Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

LIBELLUS. LIBER. 703
been legally punished (compare Cic. cd nFaz. iii. 11), LIBER (LC@Xoiv) a book. The most common
and that Augustus provoked by the aadacity with material on which books were written by the
which Cassius Severus brought into disrepute the Greeks and Romans, was the thin coats or rind
most illustrious persons of the age, ordained, by a (liber, whence the Latin name for a book) of the
lex majestatis, that the authors of libelli famosi Egyptian papyrus. This plant was called by the
should be brought to trial. On this occasion Au- Egyptians byblos (/35Xos), whence the Greeks degustus, who was informed of the existence of rived their name for a book (ftCAeov). It formed
several such works, had a search made at Rome by an article of commerce long before the time of
the aediles, and in other places by the local magis- Herodotus (v. 58), and was extensively used ill
trates, and ordered the libels to be burnt; some of the western part of Europe, as is proved by the
the authors were subjected to punishment. (Dion number of rolls of papyri found at Herculaneum.
Cass. lvi. 27.) A law quoted by Ulpian (Dig. 47. In the sixth century of the Christian aera the
tit, 10. s. 5) ordained that the author of a libellus duty on imported papyrus was abolished by Theofamlosus should be intestabilis, and during the later doric the Great, on which occasion Cassiodorus
period of the empire we find that capital punish- wrote a letter (xi. 38), in which he congratulates
ment was not only inflicted upon the author, but the world on the cessation of a tax so unfavourable
upon those persons in whose possession a libellus to the progress of learning and of commerce. The
famosus was found, or who did not destroy it as papyrus..tree grows in swamps to the height of
soon as it came into their hands. (Cod. 9. tit. 36.) ten feet and more, and paper was prepared from
For further information on this subject see Rein, the thin coats or pellicles which surround the plant
Das Criminalbescht der Roiser, pp. 378, &c. 531. in the folloxving manner according to Pliny (xiii.
3. Libellis szeszorsialis, a pocket or memorandum 23):- The different pieces were joined together by
book. (Suet. Caes. 56.) The libellus, from which the turbid Nile water, as it has a kind of glutinCicero (ad Att. vi. 1. ~ 5) communicates a memo- ous property. A layer of papyrus (sclreda or
randlum of Brutus, appears to have been a book of philyre) was laid flat on a board, and a cross layer
this kind. put over it; and being thus prepared, the layers
4. Libellus is used by the Roman jurists as were pressed and afterwards dried in the ulln.
equivalent to Oeatio Principis. [ORATIONES PnIIN- The sheets were then fastened or pasted together,
crIPUiM.] the best being taken first and then the inferior
5. The word libellus was also applied to a sheets. There were never more than tiventy in a
variety of writings, which in most cases probably scapus or roll. The papyri found ill Egyptian
consisted of one page only: — tombs differ very much in length, but not much in
a. To short letters addressed to a person for the breadth, as the breadth was probably determined
purpose of cautioning him against some danger by the usual length of the strips taken from the
which threatened his life (Sueton. Caes. 81, Caliy. plant. The length might be carried to alnlost any
5); and to any short letters or reports addressed extent by fastening one sheet to another. The
to the senate or private individuals. (Suet. Caes. writing was in coluhmns with a blank slip between
56, August. 84t; Cic. ad FaViz. xi. I 1.) them. (Egyltiaet Antiquities, vol. ii. ch. 7. Lond.
b. To the bills called libelli gladiatorii, or nzzueZ- 1836.) The foram and general appearance of the
rarii, which persons who gave gladiatorial exhibi- papyri rolls will be understood from the following
tions distributed among the people. [GLADlATORES, woodcut taken from paintings found at Pompeii.
p. 574, b.] (Gell. Polqp. vol. ii. p. 187.)
c. To petitions to the emperors. (Slet. Aug. 53;
Mart. viii. 31. 3, 82. 1.) The emperors had their
especial officers or secretaries who attended to all
petitions (libellis praeJfctis, Dig. 20. tit. 5), -and
who read and answered them in the name of the
emperor. (Suet. Domnit. 14.) Such a libellus is, -.
stillextant. See Gruter, Insci-ipt. p. DCVIL. ].
d. To the bill of appeal called liboeltus celpellatorins, which a person who did not acquiesce in a. )
judicial sentence, had to send in after the lapse of
two or three days. (Dig. 40. tit. 1.)
e. To the bills stuck up in the most frequented
parts of the city, in case of a debtor having ab- The paper (cida ta) made from the papyrus was of
sconded. (Cic. p'o Quint. 6, 15, 19; RIein, Ronm. different qualities. The best was called after AuPr-ivatr. p. 499.) Such bills were also stuck upon gustus, the second after Livia, the third, which was
the estates of such a debtor, and his friends who originally the best, was named Hieratica, because
wished to pay for him sometimes pulled down such it was appropriated to the sacred books. The
bills. (Senec. de Benef iv. 12.) finest paper was subsequently called Claudia, friont
j: To bills in which persons announced to the the emperor Claudius. The inferior kinds were
public that they had found things which had been called Aipnl7tlkeatriica i, ti, Leneotica, from the
lost, and in which they invited the owner to claim places ill Egypt where it was made, and also
his property. (Plaut. Rud. v. 2. 7, &c.; Dig. 47. Feanniana, from one Fannius, who had a celebrated
tit. 2. s. 44.) The owner gave to the finder a re- manufactory at Rome. The kind called Enlpo reticea
ward (Espes-pa) and received his property back. was not fit for writing, and was chiefly used by
Sometimes the owner also made known to the merchants for packing their goods, from which cirpublic by a libellus what he had lost, stated his cumstance it obtained its name. (Plin. xiii. 23,
name and residence, and promised to give a reward 24.)
to the person who found his property, and brouglht Next to the papyrus, parchment (erombrema)
it back to him. (Propert. iii. 21. 21, &c.) [L. S.] was the most common material for writing upon.