Their Public
regarding a widespread distribution of books, Birt
quotes a passage from Pliny concerning the service
to literature rendered by Varro.
" Varro was unwilling that the fame of great men should perish,
or that the lapse of years should cause the memory of their deeds to
be lost. He took pains, therefore, in the almost countless volumes
of his writings, to preserve for posterity sketches or studies of
more than seven hundred men who had won renown. Such a device
might well have aroused the envy of the Gods, for these portraitures
were not only thus ensured a permanent existence, but they were
distributed to the farthest corners of the earth, so that the names of
these heroes of the past would, like those of the Gods themselves, be
known in all lands." ' a
Varro, who was a contemporary of Cicero, appears
to have interested himself not only in biography,
but in almost every department of research. He is
credited with forty-one books on antiquities, sev-
enty-six books of edifying dialogues, fifteen books
of parallel lives of illustrious Greeks and Romans,
twenty-five books on the Latin language, nine books
on the " seven liberal arts," fifteen books on civil
law, thirty political memoirs, twenty-two books of
speeches, one hundred and fifty satires, and a num-
ber of minor works. 8 Such industry and versatility
have few parallels in the history of literature, al-
though it is to be borne in mind that the author
was favored with length of days, and was able to be
1 Pliny, xxxv., n (trans, from Birt's version).
9 Kitschl, Ramsay, and other scholars take the view that Pliny was
referring to actual portraits which Varro had prepared by an ad-
mirable invention of his own. 3 Simcox, i., p. 20$.
Rome 257
active in literary work as late as his eighty-second
year. It is evident, however, that there must have
been some measure of appreciation on the part of
the public and the publisher to have encouraged
him to such long-continued production.
Possibly the earliest instance of any practical
interest taken by the imperial government in further-
ing the distribution of literature for the higher
education of the public, is presented by an edict of
the Emperor Tacitus (275 A.D.), ordering that every
public library throughout the Empire should possess
not less than ten sets of the writings of his ancestor,
Tacitus, the historian. His reign of two hundred
days was, however, too brief to enable him to ensure
the execution of his decree. It seems probable that
if the aged Emperor (he was in his seventy-fifth
year when he came to the throne) had been able to
carry out his plan, posterity would not have had
occasion to mourn the disappearance of so large a
portion of the writings of the great historian.
Tacitus, the historian, was born about 60 A.D., in
a small town of Umbria. His father was of eques-
trian rank and a man of importance, and it is inter-
esting to note that the son, instead of being sent to
Athens for his education, as was so frequently done
with well born youths of the preceding generation,
17
258 Authors and Their Public
received his university training at Massilia (the
modern Marseilles), which by the close of the first
century had become an important centre of literature
and education. The supremacy of Athens in in-
fluencing the higher education of Italy had come to
a close, and the centre of intellectual life was moving
westward. Tacitus was evidently a man of no little
versatility of power. Before achieving lasting fame
through his histories and essays, he had won distinc-
tion as a lawyer and as an orator, and had served
with dignity and success as praetor and consul. He
is spoken of as a graceful poet, and was believed also
to have been the author of a clever volume of
Facetice.
His History was published some time during the
reign of Trajan, in some thirty books, of which less
than five have been preserved. His second histori-
cal work was published a few years later, in sixteen
books, under the title of Annals, and of this about
nine books have been preserved. The frequent
references to these two works and to the well known
essay on the Germans, in the writings of the con-
temporaries and successors of Tacitus, show how
important a position they occupied in the literature
of the Empire, and show also that copies of them
were distributed widely throughout the known
Rome 259
world. We have unfortunately no details whatever
concerning the method of their publication, and no
references to the publishers to whose charge they
were confided.
If Tacitus had only, like Martial, been an im-
pecunious writer, we should probably have found in
his correspondence with his friend Pliny, or in other
of his writings, some mention of his publishing
arrangements and of the receipts secured through
the sale of his works. It is evident, however, that
his official emoluments were sufficient to free him
from any necessity of making close calculations con-
cerning earnings by his pen, and it is even possible
that he permitted the fortunate publishers, whoever
they were to reserve to themselves the profits,
which ought to have been considerable, arising from
the sales of these important and popular works.
Notwithstanding the gradual decline of Athens
towards the close of the second century as a centre
of higher education, Greek continued to be through-
out the Empire the language not only for many
philosophical and scholarly undertakings, but for not
a few works planned for popular reading. I men-
tioned that Massilia (Marseilles) had been selected
as the place where the young Tacitus could secure
to best advantage a refined education, but Massilia,
260 Authors and Their Public
although a thousand miles from Greece, was a Greek
city. It is probably not too much to say that
throughout the Roman world, wherever a town came
into distinction in any way as a place of intellectual
activity and of literary life, it would be found to
have possessed a large Greek element. The Greek
brains must have served as yeast for the intellectual
substance of the Roman world.
Suetonius,writing, about 1 50 A.D., his work Ludicra,
comprising treatises on the sports and public games
of the Greeks and Romans, gave the work to the
public in both Greek and Latin. The Meditations
of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, written about 170
were issued only in Greek. Simcox says :
"From the reign of Hadrian onwards until the translation of the
Empire to the East, the intellectual needs of the capital, such as they
were, were supplied by the eastern half of the Empire ; all the upper
classes learned Greek in the nursery, and it was the language of
fashionable conversation ... all people who professed to be
serious entertained a Greek philosopher. Their only reason for
keeping up Latin literature at all was that the cleverest people who
had received a literary education wished to be poets or historians or
orators, an ambition which was sustained by the competitions endowed
by Domitian and by the professorships which were founded by his
predecessors and successors."
I have already referred to the influence of the
French language in Germany during the first half of
the eighteenth century as presenting a somewhat sim-
Rome 261
ilar case; but the influence upon German thought
and German literature of the French language and
literature, rendered fashionable under the Court
of Frederick the Great, was of course slight and
superficial as compared with the part played in the
Roman world by the language and the thought
of the Greeks.
Towards the end of the second century Carthage
became of literary as well as commercial importance.
Latin was the language of administration, and the
literary culture of Carthage took upon itself, there-
fore, a Latin rather than a Greek form. 1 Among
the authors who gave form, each in his own very
distinctive manner, to the literary school of Car-
thage were Fronto and Apuleius, and a generation
later the Father of the African Church, the theo-
logian Tertullian.
Fronto's books appear to have been made in Car-
thage, but were certainly on sale with Roman deal-
ers, and the same was doubtless the case with the
witty and popular Fables and Metamorphoses of
Apuleius, but the evidence in regard to a publish-
ing trade in Carthage is purely inferential. Aulus
Gellius, writing about 170, speaks of picking up in a
second-hand book-shop in Brundisium a volume
1 Simcox, ii., 243.
262 Authors and Their Public
from which he quotes a pretty story. The incident
was probably imaginary, for, as Simcox points out,
the story was taken from the elder Pliny ; but the
reference shows that the business of the bookseller
was, at the date specified, already sufficiently sys-
tematized to support, even in the smaller towns,
second-hand book dealers.
It was evident that by the close of the first
century the machinery for the making and the dis-
tribution of books was sufficiently well organized to
secure for authors the opportunity of a world-wide
influence. It seems probable, however, that the works
which at this date obtained for themselves the widest
circulation and influence were not those of living
writers, but were still the classics which Greece had
originated, but which were so largely given to the
world through Rome.
In the fourth century a certain Firmicus Maternus
published an astrological work entitled Mathesis.
The work was dedicated to the proconsul Mavertius
Lollianus, who had suggested its preparation, and
to him also the author appears to have assigned the
control of the publication, with the curious instruc-
tion that the two final books (out of the eight of
which the work was composed) must by no means
be permitted to come into the hands of the general
Rome 263
public (vulgum profanuiri), but that the reading of
these should be restricted to those who had led holy
and priestly lives. 1
Birt, who is my authority for the incident, does not
make clear what means were available for the pro-
consul by which to enforce this special and difficult
discrimination among readers. Birt cites the case,
however, as an evidence of the control that could be
exercised, and that from time to time was exercised,
by the government over the circulation of literature.
It is certain, he says, that even the very considerable
increase in the facilities for the reproduction of
books did not prevent the authorities from under-
taking to stop the sale of, and to confiscate, works
which, for one reason or another, might work detri-
ment to the State, or which conflicted with the per-
sonal interest of the ruler. The earliest example on
record of a confiscation dates back to the time when
the Athenian Republic was at its height. In the
year 411 B.C., as mentioned in the chapter on Greece,
the writings of the philosopher Protagoras were
burned on the Agora, while the philosopher himself
was held to trial for heresy. 2
The emperors of Rome possessed, of course, a
much more unquestioned authority and a more
1 Birt, 367. a Diog. Laert., ix., 52.
264 Authors and Their Public
effective machinery for the suppression of doctrines
and for the confiscation of books than belonged to
the shifting authorities of Athens, and there are
examples of a number of imperial decrees for literary
confiscation, some of which were based on the real
or apparent interests of the State, while not a few
can be credited to personal motives.
The first instance of the kind was the order of
Augustus for the burning of 2000 copies of certain
pseudo-Sibylline books. Those charged with the
task were directed not only to take all the stock
that could be found in the book-shops, but to make
thorough search also for all copies existing in private
collections. 1 Caligula attempted a more difficult
task, when, according to Suetonius, he undertook to
suppress the writings of Homer cogitavit de Homeri
car minibus abolendis? He also gave orders, says
the historian, which were fortunately only partly
carried out, to have destroyed all the writings and
all the busts of Virgil and of Livy contained in the
libraries. Tiberius ordered that the writings of a
certain historian of the time of Augustus should be
abolished, abolita scripta, by which we may properly
understand simply that the copies were to be taken
out of all public libraries. 3
1 Sueton., Octavius, 31. * Sueton., Caligula, 34.
* Sueton., Tiforius, 61.
