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 spontaneous growth, but was chiefly the result of the influence 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 literature, that “It is in its best days a Roman literature without being the work of Romans.”[139] The great 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 civilized 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.
Géraud 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 imperial 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 accumulated mass of its literature, and my subject, already sufficiently complex, would have assumed unmanageable 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 Mediterranean, 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 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 themselves Greeks. In fact the Greek language must have occupied in Italy, during the two centuries before Christ, about the place which, centuries later, was held throughout Europe by Latin, as the recognized medium for scholarly expression.
There is, however, this difference to note. The Latin of mediæval 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 artificiality 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 tongue. In the face of this all-powerful competition of the works of some of the greatest writers of antiquity, 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 empire 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 number of instances in which the adaptation from the Greek into the Latin was made with considerable 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 particularly, of course, of those whose work, while distinctive 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 development of real Roman literature and upon any possibility of compensation for the writers of such literature, is obvious. Why should a Roman publisher 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 translation or adaptation, a more spirited and satisfactory piece of work from the Attic quarry?
What encouragement could be given, in the face 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 wholesale appropriations made by English dramatists from the dramatic literature of France, prior to the establishment 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 Alexandria. 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 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 individual 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, therefore, 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 corresponds also with the time when a real national literature began to shape itself, and when the development 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 intellectual 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 mediæval 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 exclusively 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 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 acceptance of and dependence upon the literary productions of the older state; later, a very general appropriation and adaptation of such productions; still later (and in part pari passu with such appropriation), 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 development was in certain ways furthered by the knowledge 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 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 1776, 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 and the Greeks.
While a republican form of government has not usually been considered as unfavorable for intellectual activity, history certainly presents not a few instances in which an absolute monarch has had it 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 practicable 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 Philadelphus, 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 Republic 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 many attractions held out by the Ptolemies should have caused Alexandria rather than Rome to become the literary centre of the world, a distinction which it seems hardly to have lost until, half a century after, through the conquest of Egypt by Octavius (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 preferred as a rule to consider his writing as a pastime. Cicero says: Ut si occupati profuimus aliquid civibus nostris, prosimus etiam, si possumus, otiosi.[140]
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 importance, or might even have impaired the reputation 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, concerning 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 abridgment of the Odyssey. A volume of this kind, written 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 securing 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 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 versions, 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 180 B.C., even of those whose Greek connection has not been traced, were not in great part based upon Greek originals.[141] 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 wholesome development of the literary productiveness 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 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.”[142] 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 environment. 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 undertaking 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 translator was poor, earning a modest livelihood by teaching, could only have been undertaken as a business 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 reference 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.[143] 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. Cæcilius, who was a late contemporary 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 appreciation of Greek literature. He translated a hundred plays, chiefly from Menander, but there is nothing to tell us how far his literary undertakings proved commercially successful.[144] A historical work of substantial 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 Scævola (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 summary 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 concerning 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 enterprises, 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 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 interested 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 demand, and further copies could always be supplied as called for, it seems at first thought as if the expense 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 $400.[145] Calvisius, a rich dilettante, paid as much as 10,000 sesterces, $500, for each of his servi literati.[146] 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.[147]
