American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1864-02-03
Publishing-Before Printing.

That the Roman popuiace was not smut
out from literature and even newspaIS ISrs,
by the want of printing press, is GER
tain. What their newspapers may have
contained, / do not know; but Tacitus
tells us that in the provinces, and even in
the camp, these papers were read with
great avidity, every one being anxious to
hear what Thraseas had not done-as in
our day they are to hear what Louis Ma
poleon has said Or has not said. The ex-
istence of several well known publishers
proves the activity of the book trade
Dionysius, of Halicamassus, speaks Of
4" the thousands of writers" on the single
subject of the early Roman history; and
although there is, of course, hyperbole in
his phrase, yet even as an hyperbole it in
dicates a large number. And there is no
oxaegeration but statement meant to be
precise, in the notice of the two thousand
copies Of the pseudo-Sibyllino books which
Augustus confscated in Rome alone
Here, also, is a fact which points in the
same direction Pliney laughingly writes
to q friend that Regulous had taken it in
to his head to weep ostentatiously for the
loss Of his son; and no one weeps like
him hyet at memo. He sets sculptors
and painters to work and composes an ora
ton which he is not content with publicly
reciting in Rome, but must enrich the
provinces with thousand copies Of it
IN eccDp'aria Transcription mtllc. =
There is one important source of demand
which must not be overlooked, | mean for
school books When Juvenal says the
"verses which the boy has just conned
over on his bench he stands up to repeat"
it is clear that the Roman boys had their
lesson books, which they tumbled, tore
and lost, as their descendants have done
And it is worthy of remark, that in the
Roman schools the popular poets were
studied nay, Persius tells us that it was
the ambition Of poets to be read in school
and Nero, in Ghom literary vanity, as we
know, was intense gave express orders
that his verses should be given to the boys.
But perhaps the strongest indication of
this activity is seen in the fact that the
library formed an essential part of every
house, which is far from true of houses of
our own day, even among the easy classes.
= u The prices tell similar tale
IF books had been costly, they must have
been rare; if they had not been cheap,
TREY could not have been common Thus,
on the one hand, the evidence which proves
that books must have been abundant,
proves that they must have been cheap;
and, on the other, the evidence, scanty as
it is, but decisive, which proves that books
were cheap, points to their abundance.
A learned Frenchman, who has iuves-
tigated this point of price, comes to the
conclusion that the prices were lower than
those in our own day. Let us hear what
Martial says. The first book of his Epi-
grams was to be bought, he tells us, for
five denarii (nearly three shillings) ele-
gantly bound but in cheaper binding
for the people, it cost six to ten sestertii
Us. to Is. SD. His thirteenth book of
Epigrams was sold for four sestertii (about
eightpencel; and he said that half that
price wouiAeave fair profit x
The reader, doubtless, jumps to the con-
clusion that books were cheap in those
days, because authors were not paid. But
the reader is rash, and in his rashness
wrong. Authors were paid. / do not as
sert, nor insinuate, that they ever received
the sums which our magnificent biblio-
poles pay celebrated authors-sums the
very mention of which would, a few years
ago have futtered the attics of Grub
street to madness. Horace never got
guinea line for his odes; nor did Pc
tronius receive sixteen thousand pounds
for his romance. Livy was not so well
paid as Macaulay. But the Roman au-
thors were paid, nevertheless, and were
paid sums greater than were usually re-
ceived long after the invention of print
CornhW Magazine.
-<<>--<D->>
AN IRISH GIANT.-At Dromelihly,
ireland, recently, while digging for po-
tatoes, the laborers found Golfer of sill
yer coin, and in digging for more they
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