Rome 265
The rigorous measures adopted by Domitian to
discourage the sale of the history of Hermogenes of
Tarsus, by crucifying the publisher and all the book-
sellers who had copies in stock, have already been
referred to. 1 This history was found objection to on
the score of certain designs contained in it, propter
quasdam figuras. Two other works which failed to
secure the approval of this Emperor were the Lauda-
tions by Junius Rusticus and Herennius Senecio of
Paetus Thrasea and Helvidius Priscus. The two
books, that is, all the copies of them that could be
secured, were burned in the Forum after having
been solemnly condemned under a senatus consultum.
Senecio was nevertheless able to preserve his own
copy. 3
Not a few of the edicts of confiscation were, how-
ever, evidently carried out by a house to house
visitation, extending at least to all domiciles known
to contain collections of books. Diocletian caused
to be collected and destroyed all the ancient manu-
scripts in Egypt, " which had to do with the chemis-
try of quicksilver and gold," nspi x^sia? apyvpov
nal xpuGov,, i. e. t with the subject of alchemy. 2 The
teachers in Africa of the doctrines of the Mani-
1 Sueton., Domitian, 10.
2 Tacitus, Agric., 2. Plin., Ep., vii., 19.
8 Burckhardt, Constant. , p. 151.
266 Authors and Their Public
chaeans were also ordered to burn their books. The
edict of Diocletian, issued 303 A.D., directing the
persecution of the Christians, also provided for the
destruction of the Christian Scriptures. According
to Burckhardt, many Christians came forward with
the acknowledgment that they possessed copies of the
Scriptures, and, refusing to deliver the same, suffered
the martyrdom for which they sought. 1
Constantine permitted Arius to live unmolested,
but his writings were, whenever found, committed
to the flames, and any one concealing copies was
liable to death. In 448, the Emperor Theodosius
issued an edict for the destruction of all works the
influence of which was opposed to the Christian
faith, an instruction which, if it had been faithfully
executed, would have annihilated a large portion of
the world's literature. Among other writers the loss
of whose works, excepting only a few fragments, was
probably due to the edict, was Porphyry of Tyre, who
died about 300 A.D., and who was the ablest of the
later scholarly opponents of the Christian doctrines.
St. Jerome relates that a certain Pammachius at-
tempted to recall and to cancel almost immediately
after publication the edition of Jerome's controver-
sial letters against the monk Jovinian, but that his
1 Burckhardt, 341.
Rome 267
efforts were unsuccessful, for copies of the book had
already been distributed in every province.
The legislation of imperial Rome, which, as we
have seen, made no specific provision for the protec-
tion of the rights of authors, also omitted to institute
any measures for the public supervision of books. It
was under the general provisions of the criminal law
that the publication of writings on certain special
subjects was prevented or was punished, and that
the authors, publishers, and sometimes even the
possessors of the works regarded as injurious to
individuals or as likely to cause detriment to the
State, became subject to penalties the severity of
which varied with the times. 1 Several of the
imperial edicts characterized libellous publications as
acts of lese-majeste or treason. 8
It would not be in order to bring to a close this
sketch of the history of literary property under the
rule of the Romans, without reference to the contri-
bution made by Roman jurists to the analysis of its
origin and nature, although such contribution was
but slight. The theories and conclusions of these
jurists are of interest not on the ground of their
having had any effect on the status of literary pro-
1 Codex, ix., 36, " DeFamosis Libellis."
2 Renouard, 17.
268 Authors and Their Public
duction throughout the Empire, but on account of
the far-reaching influence of Roman jurisprudence
upon the conceptions and the legislation of the me-
diaeval and of the modern world.
As Klostermann points out, the Roman jurists in-
terested themselves in the subject of property in an
intellectual or immaterial creation rather as a matter
of theoretical speculation than as one calling for
legislation ; and, as we have already seen, there is no
record of any such legislation, imperial or munici-
pal, having been instituted during the existence of
the Roman State. Some of the earlier discussions
as to the nature of property in formulated ideas ap-
pear to have turned upon the question as to whether
such property should take precedence over that in
the material which happened to be made use of for
the expression of the ideas.
The disciples of Proculus (a lawyer living at about
50 A.D.) maintained that the occupation of alien
material, so as to make of it a new thing, gave a
property right to him who had reworked or reshaped
it ; while the school of Sabinus (who was himself a
contemporary of Proculus) insisted that the owner-
ship of the material must carry with it the title to
whatever was produced upon the material. Jus-
tinian, or rather, I understand, Tribonianus, writing
in the name of the Emperor (about 520 A.D), took a
Rome 269
middle ground, following the opinion of Gaius.
Tribonianus concluded, namely, that the decision
must be influenced by the possibility of restoring
the material to its original form, and more particu-
larly by the question as to whether the material or
that which had been produced upon it were the
more essential. The original opinion of Gams ap-
pears to have had reference to the ownership of a
certain table upon which a picture had been painted,
and the decision was in favor of the artist. This
decision (dating from about 160 A.D.) contains an
unmistakable recognition of immaterial property,
not, to be sure, in the sense of a right to exclusive
reproduction, but in the particular application, that,
while material property depends upon the substance,
immaterial property, that is to say property in the
presentation of ideas, depends upon the form. 1
The opinion, as given in the Institutes of Justinian,
is as follows :
Si quis in aliena tabula pinxerit, quidam putant
tabulam pictures cedere, aliis videtur picturam, qualis-
cunque sit, tabuice cedere ; sednobis videtur melius esse,
tabulam picture cedere. Ridiculum est enim picturam
Apellis vel Parrhasii in accessionem vilissimce tabula
cedere?
1 Klostermann, p. 37.
2 Just. 34, Inst. I c. Cited by Klostermann, 37.
270 Authors and Their Public
It is certainly curious that a question of this kind,
first presented for consideration in the middle of the
first century, should have been still under discussion
nearly five centuries later.
An application of this same principle is presented
in legal usage to-day, under which authors and artists
are empowered to take possession of reproductions
of their works even against innocent third parties or
against the owners of the material on which such
reproductions have been made.
The fact that papyrus rather than parchment was
the material adopted by authors during the fruitful
period of Latin literature, had of course an impor-
tant bearing in the continued existence of their
works, for papyrus was an extremely perishable sub-
stance. Damp, worms, moths, mice, were all deadly
enemies of papyrus rolls, but even if, through per-
sistent watchfulness, these were guarded against, the
mere handling of the rolls, even by the most careful
readers, brought them rapidly to destruction. We
find, therefore, that a constant renewal of the rolls
was required in all public libraries, just as to-day our
librarians find it necessary to replace their supply of
copies of books of popular authors which have be-
come worn out by handling. The ancient librarian
had, however, a more arduous and a more expensive
Rome 271
task with his renewals. A reference of Pliny gives
us an impression of the average age that could be
looked for for a papyrus book.
" It a sint longinqua monumenta ; Tiberi Gaique
Gracchorum manus. Apud Pomponium Secundum
vatem civemqne clarissimum vidi annos fere post
ducentos ; jam vero Ciceronis ac divi Augusti Ver-
gilique scepe numero videmus" :
We understand, therefore, that (with certain pre-
cautions) a book could last for one hundred years,
but that a volume two centuries old was for Pliny
something so exceptional as to be almost incredible.
The papyrus rolls were of course exposed to the
most serious friction at the opening portions which
were in immediate contact with one of the rollers
where two rollers were employed, and which in any
case were exposed to the most frequent handling.
As a consequence, it was the initial page of books
which first came to destruction, and of not a few
works which were otherwise in readable condition
these initial pages were lacking. A quotation from
Eusebius, cited by Birt, shows that it was even a
matter of surprise when a copy of the works of such
a writer as Clement was found complete, with title
and preface."
1 Plinius, xiii., 83. 2 Euseb., Hist. Eccles., vi., 13.
272 Authors and Their Public
In many of the libraries, it was also not uncommon
to find that the different rolls of a particular work
had been wrongly numbered in one of the transcrib-
ings, and had consequently been mixed up as to
their arrangement. It was not infrequent even to
find the rolls of the works of different authors
jumbled together, in such a manner that no little
scholarly skill was requisite for their proper under-
standing and correct rearrangement. 1
The papyrus manuscripts from the Athenian,
Alexandrian, and Roman workshops, as far as they
have escaped destruction through imperial edicts,
civil wars, and invasions, were permitted to fall into
decay, and were not replaced. By the close of the
fourth century, the great collections of papyrus rolls,
in which were contained the classics of Greek and
Roman literature, had practically disappeared. For
later book-making, parchment replaced papyrus, a
change which, if it had occurred two centuries, or
even one century earlier, would, in spite of edicts of
destruction, have preserved for future generations
not a few of the lost " classics." A small proportion
of the Greek and Roman writings, in copies dating
from the later literary period, had been placed on
parchment, and some few of these have been handed
1 Birt, 375.
Rome 273
down to us through the intervention of Christian
monks, who had taken possession of the parchment
for church documents or codices, but who in their
own inscribing had not destroyed, or had only par-
tially destroyed, the original writing. I have al-
ready made reference to this practice of making one
piece of parchment do a double service, and to the
name of palimpsest, by which such a doubly inscribed
parchment was known.
