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

704 LIBER. LIBERALITAS.
It is said to have been invented by Elmenes IT. the Greek sittybae (or~rdf6at, Cic. ad Alt. iv..5)
king of Pergamus, in consequence of the prohibi- which IHesychius explains by 6epidr',,vat o-roXai.
tion of the export of papyrus from Egypt, by The title of the book (titulus index) was written
Ptolemy Epiphanes. (Plin. xiii. 21.) It is pro- on a small strip of papyrus or parchment with a
bable, however, that Eumenes introduced only light red colour (coccuom or minium). Winkelnann
some improvement in the manufacture of parch- supposed that the title was on a kind of ticket
ment, as Herodotus mentions writing on skins as suspended to the roll, as is seen in the paintinlgs
common in his time, and says that the Ionians had at Herculaneum (see woodcut), but it was most
been accustomed to give the name of skins (&ls06e- probably stuck on the papyrus itself. (Compare
pat) to books (v. 58). Other materials are also Tibull. 1..) WVe learn from Seneca (de Traslq.
mentioned as used for writing on, but books appear An. 9) and Martial (xiv. 186) that the portraits of
to have been almost invariably written either the authors were often placed on the first page of
upon papyrus or parchment. the work.
The ancients wrote usually on only one side of As the demand for books increased towards the
the paper or parchment, whence Juvenal (i. 5) end of the Roman republic, and it became the
speaks of an extremely long tragedy as fashion for the Roman nobles to have a library,
"SLmmi plena jam margine libri the trade of booksellers naturally arose. They
Scriptus et in tesyo necdum finitus Orestes." were called Libacrii (Cic. de leg iii. 20), Bibliopolae (Mart. iv. 71, xiii. 3), and by the Greek
Such works were called Opistogratpli (Plin. Ep. writers $tACwvK rcalbooN or 3,AhloKd7rlhAol. Their
iii. 5), and are also said to be written in aversa shop was called tabersaa librariea (Cic. Plil. ii. 9).
c/lhrta. (Mart. viii. 62.) These shops were chiefly in the Argiletum (Mart.
The back of the paper, instead of being written i. 4), and in the Vicus Sandalarius (Gell xviii. 4).
upon, was usually stained with saffron colour or On the shop door, or the pillar, as the case might
the cedrus. (Lucian, 7rpbs a&rais. 16. vol. iii. p. be, there was a list of the titles of books on sale:
1 13; croceae membsrana tabellae, Juv. vii. 23; Pers. allusion is made to this by Horace (Sat. i. 4. 71,
iii. 10.) We learn from Ovid that the cedrus Art. PoEt. 372) and Martial (i. 118). The price
produced a yellow colour. (Ovid, Trist. iii. 1. 13.) at which books were sold, seems to have been modeAs paper and parchment were dear, it was fie- rate. Martial says (1. c.) that a good copy of the
qulently the custom to erase or wash out writing of first book of his epigrams might be had for five
little importance, and to write upon the paper or denarii. In the time of Augustus, the Sosii appear
parchment again, which was then called Patlir- to have been the great booksellers at Rome. (lior.
psestats (rraMx/*stcrros). This practice is mentioned Esp. i. 20. 2, Art. Poe't. 345; see also Becker, Gallts,
by Cicero (ad Faio. vii. 18), who praises his friend vol. i. p. 163, &c.) Compare the articles ATRA -
Trebatius for having been so economical as to write MENTUM, BIBLIOTHECA, CALAvMUS, CAPSA, STYupon a palimpsest, but wonders what those writ- LUS.
ilgs could have been which were considered of less LIBER, LIBERTAS. The Roman writers diimportance than a letter. (Compare Catull. xxii. vide all men into Liberi and Servi [SERVUS]; and
5; Martial, xiv. 7.) men were either born Liberi, in which case they
The paper or parchment was joined together so were called by the Romans Ingenui [IN(ZENUV], or
as to form one sheet; and when the work was they became Liberi after being Servi, in which
finished, it was rolled on a staff, whence it was case they were called Libertini [LIBERTIS].
called a volumzemn; and hence we have the expres- Libertus is defined in the Institutes of Justinian
sion evolvere libretoi. (Cic. ad Att. ix. 10.) When (1. tit. 1), to be "'the natural faculty to do that
atn author divided a work into several books, it which a man pleases, except he be in any thing
was usual to include-only one book in a volume or hindered by force or law." Accordingly the Itoroll, so that there were generally the same number mans considered Libertas as the natural state or
ot' volmues as of books. Thus Ovid (Trist. i. 1. condition of men [SERVUS]. A man might either
117) calls his fifteen books of Metamorphoses be born a slave, or he might become a slave by loss
("mutatae ter quinque volumina formae." (Com- of freedom. Libertas was the first essential of the
pare Cic. Tusc. iii. -3, ad Fain. xvii. 17.) When three which determined status or condition: the
a book was long, it was sometimes divided into other two were Civitas and Familia. Without
two volumes; thus Pliny (Ep. iii. 5) speaks of a Libertas there could be no status. Civitas implied
work in three books " in sex volumina propter Libertas; but Libertas did not necessarily imply
amplitudinem divisi." Civitas, for a man might be Liber without being
In the papyri rolls found at IIerculaneum, the Civis. [Clvis.] Famnilia implies both Libertas
stick on which the papyrus is rolled does not pro- and Civitas, and lie only who is Civis has Falnilia,
ject from the papyrus, but is concealed by it. [FAMILIA.] Thus, Familia necessarily includes
Usually, however, there were balls or bosses, Civitas, but Civitas does not necessarily include
ornamented or painted, called umzbilici or contua, Familia in one sense; for familia may be changed,
which were fastened at each end of the stick and while libertas and civitas remain (curn et libertas
projected from the papyrus. (Martial, iii. 2, y. 6, et civitas retinetur, familia tantum mutatur lmini15; Tibull. iii. 1. 14; Ovid. Thist. i. 8.) The mainm esse capitis diminutionem constat: Dig. 4.
ends of the roll were carefully cut, polished with tit. 5. s. 11). But Civitas so far necessarily implied
]mumice-stone and coloured black; they were called Familia, that no Civis Romanus was permanently
the geminae fi-ontes. (Ovid. 1. c.) without Familia. [G. L.]
To protect the roll from injury it was frequently LI'BERA FUGA. [ExsILIUM.]
iput in a parchment case, which was stained with a LIBERA'LTA. [DIoNYSIA. p. 414, a.]
p],rple colour or with the yellow of the Lutum. LIBERA'LIS CAUSA. [AssERTOR.]
Martial (x. 93) calls such a covering a pzsTpurea LIBERA'LIS MANUS. [MANUS.]
thcg. Something of the samne kind is meant by LIBERA'LITAS. [AMBITUs.]