Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Translator's Preface
- Author's Preface
- Contents
- ERRATUM
- SCENE THE FIRST THE NOCTURNAL RETURN HOME
- SCENE THE SECOND THE MORNING
- SCENE THE THIRD STUDIES AND LETTERS
- SCENE THE FOURTH THE JOURNEY
- SCENE THE FIFTH THE VILLA
- SCENE THE SIXTH LYCORIS
- SCENE THE SEVENTH A DAY AT BAIÆ
- SCENE THE EIGHTH THE DISPLEASURE OF AUGUSTUS
- SCENE THE NINTH THE BANQUET
- SCENE THE TENTH THE DRINKERS
- SCENE THE ELEVENTH THE CATASTROPHE
- SCENE THE TWELFTH THE GRAVE
- APPENDIX
- Excursus I Roman Marriage
- Excursus II Education
- Excursus I The Roman House
- Excursus II The Slave Family
- Excursus I The Library
- Excursus II The Books
- Excursus III The Booksellers
- Excursus IV The Letter
- Excursus V The Clocks and Divisions of Time
- Excursus I The Lectica and the Carriages
- Excursus II The Inns
- Excursus I The Game of Ball, and other Gymnastic Exercises
- Excursus II The Gardens
- Excursus: The Dress of the Women
- Excursus: The Baths
- Excursus: The Male Attire
- Excursus I The Meals
- Excursus II The Triclinium
- Excursus III The Table Utensils
- Excursus IV The Drinks
- Excursus I The Manner of Lighting
- Excursus II The Garlands
- Excursus III The Social Games
- Excursus: The Manner of Closing the Doors
- Excursus: The Interment of the Dead
- Index
Excursus IV - The Letter
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 November 2010
- Frontmatter
- Translator's Preface
- Author's Preface
- Contents
- ERRATUM
- SCENE THE FIRST THE NOCTURNAL RETURN HOME
- SCENE THE SECOND THE MORNING
- SCENE THE THIRD STUDIES AND LETTERS
- SCENE THE FOURTH THE JOURNEY
- SCENE THE FIFTH THE VILLA
- SCENE THE SIXTH LYCORIS
- SCENE THE SEVENTH A DAY AT BAIÆ
- SCENE THE EIGHTH THE DISPLEASURE OF AUGUSTUS
- SCENE THE NINTH THE BANQUET
- SCENE THE TENTH THE DRINKERS
- SCENE THE ELEVENTH THE CATASTROPHE
- SCENE THE TWELFTH THE GRAVE
- APPENDIX
- Excursus I Roman Marriage
- Excursus II Education
- Excursus I The Roman House
- Excursus II The Slave Family
- Excursus I The Library
- Excursus II The Books
- Excursus III The Booksellers
- Excursus IV The Letter
- Excursus V The Clocks and Divisions of Time
- Excursus I The Lectica and the Carriages
- Excursus II The Inns
- Excursus I The Game of Ball, and other Gymnastic Exercises
- Excursus II The Gardens
- Excursus: The Dress of the Women
- Excursus: The Baths
- Excursus: The Male Attire
- Excursus I The Meals
- Excursus II The Triclinium
- Excursus III The Table Utensils
- Excursus IV The Drinks
- Excursus I The Manner of Lighting
- Excursus II The Garlands
- Excursus III The Social Games
- Excursus: The Manner of Closing the Doors
- Excursus: The Interment of the Dead
- Index
Summary
THE Roman of quality, who even at his studies used to avail himself of the hands of another to write extracts for him, still more generally employed a slave in his correspondence, which, notwithstanding all the impediments thrown in its way, by the want of public conveyances, appears to have been tolerably rapid. They had slaves or freedmen for the purpose, ab epistolis, who belonged to the class of the librarii, and were also called, ad manum, a manu, amanuenses. Orell. Inscr. 2874. Jucundus Domitiœ Bibuli librarius ad manum. Orelli, it is true, makes the distinction; librarius, idemque ad manum: but the amanuensis is called also librarius. Cic. Attic. iv. 16: Epistolœ nostrœ tantum habent mysteriorum, ut eas ne librariis committamus. Plin. vii. 25: (Cæsarem) epistolas tantarum rerum quaternas pariter librariis dictare aut, si nihil aliud ageret, septenas (accepimus). As correspondence was frequently carried on in Greek, they had also libr. ab epistolis Grœcis, (Orell. 2437), as well as ab epistolis Latinis. Id. 2997.
Before a letter was ready to be dispatched, five things were required, which we find mentioned all together in Plaut. Bacch. iv. 4, 64:
Chr. Nunc tu abi intro, Pistoclere, ad Bacchidem, atque effer cito—
Pi. Quid? Chr. Stilum, ceram, et tabellas et linum.
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- GallusOr, Roman Scenes of the Time of Augustus, pp. 249 - 250Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1844