In the early part of the fourth century several
factors came into operation which checked the de-
velopment and finally undermined the existence of
the publishing and bookselling trade of Rome. First
among these factors I should name the growing
power and influence of the Christian Church.
In the centuries which elapsed between the down-
fall of the Roman Empire and the invention of print-
ing, the centres of intellectual activities and of
scholarly interests were undoubtedly the churches
and the monasteries, and it is probable that if it had
not been for the educational work done by the
priests and monks, and for the interest taken by
them (however inadequately and ignorantly) in the
literature of the past, the fragments of this literature
which have been preserved for to-day would have
been much less considerable and more fragmentary
18
274 Authors and Their Public
than they are. As I understand the history, the lit-
erary interests of the world owe very much to the
fostering care given to them by the Church, or by
certain portions of the Church, during the troublous
centuries of the early Middle Ages. During these
centuries the Church not only supplied a standard
of morality, but kept in existence whatever intel-
lectual life there was.
At the time, however, when the Christian Church
was rapidly extending its influence throughout the
Roman Empire, and during the century after it had
succeeded in winning over to the faith the emperors
themselves, and had become the official Church of
the Empire, the evidence goes to show that its in-
fluence was decidedly detrimental to the literary
productiveness of the age and also inimical to the
preservation of the literary masterpieces of previous
ages.
As the range of membership of the Church in-
creased, so that it came to include a larger propor-
tion of men of cultivation and scholarship, there
came into existence a considerable body of theo-
logical and controversial writings, the production of
which has gone on steadily increasing until very
recent times. But the reading of the works of
"pagan" writers was discouraged, and the manu-
Rome 275
scripts themselves were first neglected, and later
suffered to fall into decay. Such writing as was
done by the Christian scribes was in the main limited
to the transcribing of the books then accepted as
scriptures and to the copying of prayers and hymns.
The mental activities of both writers and readers
were turned in other directions. Scholars gave
their scholarship and trained copyists their clerical
skill to the service of the Church. It was not merely
that the Church took possession for its own work of
so large a proportion of the best minds of the time.
It directly discouraged then, as it did for many cen-
turies thereafter, the study of any literature other
than ecclesiastical. The writers of Greece and Rome
were, for Christian believers, if not heretical, at
least frivolous and time-wasting. Life was short
and Christian duties left no free hours for Homer or
Virgil, Plato or Epictetus. By the time of the
accession of Constantine (306 A.D.) the book-shops
on the Argiletum had lessened in number and in im-
portance, the connections of the Roman publishers
with the great towns of the provinces were for the
most part broken off, and, most important of the
signs of the times, there are no new books and no
writers at work. Literary productiveness has for the
time ceased.
276 Authors and Their Public
The second cause which contributed to the
destruction of the book-trade of Rome was the
decision of Constantine to remove the capital of the
Empire to Byzantium. The transfer was completed
in the year 328, and for a number of years after that
date there was no imperial Court in Rome. The
" world of fashion " had migrated to the Bosphorus,
and with the Court officials, the judges, the advo-
cates, and the military leaders, had gone a large
proportion of the active-minded men of the old
capital, the men of intellectual interests. There
remained the Bishop of Rome (soon to become
Primate of the Latin Church) and his increasing
staff of ecclesiastics, but to them, as pointed out,
the literature of the classical period was either a
matter of indifference or an abomination. The
direction of the education of the young Romans
must soon have come into the hands of the priests,
and this would have increased their power to crush
out the interest in, and the remembrance of, the
literary productions of paganism.
A third factor which hastened the decline of
Latin literature and the extinction of the book-trade
of Rome, was the revival of the use of Greek, which,
after the establishment of the capital at Constan-
tinople, speedily became the official language of the
Rome 277
Empire and the speech of the Court and of polite
society generally.
I do not forget that there shortly came into exist-
ence an Empire of the West, under which Rome
resumed (although with sadly reduced splendor)
its position as an imperial capital. But the western
emperors appear on the whole to have been a feeble
lot, and they certainly did not succeed in gathering
about them any number of men of " light and learn-
ing," nor is there evidence of any substantial revival
of the social or intellectual activities of Rome. The
times continued troublous. The State had to fight
almost continuously for its existence, and the fight-
ing was not infrequently near at home, the city itself
being from time to time menaced. The " peace of
the Empire " existed no longer. It was not a time
for the development of literature, and literature,
excepting a small body of doctrinal and contro-
versial publications of the Church, practically disap-
peared.
After the expansion, in 379, of the prerogatives
of the Roman See, the literary activities of the
ecclesiastics increased, but it does not appear that
any bookselling machinery was required or employed
for the sale or distribution of the works of devotion,
of doctrine, or of controversy. This distribution
278 Authors and Their Public
was doubtless managed directly by the priests them-
selves. The capture of Rome by the Goths under
Alaric, in 410, brought destruction upon the accumu-
lated wealth and trade of the city, but it is not
probable that the tradespeople whose shops were
despoiled included any considerable number of book-
sellers, as, according to my understanding, the trade
in books had in great part disappeared some years
before. The Goths doubtless had, however, not a
little to do with the destruction of as many of the
classic manuscripts as still existed in the public
libraries or in private collections. It is certain that
they would have had no appreciation for and no use
for any manuscripts that fell into their hands. The
more recent and still inconsiderable collections of
Church manuscripts shared, of course, in the general
destruction, but these (apart from a few relics) could
easily be replaced.
The Goths disappeared like the rolling back of a
flood after its work of devastation has been com-
pleted ; and the insignificant series of Emperors of
the West resumed their sway over the ruins of the
imperial city.
The city was restored to a semblance of its old
self; but we find no further traces of the produc-
tion or of the sale of books. It is probable that
Rome 279
when, in 476, Odoacer, chief of the Herulians, gave
the final blow to the Empire of the West, and took
possession of its capital, he found there, outside of
the few treatises and books of worship of the Church,
practically nothing in the shape of literature.
The rule of the Herulian was short ; in less than
twenty years he was overthrown by the Goth, and
Theodoric came into possession of Rome and under-
took the task of organizing a kingdom out of the
much harried territory of Italy.
In the later portion of his reign, after the city had
been favored with a few years of peace and of free-
dom from the dread of invasion, there was some
revival of intellectual and literary interests. Cassio-
dorus, praetor, prefect, quaestor, and later "master
of the offices," won fame as court orator and official
letter-writer. He wrote a Gothic history in twelve
books (which has disappeared), and a collection of
letters and state-papers entitled Varies, also in twelve
books. Of greater permanent importance was the
work of the philosopher Boethius. Hodgkin says
of him :
' ' Boethius was the skilful mechanic who constructed the water-
clock and sun-dial for the King of the Burgundians ... a man of
great and varied accomplishments philosopher, theologian, musician,
and mathematician. He had translated thirty books of Aristotle into
Latin for the benefit of his countrymen ; his treatise on music was
280 Authors and Their Public
for many centuries the authoritative exposition of the science of
harmony." 1
His greatest work was The Consolation of Philos-
ophy, which was composed while the philosopher
was in prison awaiting sentence of death. This was
rendered into English by King Alfred and by Geof-
frey Chaucer; translations were made into every
European tongue, and copies were to be found in
every mediaeval convent library. The Consolation is
written partly in prose and partly in verse. Hodgkin
is of opinion that its writer was at the time a
Christian.
The production of this work is the only literary
event which marks the rule of Rome by the Goths,
and in fact, unless we include the " master of the
offices," Cassiodorus, with his court orations and
courtly letters, there appeared during the time no
other writer of whose work record has remained. We
can infer that some means existed in connection
either with the Court or with the convents for the
production of copies of the Consolation and of the
translation of Aristotle. The latter work, having
been prepared, as its translator says, " for the benefit
of his countrymen," was- evidently planned for some
general circulation.
1 Theodoric the Goth, pp. 263-276.
Rome 281
As there is no evidence of the existence at the
time of any bookselling machinery, it is probable
that for the multiplication and distribution of his
volumes, Boethius depended upon the scribes of the
Church and upon the connections with each other
of the convents throughout Europe. It is undoubt-
edly through the libraries of the convents (the only
places in Europe which were to any extent protected
against ravages of war) that the Consolation was
preserved.
After the death of Theodoric, Italy became the
camping ground and the righting place for successive
hordes of Lombards, Saracens, and Franks. Social
organization must have almost disappeared. Of
scholarly or literary production there is again for
some centuries hardly a trace. Inter arma silent
styli. What intellectual life, outside of the monas-
teries, was still active in Europe must be looked for
at the Court of the Greek Emperors of Constantinople.
CHAPTER VI.
Constantinople.
WHEN Constantine, in the year 328, removed
to Byzantium the capital of the Empire,
he doubtless took with him from Rome, or was fol-
lowed by, a large proportion of the leaders of the
social and intellectual life of the city. It is said
also that Greek scholars from Magna Graecia, and
from other parts of the Empire, foreseeing the prob-
able revival of interest in Greek learning, speedily
gathered themselves at Constantinople, and through
their presence hastened the replacing of the Latin
tongue by their own vernacular.
For a century or more, however, after the estab-
lishment of Constantinople, literary production ap-
pears to have been slight and unimportant. There
is some evidence of collections being made of copies
of the great classics, collections which later, un-
fortunately, in large part perished at the hands first
of Crusaders and afterwards of Turks, and it is
282
Constantinople 283
probable that a certain number of scribes were kept
employed in the production of such copies. Of new
works or of new editions of importance there is no
record, while there is also no evidence as to the
existence of any bookselling machinery for keeping
the public supplied with the old classics.
