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BOOKS AND READERS IN THE ROMAN WORLD
5. THE 'FATA LIBELLORUM*
"What has been well described as ' the casual and fluid nature of publication in
the ancient world' 1 is just as characteristic of what happened to books after
publication. The paucity of our evidence for the activities of the book trade
must not be pressed to the point of denying that it played some part in keeping
literature alive. But it is inherent in the nature of the manuscript book itself that
the propagation of texts in antiquity must have been very largely an affair of
private enterprise. The fate of any individual book - in basic terms, its physical
survival — depended on a number of factors, among -which, -with a few outstanding
exceptions, systematic scholarly and critical activity played a remarkably
small part. Changes of public taste, coupled with the gradual narrowing of
the educational focus mentioned above, had considerable effects on survival,
but sheer hazard must probably be accounted the most potent force at work.
That Gallus died under a cloud did not necessarily entail that his -works must
have perished with him, 2 any more than the Ars amatoria perished -with Ovid.
It seems reasonable to believe that Quintilian would not have recommended
Gallus to the budding orator a century later if his poems -were not still available;
but his inclusion in the catalogue of best books does not prove that Quintilian
himself had ever set eyes on a copy of his Amores. The disappearance of the
first (five-book) edition of Ovid's Amores is not to be ascribed to 'respect for
his wishes on the part of those responsible for the transmission' 3 so much as
(from the poet's point of view) good luck. Nobody -was 'responsible' for anything
once the book -was published. Nor will it do to explain Cicero's failure to
suppress the first edition of the Academica by the suggestion that in his day
things were less well organized than in Ovid's. 4 In that sense they were never
at any time' organized'.
The main, and perhaps the only, element of stability in the process of transmission
and conservation of literature -was that contributed by the public
libraries; though here too intelligent guess-work must form the basis of discussion.
There never existed at Rome any real parallel to the huge royal collections
of Pergamum and Alexandria, still less to the scholarly and critical activity
associated -with the Museum. From the second century B.C. Greek books began
to enter Italy in quantity as part of the spoils of war; the transition from looting
to collection may be observed in the figure of L. Licinius Lucullus (Plut.
Lucull. 42). These private collections offered a valuable resource to the scholar,
of which -we find Cicero and Cato availing themselves. 5 As a national Latin
literature grew, it too was collected. Under the Empire it became the normal
1 2
Reynolds-Wilson (1974) 23.
As suggested by Biichner (1961) 340.
3
Biichner (1961) 326. * Btichner ibid.
s
Cic. Fin. 3.7—8, Att. 4.10.1, 4.14.1; cf. Plut. loc. cit.
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