The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-01-02
ROMAN NEWSPAPERS.
Interesting Description of Acta Di-
urna Urbis of Caesars Time.
CIV. r Mackenzie in Chicago Record
Herald

CIV. z Mackenzie in Chicago Record
Herald.)
ROme.-An interesting study has
been published in one Of the Local
reviews on Journalism in ancient Rome
The periodical press dates from the
times Of Cicero and Julius Caesar. wher
news sheets-Acta DiUrna Urbis daily
city events)-were posted every morn
ing the forum and copied and sold
in the city and the provinces.
They were dry chronicles of the
events Of the day-a paltry streamIet
When compared with the mighty rivers
OF our days-containing no leading
articles, no learned pOlemics. no for
eign correspondence, but a summary of
some important debate in the senate
reports of law courts, descriptions of
gladiatorial fights, accounts of portents,
religious festivals and crimes.
These "Acta" were collected and
placed in some Office or public library
and must have formed an interesting
series from the last days of the re-
public down to the reign of COnstan-
tlne' when the seat of government and
possibly the newspaper files were re-
moved to COnstantinopIe
The collection is now lost. but frag-
-----A'N' AASfC O~CA1 pICSCINGQ IN the
works of Tacitus, Pliny, Suetonius and
Dion, interesting fragments. mostly of
tr1vialities, which have glided down IN
US through the cycle of centuries
throwing glimmer. as of rushlights.
over the greatest empire of ANTIQUITY
as it worked and lived.
In a news sheet Of April IL 4 L
&, AS (B. c. 81 it was recorded that c.
Crispinus, a plebeian from Fiesole.
came to Rome with seven sons. two
daughters and thirty-five grandchiI-
diem. TO offer a sacrifice to the Can't
toline JOve, and that when the corpse
of Felix the Charloteer was placed in
the funeral pile a devoted friend
rushed on the burning pyre and was
cremated with him.
Other sheets announced that SEN
tence had been passed by Titianus M
on those butchers who had notoriousIv
sold meat not inspected by the author
tiles and that the fines were immedi-
ately paid and would be devoted to the
erection of a shine: that an affrav took
place last night at THE Bear a vine
shop near the temple Janus. and that
the landlord was dangerously wounded:
that a violent thunderstorm burst yes
terday over the city, the lightning
striking the old oak tree in the VeIia.
and that Denniphon, the robber lately
arrested by the legate Neava, was
erucified early this morning
One Of the newspapers of the reign
of Nero told the story of the dog be-
longing to slave executed BY the
emperor's orders. The dog stood by
the corpse and when food was given
It pushed the food with its nose to the
lips of the dead slave. and when the
corpse was thrown into the Tiber the
poor animal leaped into the river and
tried to keep the body above water.
Other Acts" described the funeral
Of Germanicus and the indignant pro-
tests of the senator. Thraseas, when his
cowardly colleagues applauded Nero's
matricide. Those ancient journalists
also tried their hands at ''canards. -
Thus it was gravely announced that a
phoenix had been brought to Rome and
exhibited in the Comitia ana that dur
ing the trial of Milo for the murder
of Clodius it TainCd baked bricks ia
several parts of the city.
These startling items of news are
clumslly conceived and evidently lack
the skill displayed in our later days
In the same line. They are on a par
with some Of the pOrtents of the middle
ages and show the gullibility of the
Roman public in olden times.