The first revival of literary productiveness appears
to have come from the Court. About 440 A.D. the
Empress Eudocia published a poetical paraphrase of
the first eight books of the Old Testament and of
the prophecies of Daniel and Zechariah. This was
followed by a cento of the verses of Homer, applied
to the life of Christ ; by a version of the legend of
St. Cyprian ; and by a panegyric on the Persian
victories of her husband Theodosius.
An imperial author needed, of course, no book-
selling machinery to bring her writings to the atten-
tion of the public. The members of the Court
circles doubtless made for their presentation copies
a full return in the shape of loyal appreciation, while
politic priests could be depended upon to interest
themselves in the reproduction and distribution of
books devoted to such sacred subjects, and emanat-
ing from so high an authority.
After this literary outburst from the Court, there
is a long period during which there is no record of
284 Authors and Their Public
any original work of importance being produced in
Constantinople. I must not omit, however, to make
reference to the great undertaking carried out by
Ulfilas (sixty years or more before the time of
Eudocia's labors) in the translation of the Bible
into Gothic.
Ulfilas was a Goth by birth, but had been educated
(as a hostage) in Constantinople. He was made
Bishop of Gothia, and the work of his translation
was probably completed in Dacia. For the prepara-
tion, however, of the transcripts of his text he was
apparently obliged to resort to the scribes of the
capital, and the "publication" of the work may,
therefore, be credited to Constantinople. A
magnificent manuscript of this Gothic version of
the Gospels, a manuscript known, on account of
its beautiful silver text, as the codex argenteus, and
which dates from the sixth century, is now pre-
served in the library of the University of Upsala in
Sweden, one of the earliest homes of the Gothic
peoples. The wide circulation of these Gothic
Scriptures had a great influence in bringing the
Gothic tribes into the Christian fold, and exercised,
therefore, an important effect on the history of
Europe.
The greatest of the earlier authors of the Eastern
Constantinople 285
Empire was the historian Procopius. His History
of My Own Times, which was published about 560
A.D., during the reign of Justinian, is devoted more
particularly to an account of the wars carried on by
the Empire. Procopius had held various offices,
and, during 562, was Prefect of Constantinople.
After this post had been taken from him, he wrote
a volume called Anecdota, or " secret history," in
which Justinian and his empress, Theodora, are very
severely handled. A third and earlier production is
a description of the edifices erected by Justinian
throughout the Empire.
By the beginning of the seventh century, says
Oman, the use of the Latin language in Constanti-
nople had practically ceased. Oman speaks of the
seventh and eighth centuries as being the " dark age
in Byzantine literary history," but, as far as we can
judge from the records, the " luminous " or pro-
ductive periods must have been very fitful and
fragmentary.
After the extinction of the schools of Alexandria
and Athens, " the studies of the Greeks " (says
Gibbon) " retired to the monasteries, and above all
to the royal college of Constantinople, which was
burned in the reign of Leo the Isaurian, about 750
A.D." The head of the foundation was named " the
286 Authors and Their Public
sun of science," and the twelve professors, the twelve
signs of the zodiac. The library comprised over
36,000 volumes. It included the famous Homeric
manuscript, before referred to, written on a parch-
ment roll 1 20 feet long.
Between 886 and 963 A.D. Constantinople was
ruled by the group of so-called " literary emperors,"
during whose reigns literature became the fashion of
the Court. The chief achievements of Leo the Wise
and of his son and successor Constantine Porphy-
rogenitus were their books. The writings of Leo
consist of a manuscript on the Art of War, some
theological treatises, and a book of prophecies. The
former, says Oman, contains some exceedingly
valuable information, while the prophecies have
been the puzzle of commentators. 1 The works of
Constantine comprise a treatise on the administration
of the Themes or provincial districts, a biography of
his grandfather, and a comprehensive manual of the
etiquette and ceremonies of the Court. Towards
the close of the eighth century or at the beginning
of the ninth appeared the commonplace books of
Stobaeus, one series entitled An Anthology of Ex-
tracts^ Sentences, and Precepts, one grouped together
under the name of Physical, Dialectic, and Moral
1 Oman, The Byzantine Empire, p. 280.
Constantinople 287
Selections^ and a third entitled simply Discourses.
The extracts are drawn from more than five hundred
authors, whose works have in great measure perished.
They include, says Heeren (who, in 1792, published
an edition of Stobaeus), passages from many of the
ancient comic writers. The exact date of the life or
of the work of Stobaeus is not known. Photius says
that his commonplace books were prepared as an
educational guide for his son Septimius.
By the ninth century there are indications of the
existence of a literary class, and there is evidence of
the work of a few first-class writers such as the
patriarch Photius, 857-69, whose library catalogue
is the envy of modern scholars. 1 This catalogue,
composed while its author was an exile in Bagdad,
comprises a review or analysis of the works of two
hundred and eight writers. Gibbon points out, in
connection with this catalogue of Photius, that the
students and writers of that period enjoyed the use
of many works of Greek literature which have since
perished in whole or in part. He cites, among other
authors, Theopompus, Menander, Alcaeus, Hyperides,
and Sappho.
In 867, under the direction of Basil II., were
written the Basilics, or code of laws. The Emperor
1 Gibbon's Row, Am. ed., v., 525.
288 Authors and Their Public
himself was the author of a comprehensive history
of Greece and Rome, of which but fragments have
been preserved.
Early in the tenth century, the exact date is un-
certain, Suidas compiled his famous lexicon. Ac-
cording to Gibbon, Suidas was also the author of
some fifty plays, some of which were based upon
Aristophanes. In the latter part of the eleventh
century Eudocia (wife of Romanus and the second
literary empress of the name), having been im-
prisoned in a convent by her son, wrote, while in
confinement, a treatise on the genealogies of the
gods and heroes.
During the first years of the twelfth century Anna
Comnena, daughter of Alexius Comnenus I., wrote,
in fifteen books, under the title of Alexias, a life of
her father. Gibbon speaks of the style of the history
as being turgid and inflated, but says that it contains
some interesting accounts of the first Crusaders.
In the twelfth century, a name of distinction is
that of Eustathius I., Archbishop of Thessalonica,
who published, about 1150, commentaries on Homer
and on Dionysius the Geographer. Gibbon says
that in the former he refers to no less than four
hundred authors. At about the same time appeared
the Chiliads of Tsetzes.
Constantinople 289
Oman is of opinion that the most interesting de,
velopment of Byzantine literature were the Epics or
Romances of Chivalry, written at the close of the
tenth and the beginning of the eleventh centuries.
He names as one of the best representatives of these
romances, the epic of Diogenes Akritas, a mighty
hunter, a slayer of dragons, and a persistent and
successful lover.
I have referred to the work of but a few of the
more representative of the Byzantine writers. It
would be foreign to the purposes of this sketch to
undertake to present any comprehensive bibliog-
raphy of Byzantine literature, even if I had available
the material for such a bibliography. Of many of
the authors whose names have been preserved, very
little except their names is known, while of the entire
literature of the Byzantine period it may, I judge,
fairly be said that it possesses but slight interest or
value for later generations. The fact that literary
undertakings of importance at the time and of
interest for the readers of the day continued from
generation to generation to be presented to the
public, undertakings which in not a few cases must
have involved the labor of many years, gives us the
right to conclude that some means or machinery
must have existed for reaching this public. As far,
290 Authors and Their Public
however, as my present information goes, there are
absolutely no data concerning the existence in Con-
stantinople of any publishing or bookselling trade,
and we have no means of knowing by what means
the books of Byzantium were manifolded and dis-
tributed.
It is to be noted that a very large number of the
writers named belonged to the Court, or held high
official station. The fact that so many books were
the work of the emperors themselves and of the
members of the imperial families, is exceptional both
in the history of literature and in the history of
royalty. It is probable that for the transcribing of
these books and for the books of officials generally,
the services of official scribes were utilized. Authors
outside of official circles may have gone to the con-
vent, or may also have employed private scribes. It
is fair to assume, notwithstanding the absence of
any specific mention of such establishments, that
some organization of scribes, or of work-rooms for
the manifolding of books, existed in the city.
In closing this chapter, I venture to recall to my
readers the well-known summary by Gibbon of the
literature of the Byzantine Empire.
" The Empire of the Caesars undoubtedly checked the activity and
the progress of the human mind. Its magnitude might indeed allow
Constantinople 291
some scope for domestic competition ; but when it was gradually
reduced, at first to the East, and at last to Greece and Constantinople,
the Byzantine subjects were degraded to an abject and languid temper,
the natural effect of their solitary and insulated state. Alone in the
universe, the self-satisfied pride of the Greeks was not disturbed by
the comparison of foreign merit. . . . Their prose is soaring to the
vicious affectation of poetry ; their poetry is sinking below the flat-
ness and insipidity of prose. The tragic, epic, and lyric muses were
silent and inglorious. The bards of Constantinople seldom rose
above a riddle or an epigram, a panegyric or a tale. They forgot
even the rules of prosody, and with the melody of Homer still ringing
in their ears, they confound all measures of feet and syllables in the
impotent strains which have received the name of ' political ' or city
verses."
The change first comes when there is a break in
the insulation. Gibbon continues : " The nations of
Europe and Asia were mingled by the expeditions
to the Holy Land, and it is under the Comnenian
dynasty that a faint emulation of knowledge and
of military virtue was rekindled in the Byzantine
Empire."