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 penmanship. 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 household 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 collated with the original text.[148] 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 included readers, copyists, and architects, took upon himself the general supervision of their education, and presided over their classes of instruction.[149] 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 functionaries, scribæ. An inscription quoted by Gruter indicates 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 antiquarii. The term notarii was applied to those who wrote at dictation, taking reports of speeches and of public meetings, testimony of witnesses, notes of judicial proceedings, etc. They were called notarii because they took notes, often in a kind of shorthand. 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-manufacturing establishment in Rome, with connections in Athens and Alexandria. He was himself a thorough 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 undertakings. 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,” Ἀττικίανά, secured wide repute for their accuracy, and came to be referred 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[150] of the “Attikians” as welcomed by scholars for their accuracy and completeness. H. Sauppe tells us that the text of the oration of Demosthenes against Androtion is based upon the issue of Atticus.[151] Harpocration refers to the “Atticus texts” of this oration, and also of Æschines.[152] Galen makes mention of the Atticus edition of Plato’s Timæus.[153] Haenny points out that some question has been raised as to whether the term “Attikiana” always referred to the editions of Titus Pomponius Atticus.[154] He concludes, with Birt, that this term may, later, having come to stand for accurate texts and carefully prepared editions, have occasionally been applied to issues of a later period which could properly 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 simply as Atticus, and he is so referred to several times by Plutarch. Hemsterhuis[155] 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 principal 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 publishing friend, and it seems certain that Atticus took an important part in furthering the development of 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 deserved the honor of being the first of his guild whose name has been preserved in the history of Latin literature. 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 publishing, 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 Mæcenas among publishers if one is only a Mæcenas to begin with. It is probable from the little that can be learned concerning the expenses of book-making and the possibilities of book-selling, that the publishing interests of Atticus brought him (as far at least as money is concerned) deficiencies instead of profits, but he doubtless considered that he was, nevertheless, a gainer by literature when he had taken into account at its full value the friendship of Cicero. Among the earlier writings of Cicero certainly published by Atticus were the Letters, the De Oratore, the Academic Discourses, and the Oration for Ligarius.[156]
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 Discourse for Ligarius, that I propose hereafter to place in your hands the sale of all my writings”—Ligarianam præclare vendidisti; posthac, quidquid scripsero, tibi præconium deferam.[157]
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 arrangements 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 (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.”[158]
While the De Oratore 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 Lælius and the Cato, were probably, like the De Officiis, 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.”[159] 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 judgment. He speaks of waiting in apprehension for the “crayon strokes” (across the papyrus sheets)—Cerulas enim tuas miniatas illas extimescebam.[160] Atticus criticises freely, indicates misused words and erroneous historic references, and suggests emendations.[161]
It seems evident, from the wording of certain references, that the copies prepared for sale were usually at least themselves the property of the bibliophile. Cicero speaks of libri tui,[162] and says also, illa quæ habes de Academicis.[163] On the other hand, the author 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.[164] 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 division 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 Priora) 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 æquo animo, quod illa, quæ habes de Academicis, frustra descripta sunt; multo tamen hæc (i. e., academica posteriora, the later or the revised series) erunt splendidiora, breviora, meliora.[165] “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 portion of the venture. The revised editions of these will be more brilliant, more compact, and in every way better.” Cicero wishes to show that this revision should certainly prove popular and salable, and should more than make up the loss incurred on the first edition.
Birt points out[166] the difference in the publishing arrangements entered into by Cicero from those referred to by Martial. Cicero has apparently a direct business interest in the continued sale of his books, an interest, therefore, probably based upon a percentage. Martial, on the other hand, appears to have accepted from the publishers some round sum, a præmium 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 pecuniary point of view, a matter of indifference to him whether his writings find few readers or many—Quid prodest? nescit sacculus ista meus.[167] Unfortunately no catalogue or even partial list of the publishing ventures of Atticus has been preserved, and the references 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.[168] Birt finds record of the issue by him of a series of carefully edited Greek classics (published in the original), for the texts of which the trustworthy manuscripts of the Athenian “calligrapher,” or copyist, Callinus were followed.[169] Birt is also my authority for the conclusion 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.[170]
While no publisher of the time occupied any such prominent position in the world of letters as Atticus, 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 literary undertakings of uncertain business value, and it is probable also that the competition of a publisher to whom the financial result of his venture was a matter of small 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 business methods of Atticus may easily for a time have discouraged or rendered difficult the development on sound business foundations of publishing in Rome.
Important as the undertakings of Atticus unquestionably 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 fortunate 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 history 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 important 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. Boissier[171] is of opinion that Tiro acted as publisher for certain of Cicero’s writings; he uses the phrase Tiron et Atticus, les deux éditeurs de Cicéron. The evidences, however, concerning Tiro’s career as a publisher do not appear to be conclusive. Tiro was a favorite slave of Cicero, a Greek by birth, and evidently 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 secretary, he unquestionably had during Cicero’s lifetime 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 Quintilian referred when he spoke of him as the compiler and publisher of the writings of Marcus Tullius.[172] Gellius, in quoting the fifth oration against Verres, speaks of the edition or the “book” as one of accepted authority, prepared under the supervision and personal knowledge of Tiro.[173]
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;[174] see also Birt.[175] This same Dorus was, says Seneca, the publisher of the history of Livy: Sic potest T. Livius a Doro accipere aut emere 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.
Géraud says that there were at this time in Rome a large number of public writers, or professional copyists (librarii), who devoted themselves to transcribing for sale the older classics, and who also took commissions from authors for the production of small editions of volumes prepared for private circulation.[176] 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 Quintus had asked him to purchase, says it was difficult to know where to go for these, because most of the texts offered for sale were so bad—ita mendose et scribuntur et veneunt.[177]
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 bookmaking in his stall like a cobbler making shoes, and the great establishment of the banker-publisher Atticus, must have been marked enough.