The opinion of Lecky is still more emphatic. He
says : " The universal verdict of history is that the
Byzantine State constituted the most base and des-
picable form that civilization ever assumed, and
there has been no other enduring civilization so
absolutely destitute of all the forms of true great-
ness, none to which the epithet mean may so em-
phatically be applied." ' Is it surprising that in a
l Hist. Europ. Morals, Amer. ed., p. 13.
292 Authors and Their Public
State thus demoralized there is no record of the
existence of a publisher ?
It is only proper to add that the historian Oman,
a much sounder authority on the subject than Mr.
Lecky, and writing with information before him that
was not available for Gibbon, contends that the talk
about the exceptional demoralization of the Byzan-
tines is largely rubbish, and points out that if the
State were really as corrupt as it is painted by Gibbon
and by Lecky, it would have fallen to pieces of its
own rottenness within two or three generations, in-
stead of enduring as the bulwark of Europe for over
a thousand years.
The fall of Constantinople in 1453, and the intro-
duction into Europe of the Turks, was unquestion-
ably a great injury to Europe and to civilization, and
the destruction of the collections of manuscripts ex-
isting in the capital itself and in monasteries and
libraries in other cities of the Empire, was an irre-
parable loss for literature. For the educational
interests and the literary development of Europe
there were, however, considerations to offset this
serious disaster. Great as was the destruction of
manuscripts, a number were preserved by individual
scholars and in the hidden recesses of certain con-
vents and monasteries. Many of these were at once
Constantinople 293
taken to Italy, Germany, and France by the scholars
flying from the barbarous conquerors of their land,
and the works were thus brought to the knowledge
and made available for the use of European students.
Other manuscripts were secured from their hiding-
places years after the capture of the city, by Greek
scholars sent back for the purpose on behalf of the
publishers of Italy and France, or of the universities
of Bologna, Padua, and Paris, while some few valu-
able parchments were hidden so safely that they
have been forgotten for centuries and are only to-
day being brought to light from the vaults and
attics of old monasteries, so as again to be included
in literature accessible for the world.
In addition to the service done to the literary de.
velopment of Europe by the distribution westward
of the texts of the almost forgotten classics of the
great Greek writers, there was the further important
gain for the scholarship of the continent in securing,
for university chairs, for tutorial positions, and for
editorial work, the services of hundreds of Greek
scholars whose homes had been destroyed, or who
were unwilling to live under the rule of the hated
Turk. Men of the highest rank in scholarly accom-
plishments and possessing a thorough knowledge of
the literature of their race, either on the ground of
294 Authors and Their Public
impecuniosity or in some instances apparently from
an unselfish devotion to the cause of scholarship,
found their way to chairs in Bologna, Padua, Paris,
Oxford, and other educational centres, and to the
Court circles of the more intellectual of the princes
and nobles of Italy, and spread in hundreds of
channels a knowledge of the Greek language and an
enthusiasm for the Greek literature. Mohammed
II., the conqueror of Constantinople, had therefore
played a part by no means unimportant in further-
ing one phase at least of the Renaissance of the
intellectual life of Europe.
It was fortunate for the continued vitality and
progress of the movement that the Greek literature
thus reintroduced into Europe found already per-
fected the new art of printing, by means of which
the manuscripts that the refugees from the Bos-
phorus had brought with them could be made gen-
erally available for students. It was fortunate also
that, within a few years after the teaching of Greek
had been entered upon in the principal educational
centres, public-spirited and scholarly publishers were
found prepared to take upon themselves the very
serious business risk involved in the casting of Greek
fonts of type and in the printing of editions of the
Greek texts.
Constantinople 295
The first and most important of these publishers,
the man who, on the ground of high ideals and of
great things accomplished, is properly to be honored
as facile princeps in the long list of the great pub-
lishers of Europe, was Aldus Manutius of Venice, a
worthy successor to Atticus, the friend of Cicero,
who, 155 years earlier, had done his part in intro-
ducing to Italy and to the Roman world the classics
of Greece.
It is in Venice, with the record of the service ren-
dered by Aldus and his successors in connection with
the second introduction into Italy and the world be-
yond Italy of the treasures of Greek literature ; in
Bologna and Paris, with some account of the con-
nection of the great universities with the earlier
publishing undertakings of Europe ; and in Mayence,
Frankfort, and Nuremberg, with the story of Gu-
tenberg and his printing-press, that the history of
the relations of authors with their public must be
continued.
It is my hope to be able in a later volume to trace
the development of property in literature from the
time of the invention of printing down to the pres-
ent day. It was, of course, only after the general
application of printing to the production of books
that authors were placed in a position to enforce any
296 Authors and Their Public
property control over their productions, while for a
long period this control was conceded for but brief
terms and was restricted to but limited territories.
More than four centuries of further development in
national morality have been required before the civi-
lization of the world has brought itself to the recog-
nition of the rights of literary producers according
to the standard of to-day, a standard which is ex-
pressed by the term International Copyright.
INDEX.
Abernethy, Dr., the case of, 78
Abicht, cited, 86
Abu Simbel, temple of, 58
Acoka, the edicts of, 44
Agade, discoveries in, 8
Aldus Manutius, of Venice, rein-
troduces Greek literature into
Europe, 295
Alexander, correspondence of, with
Aristotle, 81 ; recites Euripides,
100 ; buys books in Athens, in
Alexandria, as a book-mart, 116 ;
literary activity of, under the
Ptolemies, 127 ; concentration of
existing Greek manuscripts in,
131 ; the writers of, 132 ; ad-
vantageous position of, 139 ;
publishing methods of, 140
Alexandrian Canon, the, 134
Alexandrian Museum and Library,
organization of, 128 ; wholesale
purchases for, 131 ; publishing
undertakings of, 141
Alexandrian School, literature of
the, 129
Alexandrian school of theology,
writers of the, 146
Alexis, writer of comedies, 96
Alphabet, invention of, in China,
23
American literature, relations of,
with Great Britain, 172
Anaxagoras, charged with heresies,
97 ; quoted by Socrates, 98
Andronicus of Rhodes, 117
Andronicus of Tarentum, the first
Latin playwright, 176
Antigonus Gonatas sends scribes
to Zeno, 113
Antioch, as a literary centre, 139 ;
the library of, dispersed, 140
Antipater, the Histories of, 180
Antiphanes of Rhodes, 103
Antiquarii, definition of, 183
Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius, the
Meditations of, 260
Apellikon, a collector of books,
117
Appollonius, work of, on conic
sections, 132
Apuleius, the writings of, 261
Arabian Nights, the, 49
297
298
Index
Aratus, the astronomer, 132
Archilochus, 59
Aretades, the sophist, 69
Argil etum, the street the book-
sellers' quarter, 239
Aristomenes, The Deceivers of, 103
Aristophanes, charged with pla-
giarism, 71 ; The Frogs of, 71,
94
Aristophanes, the grammarian, 74
Aristotle, criticised by Cephisodo-
rus, 80 ; writings of, 80-82 ; re-
lations with Alexander, 81 ; the
library of, bequeathed to Neleus,
buried by heirs of Neleus, sold
to Apellikon, taken to Rome by
Sylla, usedbyTyrannion, 90, 117
Artemon, a grammarian, 96
Assyrian literature, preservation of,
152
Athanasius, 146
Athenseus, on libraries and book-
collectors, 89 ; cited, 89, 95, 96,
100, 142
Athens, the public library of, taken
to Persia by Xerxes, restored by
Seleucus, 89 ; the book-shops of,
114
Attali, the rivalry of, with the
Ptolemies in collecting manu-
scripts, 116
Atticus, sojourn of, in Athens, 117 ;
brings manuscripts to Rome,
118 ; organizes a publishing
establishment, 184 ; issues Greek
classics, 184 ; relations with
Cicero, 186, 190
" Attikians," term given to editions
issued by Atticus, 184
Attilius, put to death for permitting
the Sibylline books to be copied,
244
Augustan Age, Writers of the, 202,
204
Augustus orders the pseudo-Sibyl-
line books to be burned, 264
B
Bark of trees used for writing by
the Homeric Greeks, 155
Barthelemi, his Travels of Ana-
charsis cited, 76
Basil II., directs the writing of the
Basilics, 287 ; writes histories of
Rome and Greece, 288
Berosus, translations by, 139
Birt, cited, 89, 104, no, 130, 141,
142, 153, 155, 249, 256, 263
Boeckh, cited, 92, 97
Boethius, described by Hodgkin,
280 ; writings of, 280
Bologna, influence of the University
of, in publishing undertakings,
295
Book collecting fashionable in
Rome after the first century, 125
Bookmaking terms in Rome bor-
rowed from Alexandria, 162
Book of Odes, the (in China), 23
Book of the Dead, the, 12-14
Books, in Alexandria, divisions of,
143 ; ancient, materials used for,
149 ; distribution and sale of,
Index
299
throughout the Empire, 255 ;
when considered injurious pro-
ceeded against under the crimi-
nal law, 267 ; average duration
of the copies, 271
Booksellers, crucified by Domitian,
244 ; in Rome, principal cus-
tomers of, 245
Bookselling in Athens, the business
of, 102 ; referred to in the com-
edies, 102
Book-shops in Rome, decrease of,
after Constantine, 275-
Book terminology, 149
Book-trade of Rome influenced by
the removal of the capital, 276
Boustrophedon, the, 57
Brahmanic priests, the writings of
the, 45
Breulier, A., on literary property
in Greece, cited, 55, 90
Bruns, cited, 83
Buchsenschutz, cited, 97
Buddha, or Gautama, the work of,
45
Burckhardt, cited, 265, 266
Bursian, cited, 247
Byzantine Court, literary interests
of, 283 ; writers attached to the,
290
Byzantine literature, characteristics
of, 289 ; described by Gibbon,
290
Byzantine State, characterized by
Lecky, 291 ; character of, ana-
lyzed by Oman, 292
Byzantium, the scribes of, 290
Csecilius, comedies of, 179
Caligula, undertakes to suppress
the writings of Homer, 264 ;
orders taken from the libraries
the busts and the writings of
Virgil and Livy, 264
Callimachus, poet and editor, de-
scribes the Alexandrian Library,
130, 137
Calvisius, pays high prices for
scribes, 181
Carthage, the literary school of, 261
Cassiodorus, writings of, 279
Cato, the Origines of, 180
Caunus, inhabitants of, admirers of
Euripides, 99
Cecrops, the Milesian, edits poems
of Hesiod, 66
Censorship of books under the
Emperors, 264
Cephisodorus, cited, 80
Cephisophon, slave of Euripides,
91
Chabas, discoverer of the Prisse
papyrus, 15
Chaldea, early literature of, 5-9 ;
authors of, 8
Chaldean "books," methods of
preparing, 150
Chares, slave of Lycon, 115
Cheops, or Khufa, 12
China, beginnings of literature in,
22 ; first use of written characters
in, 23 ; first printing in, 29
Chinese authors, rewards of, 37
300
Index
Chinese classics, the early, 30
Chinese literature, the golden age
of, 36
Chinese writing materials, 28
Church of Rome, influence of, on
literary production and on the
preservation of books, 274
Cicero, to Atticus concerning De
Finibus, 79 ; reference of, to
Hermodorus, 79 ; birth of, 180 ;
relations with Atticus, 186-190 ;
right to publish the works of,
purchased by Dorus, 244 ; Ad
Quintum cited, 247 ; De Finibus
cited, 249
Clearchus, library of, 91
Clement, Paul, on literary property
in Greece, cited, 54, 62, 77, 90 ;
on plagiarism in Greece, 77
Codex Argenteus, 284
Codex Parisinus of Demosthenes,
authority for, 124
College, the Royal, of Constanti-
nople, 286
Comedy, derivation of the term,
65
Comnena, Anna, writes the A lexias,
288
Comum, the library of, 246
Confucius, 24, 25, 27
Constantine orders the writings of
Arius to be burned, 266 ;
Constantine Porphyrogenitus, the
writings of, 286
Constantinople, established as the
capital of the Empire, 282 ; lit-
erary production in, 282 ; the
Royal College of, 286 ; the fall
of, 292 ; destruction of manu-
scripts in, 292
Cordus, the impecunious, 247
Corea, early printing in, 29
Corinth, capture of, 116
Crassus, Marcus, educates slaves as
copyists, 183
Cratinus, The Mechanics of, 103
Cruttwell, cited, 252
Ctesias, cited, 158
Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, 146
D
Demetrius, the Cynic, 100
Demetrius Phalerius, reference of,
to the Alexandrian Library, 130
Democritus, on the Science of Na-
ture, 83
Demosthenes, 69, 109
Developments, the Book of, 24
Dieulafoy, work of, in Chaldea, 7
Diocletian, orders the destruction
of works on alchemy, 265 ; orders
the books of the Manichseans to
be burned, 265 ; orders the
Scriptures of the Christians to
be destroyed, 266
Diogenes Akritas, 289
Diogenes Laertius, cited, 88, 112-
115, 119, 155, 263
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 112
Diphlherai (dressed skins), use of,
138
Domitian, restores libraries burned
by Nero, 247 ; orders books from
Alexandria, 247
Index
301
Dorus purchases the "remainders "
of the editions of Cicero, 244
Drumann, cited, 118
Eusebius, on the duration of books,
271
Eustathius I., writings of, 288
Eckhard on the term "gramma-
rians," 136
Editions of Roman publications,
255
Edwards, Amelia B., version of
the Tale of Two Brothers, 20
Egypt, early literature of, 10-20
Egyptian Mdrchen, 21
English dramatists, relations of,
with French literature, 171
Ennius, the "father of Latin
literature," his Sicilian cookery-
book, 178
Epaphroditus, the library of, 249
Ephesus, curious books burned in,
118
Etruscans, the inscriptions of, 57
Euclid, 132
Eudocia,the Empress, writings of,
283
Eudocia, wife of Romanus, writes
treatise on the genealogies of the
gods, 288
Eumenes II., furthers the produc-
tion of parchment, 158
Euphorion, plagiarism of, 76
Eupolis, refers to booksellers, 104
Euripides, library of, 91 ; popu-
larity of the songs of, 99 ;
recitations from, by Alexander,
100 ; the Bacchantes of, 101
Fei-ke-mono-gatari, the (Annals),
42
Flood, the, Chaldean account of, 9
Folk-songs of India, 45
Freeman, on Athenian audiences,
86
French, the literary language of
the eighteenth century, 171
Fronto, the writings of, 261
Fu-hi, the Emperor, 22
Gaius on immaterial property, 269
Galen, cited, 124, 157
Gdthas, the hymns of Persia, 47
Gautama, or Buddha, the work of,
45
Gellius, Aulus, cited, 8 1, 89, 246
Geraud, on the influence of the
priestly caste on literature, 56 ;
on the journey of Trajan, 164
Gibbon, on the Royal College of
Constantinople, 285 ; on the li-
brary of Photius, 287 ; on the
histories of Anna Comnena, 288
Gnosticism in Alexandria, 147
Golden Meadows, the, of El
Mesondee, 49
Gospels, the Gothic version of, 284
" Grammarians," the, of the Alex-
andrian Academy, 133
302
Index
" Grammarians " as buyers of
books, 248
Greece, the early literature of, 53 ;
introduction of the alphabet into,
56 ; reading and writing in early,
61
Greek books, costliness of, 93
Greek classics, distribution of,
throughout the Empire, 262
Greek manuscripts, careless copy-
ing of, referred to by Strabo, 120
Greek language and literature,
the knowledge of, throughout
Europe furthered by the fall of
Constantinople, 294
Greek, the literary language of
early Rome, 116, 166 ; the lan-
guage of higher education in
later Rome, 259
Greek written characters, first ex-
ample of, 58
Greeks, the trained memories of,
106, 107, 108
Gutenberg and his printing-press,
295
II
Hammer, von, cited, 49
Harpalus, friend of Alexander,
in; purchases books in Athens,
in
Hebrew literature, the golden age
of, 50, 52
Hebrews, early literature of, 49
Heeren, editor of the works of
Stobseus, 287
Hercules, prefers cookery to poetry,
96
Hermann, cited, 98
Hermes Trismegistus, II
Hermetic books of Egypt, 1 1
Hermodoros sells reports of Plato's
lectures, 78
Hermogenes of Tarsus killed by
Domitian, 245
Herodotus, the Histories of, 84-86 ;
in Thurium, 85 ; cited, 155
Hesiod, poems of, 66 ; his Works
and Days, 66
Hezar Afsaneh, the (the thousand
fanciful stories) 49
Hezekiah, the age of, 50
Hoang-ti, the Emperor, invents
decimal system, etc., 23
Hodgkin, T., his Theodoric the
Goth cited, 281
Homeric poems, collected under
Pisistratus, 66
Hommel, Fritz, work of, in Chal-
dea, 7
Horace, on the cost of learned
slaves, 181 ; on plagiarists, 202
Hostius, the Histories of, 180
Hwang-ti, the Emperor, issues an
index expurgatorius, 33 ; orders
destruction of classic literature,
34
Iliad, miniature copy of the, de-
scribed by Pliny, 118
India, earliest literature of, 44
Index
303
Indian monasteries, manuscripts
in the, 46
Indian writers, compensation of,
46
Indian writing materials, 46
Iran and Turan, 48
Isaiah, cited, 145
Isocrates, price paid him for dis-
courses, 77 ; cited, 88 ; his letters
to Philip, 109 ; the Parathenai-
cus of, no
Italicus, the libraries of, 249
Izanaghi and Izanami, creators of
the Japanese world, 40
J
Japan, early literature of ; early
writing materials, 39, 40
Japan, the theatre of, 42
Japanese authors, the rewards of,
43
Jerome, controversial letters of, 267
Jevons, Hist. Greek Lit. cited, 58-
63
Jewish law, the, against false
words, 52
Johnson's Universal Cyclopedia,
cited, 156
Josephus, reference of, to the
Alexandrian Library, 130
Judaea, early literature of, 49
Jurists of Rome on immaterial
property, 267
Justinian, opinion in the Institutes
of, on immaterial property, 269
Juvenal, cited, 247 ; on the poet's
profession, 252
Kallinus, the scribe, 115
Karpeles on early Egyptian litera-
ture, 1 2 -i 6 ; on literature in
China, 23
Khufa or Cheops, 12
Kingsley's Hypatia, 1 46
Kiriath Sepher, or the Quarter of
the Grammarians, 136
Klostermann, on Roman jurispru-
dence, 268
Kang-Hi, the Emperor, interested
in printing, 29
Krates, the Cynic, 114
Labeo, the jurist, writings of, 255
Lamothe, cited, 75
Latin, the literary language of
mediaeval Europe, 171
Latin language, discontinuance of,
in the Greek Empjre, 285
Latin literature affected by the
removal of the capital to Byzan-
tium, 276
Layard, Sir Henry, discoveries in
Chaldea, 5 ; cited, 149
Lead, sheets of, used for public
documents, 154
Legge, on early Chinese literature,
23
Leo the Isaurian, 285
Leo the Wise, writings of, 286
Libellous publications, punish-
ments for the circulation of, 245 ;
when held to be treasonable, 267
304
Index
Libraries, in Rome, 245 ; in the
public baths and in country
houses, 249 ; renewals of books
in, 270
Library, of the Temple of Apollo,
245 ; of the College in Athens,
247
Li-ki, the, or Book of Conduct, 32
Linen sheets, use of, for private
records, 154
Linus, instructor of Hercules, 96
" Literary Emperors," the, of
Constantinople, 286
Literature, the beginnings of, I
Livy, Histories of, published by
Dorus, 196
Lollianus, Mavertius, 262
Lucian, cited, 84, 100 ; criticises
the bad work done by the Athen-
ian publishers, 123 ; works of,
in demand thirty years after the
author's death, 250
Lucretius, on The Nature of
Things ; 196
Lucullus brings to Rome books
from Athens, 116
Lun-yii, the, or Conversations, 32
Lycon, Peripatetic philosopher, 115
Lycophon, 132
M
Ma, Egyptian goddess of truth, n
Macedonia, book collectors in, 96
Maecenas, his influence on literary
production, 251
Mahaffy, on use of memory in
Greece, 63 ; on the writings of
Hesiod, 66 ; on Athenian audi-
ences, 86 ; analyzes the character
of Alexandrian literature, 135 ;
describes the Alexandrian Uni-
versity, 129
Manuscripts, destruction of, in
Constantinople, 292 ; taken by
Greek scholars to Italy and
Germany, 293
Man-yo-sin, the (collection of bal-
lads), 41
Marcellinus, cited, 87
Martial, the library of, 250 ; on
plagiarism, 204 ; on the compen-
sation of authors, 233, 252 ; on
presentation copies 208, 209, 210 ;
on the prices of his books, 214 ;
his four publishers, 216 ; as an
advertiser and as a blackmailer,
206, 253
Massilia, as a centre of higher
education, 259
Maternus, Firmicus, the Mathesis
of, 262
Meineke, cited, 103, 104, 156
Melanippides, the poetry of, 105
Menant, cited, 151
Mencius, the work of, 28
Mengtsze, the, 32
Metamorphoses, the Book of the, 24
Mnaseas, father of Zeno, in
Moore's Lectures, cited, 134
Mliller, on Aristophanes, cited, 94,
95
N
Nepos, Cornelius, his Life of
Atticus, 175
Index
305
Niceratus, 106
Nichomachus, the arithmetician,
132
Nicocles pays Isocrates for dis-
courses, 77
Nicophon refers to booksellers, 103
Nineveh, royal library of, 5
Notarii, definition of, 183
Nii Kiai, the, or Female Precepts,
35
O
Oman, C. W. C., on Byzantine
literary history, 285 ; the By-
zantine Empire, 286
Origen refers to the "swift
writers of Alexandria," 125
Palimpsest, or codex rescriptus, 161
Pammachius attempts to suppress
letters of St. Jerome, 266
Pan Chao, a female historian, 35
Papyrus, cost of, in Greece, 94 ;
monopoly of, in Alexandria, 138 ;
disappearance of, in Egypt, 144 ;
used for cordage, 1 54 ; destruc-
tibility of, 270
Papyrus rolls, size of, 141
Parchment, invention of, 137
Paris, influence of the University
of, in publishing undertakings,
2Q5
Paul orders books burned in
Ephesus, 118
Penta-on, the poem of, 17
Pergamentum, derivation of term,
138
Pergamum, as a literary centre,
138 ; the royal library of, pre-
sented by Antony to Cleopatra,
89 ; the library of, transferred to
Alexandria, 140
Pericles reduces price of seats in
theatre, 76
Persia, earliest literature of, 47
Persian priests, 48 ; poets, 48 ;
minstrels, 48 ; story-tellers, 48 ;
reciters, 49 ; writing materials,
49
Peters, Jno. P., work of, in Chal-
dea, 7 ; on the age of Hezekiah,
So, 51
Petronius, cited, 249
Phsedon of Elis, 105
Philoxenus of Cythera, 105
Photius, cited, 91 ; the library cata-
logue of, 287
Pi-Shing invents printing from
movable type, 29
Pisistratus, tyrant of Athens, 65 ;
bequeaths his books to Athens,
89
Piso, the annals of, 180
Plagiarism, in Greece, 73 ; in
Alexandria, 74 ; in Rome, 204
Plato, influence of, on the literary
life of Athens, 77 ; lectures of,
78 ; the Timceus of, 72, 124 ;
reference of, to the book-trade
of Athens, 97 ; writer of com-
edies, 103
Plautus, earns money by his com-
edies, 179; loses money as a
miller, 179
306
Index
Pliny, gives a library to Comum,
246 ; on the service to literature
rendered by Varro, 256 ; on the
importance of papyrus, 259 ; on
the duration of books, 271 ; let-
ters of, cited, 153, 249, 255, 265
Plutarch, the plagiarism of, 73 ;
cited, 84, 89, no, in, 116, 157
Porphyry of Tyre, writings of,
266
Priests of Egypt, connection with
the Book of the Dead, 14
Printing, invention of, in China,
29
Priscus, poems of, on Germanicus
and on Drusus, 251 ; put to
death by the Senate, 252
Prisse papyrus, the, 15
Procopius, writings of, 285
Proculus on immaterial property,
268
Prodicus, a poem of, 96
Pronapis initiates writing from
left to right, 57
Protagoras, receives pay for in-
struction, 84; writings of, burned
as heretical, 119
Psammaticus, king, 58
Ptah-Hotep, the Precepts of , 14, 15
Ptolemies, rivalry of, with the
Attali in collecting books, 116
Ptolemy Soter founds the Alexan-
drian Museum, 128
Ptolemy Philadelphus, develops the
Alexandrian Museum into an
Academy and University, 128 ;
prohibits export of papyrus, 138
Publishers of Greece do not asso-
ciate their names with the works
issued by them, 121
Quintilian, salary of, as state rhe-
torician, 254
Ragozin, Story of Chaldea, 10, 151
Rameses II., Reign of, 17, 1 8
Rangabe, cited, 94
Rawlinson, George, summary of
Egyptian literature, 18, 19
Rawnsley, H. D., Notes for the
Nile, 15 ; metrical versions of
Egyptian hymns, 17
Reciting in Greece of literary pro-
ductions, 64
Regulus, M. Aquilus, writes the
memoir of his son, 255
Renouard, on Jewish plagiarism,
52 ; cited, 244, 267
Rhapsodists, the, of Greece, 64
Rhodes, a centre of book produc-
tion, 116
Ritsche, cited, 156
Ritter, cited, 117
Rolls, of papyrus, size of, 141
Roman authors, as " appropria-
tors," 1 66 ; their difficulties in
securing a public, 168
Roman jurists on immaterial prop-
erty, 267
Roman literature, beginnings of,
163
Index
307
Roman publishers, business con-
nection of, with Alexandria, 170
Roman Republic gives no aid to
literary undertakings, 1 74
Romances of chivalry in Byzan-
tium, 289
Rome, becomes a literary centre,
146 ; capture of, by Alaric, 278;
capture of, by Odoacer, 279 ;
capture of, by Theodoric, 279 ;
influence of Greece upon the
early literature of, 165
Rozoir's Dictionnaire, cited, 69
Rustem, the legend of, 48
Rusticus, Junius, Laudation by, 265
S
Sabinus, Petronius, copies the
Sibylline books, 244
Sabinus on immaterial property,
268
Sammoaicus, the library of, 249
Sanscrit literature, the earliest, 44
Sapor II. and the Avesta, 48
Sauppe on the Codex Parisinus of
Demosthenes, 124
Scsevola, the Annales Maximi of,
1 80
Schaefer, cited, 109
Schi-king, the, 32
Schmitz, W., on writers and book-
sellers in Greece, cited, 55, 90,
98, in
Scholars of Byzantium scattered
through Europe after the cap-
ture of the city, 293
SchSll, cited, 134
Schu, the, (" books,") in China, 30
Schu-king, the, 31
Scribes, in Egypt, 20 ; in Athens,
105 ; in Alexandria, 137
Seneca, cited, 181, 244
Senecio, Herennius, the Lauda-
tion by, 265
Septuagint, the, begun in Alexan-
dria 285 B.C., 136
Servus literatus, requirements for
a, 182
Sibylline books, ownership in,
claimed by the State, 234
Sigean inscription, 57
Simcox, cited, 163, 177, 178, 179,
245, 250-253, 255, 260, 261
Skytale, the, 60
Smith, George, work in London
and in Chaldea, 5, 7, 150
Smyrna, the library of, 247
Solon, the laws of, 57
Songs (Chinese), the Book of, 24
Sophists, the, 65
Sosii, the, 202
Soto-oro-ime, Empress and poet, 41
Stahr's Aristotle, cited, 90
Statius, the Theba'id of, 254
Stella, his poem on the " Wars of
the Giants," 251
St. John, Second Epistle of, writ-
ten on papyrus, 160
Stobseus, the writings of, 286
Strabo, refers to incorrect text of
Greek manuscripts, 120 ; refers
to bookmaking in Alexandria,
137 ; complains as to the in-
accuracy of books, 182
308
Index
Suetonius, his Life of Domitian,
cited, 244, 247, 264; his Ludicra,
260
Suidas, cited, 76, 154 ; reference of,
to Hermodoros, 79 ; the Lexicon
of, 288 ; the plays of, 288
Susanoo arranges sounds into sylla-
bles, 40
Sylla, a collector of Greek books,
117; purchases the manuscripts
of Aristotle and Theophrastus,
117
Syria, under the Seleucids, a
home of Hellenism, 139
Tablets of baked clay, 149
Tablets of wax, known to Homer,
in use with the Romans, 154
Tacitus, the Agricola of, cited,
265
Tacitus, the Emperor, orders the
histories of his ancestor to be
placed in the public libraries,
257
Tacitus, the historian, cited, 251 ;
education of, 257 ; writings of,
258
TagenislcE, the, of Aristophanes,
61
Telegraph, the London, employs
George Smith in Chaldea, 6
Temple, the copyists of the, 52
Terence, translates plates from the
Greek, 179 ; receives pay for
stage-rights, 225
Tertullian, the writings of, 261
Testament, the New, almost the
only literary production of im-
portance in Syrian Greek, 139
Theatre, in Greece, cost of admis-
sion to, 76
Theocritus, work of, in Alexandria,
132
Theognis, the Megarian, the device
of, 61
Theological writings distributed
without profit to their authors,
147
Theopompus, the Philippics of,
72 ; refers to booksellers, 103
Thoth-Hermes, god of wisdom
and literature, 1 1
Thucydides, listens to Herodotus,
86 ; the daughter of, 87
Tiberius orders certain historical
writings taken from the libraries,
264
Tibullus gives copies of his books
to the Palatine Library, 246
Tibur, the library of, 246
Timon, 132
Tiron, the freedman and friend of
Cicero, 184
Trajan, Asiatic expeditions of, 164
Tribonianus on immaterial prop-
erty, 268
Trimalchio, the libraries of, 249
Tschun-tshien, the, 32
Tsengtze, the work of, 28
Type first used in China, 29
Tyrannion edits writings of Aris-
totle, 90, 120
Index
309
Tzetzes, John, describes the Alex-
andrian Library, 130 ; the Chil-
iads of, 288
U
Ulfilas translates the Bible into
Gothic, 284
Undertakers, the, of Egypt, the
first booksellers, 13
Varro, the writings of, 256
Vedas, the, 44, 45
Vendidad, the, 47
Virey, P., translation of Ptah-
Hotep's Precepts, 16
Virgil, the ^Eneid of, 198
Visparad, the, 47
Vitruvius, cited, 74
W
Wade, Sir Thomas, cited, 36
Wang Pih-ho, compiles a horn-
book, 36
Wilkinson, cited, 145, 152
Williams, S. Wells, quoted, 27-36
Women as scribes, 183
Xenophon, home of, at Scillus,
88 ; his method in the Anabasis,
88 ; completes the Cyropcedia,
88 ; death of, 88 ; literary un-
dertakings of, 88 ; reference of,
to books saved from a wreck,
101
Yasna, the, 47
Yescht-Sade, the, 47
Yih, the councillor, 31
Y-king, the, or Book of the Meta-
?ses, 24
Zeller, cited, 82
Zend-Avesta, the, 47
Zeno, the shipwreck of, 113
Zenodotus establishes the first
grammar-school in Athens, 133
Zoroaster, or Zarathustra, 47
Authors and Their Public
In Ancient Times
A Sketch of Literary Conditions and of the Relations with
the Public of Literary Producers, from the Earliest Times
to the Fall of the Roman Empire.
By GEO. HAVEN PUTNAM, A.M.
Author of " The Question of Copyright," " Books and their Makers
During the Middle Ages," etc.
Third Edition, Revised, 12, gilt top - - . . $1.50
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A most valuable review of the important subject of the beginnings of literary
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The beginnings of literary matters in Chaldea, Egypt, India, Persia, China, and
Japan are exhibited with discrimination and fairness and in a very entertaining
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The work shows broad cultivation, careful scholarly research, and original
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Books and Their Makers
During the Middle Ages
A Study of the Conditions of the Production and Distribu-
tion of Literature from the Fall of the Roman Empire to
the Close of the Seventeenth Century.
By GEO. HAVEN PUTNAM, A.M.
Author of " Authors and Their Public in Ancient Times," " The
Question of Copyright," etc., etc.
In two volumes, 8, cloth extra (sold separately), each - $2.50
Volume I. 476-1600.
PART I. BOOKS IN MANUSCRIPT.
I. The Making of Books in the Monasteries.
Introductory. Cassiodorus and S. Benedict. The Earlier Monkish Scribes.
The Ecclesiastical Schools and the Clerics as Scribes. Terms Used for Scribe
Work. S. Columba. the Apostle to Caledonia. Nuns as Scribes. Monkish
Chroniclers. The Work of the Scriptorium. The Influence of the Scriptorium.
The Literary Monks of England. The Earlier Monastery Schools. The Bene-
dictines of the Continent. The Libraries of the Monasteries and their Arrange-
ments for the Exchange of Books.
II. Some Libraries of the Manuscript Period.
III. The Making of Books in the Early Universities.
IV. The Book-Trade in the Manuscript Period.
Italy. Books in Spain. The Manuscript Trade in France. Manuscript
Dealers in Germany.
PART II. THE EARLIER PRINTED BOOKS.
I. The Renaissance as the Forerunner of the Printing-Press.
II. The Invention of Printing and the Work of the First Printers
of Holland and Germany.
III. The Printer-Publishers of Italy.
Volume II. 1500-1709.
IV. The Printer-Publishers of France.
V. The Later Estiennes and Casaubon.
VI. Caxton and the Introduction of Printing into England.
VII. The Kobergers of Nuremberg.
VIII. Froben of Basel.
IX. Erasmus and his Books.
X. Luther as an Author.
XI. Plantin of Antwerp.
XII. The Elzevirs of Leyden and Amsterdam.
XIII. Italy : Privileges and Censorship.
XIV. Germany : Privileges and Book-Trade Regulations.
XV. France: Privileges, Censorship, and Legislation.
XVI. England: Privileges, Censorship, and Legislation.
XVII. Conclusion : The Development of the Conception of Literary
Property.
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
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The Question of Copyright
Comprising the text of the Copyright Law of the United
States, and a summary of the Copyright laws at present
in force in the chief countries of the world ; together
with a report of the legislation now pending in Great
Britain, a sketch of the contest in the United States,
1837-1891, in behalf of International Copyright, and
certain papers on the development of the conception of
literary property aud on the results of the American law
of 1891.
COMPILED BY
GEO. HAVEN PUTNAM, A.M.,
Secretary of the American Publishers' Copyright League.
Second Edition, revised, with additions, and with the record of
legislation brought down to March, 1896, octavo, gilt top, $1.75
CONTENTS. The law of Copyright in the U. S. in force July i, 1895. Direc-
tions for securing Copyright. Countries with which the U. S. is now in Copyright
relations. Amendments to the Copyright Act since July i, i8gi. Summary of
Copyright legislation in the U. S., by R. R. Bowker. History of the contest for
International Copyright. The Hawley Bill of January, 1885. The Pearsall-Smith
scheme of Copyright. Report of the House Committee on Patents, on the Bill of
1890-91, by W. E. Simonds. The Platt-Simonds Act of March, 1891. Analysis of
the provisions of the Act of 1891. Extracts from the speeches in the debates of 1891.
Results of the law of 1891 (considered in January 1894). Summary of the inter-
national Copyright cases and decisions since the Act of 189 1. Abstract of the
Copyright laws of Great Britain, with a digest of the same by Sir James Stephen.
Report of the British Copyright Commission of 1878. The Monkswell Copy-
right bill of 1890. with an analysis by Sir Frederick Pollock. The Berne Conven-
tion of 1887. The Montevideo Convention of 1889. The Nature and Origin of
Copyright, by R. R. Bowker. The Evolution of Copyright, by Brander Mat-
thews. Literary Propeity : an historical sketch. Statutory Copyright in England,
by R. R. Bowker. Cheap Books and Good Books by Brander Matthews. Copy-
right and the Prices ot Books. Copyright "Monopolies" and Protection.
States which have become parties to the Convention of Berne. Summary of the
existing Copyright laws of the world (March, 1896). The status of Canada in
regard to Copyright, January, 1896. General Index.
NOTICES.
A perfect arsenal of facts and arguments, carefully elaborated and very effec-
tively presented. . . . Altogether it constitutes an extremely valuable history
of the development of a very intricate right of property, and it is as interesting as
it is valuable.^ Y. Nation.
A work of exceptional value for authors and booksellers, and for all interested
in the history and status of literary property. Christian Register.
Until the new Copyright law has been in operation for some time, constant re-
source must be had to this workmanlike volume. The Critic.
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Authors and Publishers
H flDanual ot
ffot Beginners in ^literature
Comprising a Description of Publishing Methods and Arrange-
ments, Directions for the Preparation of MSS. for the Press,
Explanations of the Details of Book-Manufacturing, with
Instructions for Proof-Reading, and Specimens of Typogra-
phy, the Text of the United States Copyright Law, and
Information Concerning International Copyrights, together
with General Hints for Authors.
Sixth edition, rewritten and enlarged (in press).
CHIEF CONTENTS. Authors and Publishers Publishing Ar-
rangements Securing Copyrights Advertising The Making
of Books Type-Setting Correcting Proofs Electrotyping
Printing-Presses Book-Binding Illustrations.
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witting authors. It spreads before the ' intending author ' the nature of the
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the manufacture of books. It is, in fact, a most instructive manual, and in
connection with the publishers from whom it proceeds, its statements can be
accepted as entirely trustworthy. . . . Not the least excellence of this
manual, A uthors and Publishers^ is the emphasis which it lays upon the
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(in an article referring to the first edition).
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P87
1896
C.I
ROBA
