Page 116 - Manual of Roman Everyday Writing Volume 2: Writing Equipment

116| MANUAL OF ROMAN EVERYDAY WRITING
a liar than the Parthians: before sunrise I wake, and call for pen,
paper, and book-buckets.
(Transl. after H. Rushton Fairclough, Loeb)
Horace, Epistles 2.1.235–237:
Sed veluti tractata notam labemque remittunt / atramenta, fere
scriptores carmine foedo / splendida facta linunt.
But as ink when handled leaves mark and stain, so ofttimes with
unseemly verse poets put a blot on bright exploits.
(Transl. H. Rushton Fairclough, Loeb)
Horace, Satires 1.4.21–23:
Beatus Fannius ultro / delatis capsis et imagine, cum mea nemo /
scripta legat volgo recitare timentis (…).
Happy fellow, Fannius, who has delivered his books and bust
unasked! My writings no one reads, and I fear to recite them in
public (…).
(Transl. H. Rushton Fairclough, Loeb)
Horace, Satires 10.72–74:
Saepe stilum vertas, iterum quae digna legi sint / scripturus, neque te ut
miretur turba labores, / contentus paucis lectoribus.
Often must you turn your pencil to erase, if you hope to write
something worth a second reading, and you must not strive to
catch the wonder of the crowd, but be content with the few as
your readers.
(Transl. H. Rushton Fairclough, Loeb)
Isidorus, Origins 6.8.18:
Ante cartae et membranarum usum in (de)dolatis ex ligno codicillis
epistolarum eloquia scribebantur (…).
Before the use of papyrus sheets or parchment, the contents of
letters were written on shingles hewn from wood (…).
(Transl. S. A. Barney, W. J. Lewis, J. A. Beach, Oliver Berghof,
The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, Cambridge 2006)
Isidorus, Origins 6.11.4:
Membrana autem aut candida aut lutea aut purpurea sunt. Candida
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naturaliter existunt. Luteum membranum bicolor est, quod a confectore
una tingitur parte, id est crocatur.
Parchment comes in white or yellowish or purple. The white
exists naturally. Yellowish parchment is of two colors, because
one side of it is dyed, that is yellowed, by the manufacturer.
(Transl. S. A. Barney, W. J. Lewis, J. A. Beach, Oliver Berghof,
The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, Cambridge 2006)
Juvenal 3.203–207:
Lectus erat Cordo Procula minor, urceoli sex / ornamentum abaci, nec
non et parvulus infra / cantharus et recubans sub eodem marmore
Chiron, / iamque vetus Graecos servabat cista libellos / et divina opici
rodebant carmina mures.
Cordus’ possessions were: a bed too small for Procula, six
small jugs to decorate his sideboard, and, underneath, a little
centaur, Chiron, made from the same ‘marble,’ and a box, by
now ancient, which kept his little Greek books safe—and the
philistine mice were gnawing the immortal poems.
(Transl. S. Morton Braund, Loeb)
Juvenal 10.114–117:
Eloquium ac famam Demosthenis aut Ciceronis / incipit optare et totis
quinquatribus optat / quisquis adhuc uno parcam colit asse Minervam,
quem sequitur custos angustae vernula capsae.
The eloquence and reputation of Demosthenes or Cicero is what
boys keep on praying for throughout the spring holidays, every
boy who goes to school accompanied by a house slave to guard
his narrow satchel and who still worships thrifty Minerva with a
single tiny coin.
(Transl. S. Morton Braund, Loeb)
Livy 4.20.8:
Quis ea in re sit error, quod tam veteres annales quodque magistratuum
libri, quos linteos in aede repositos Monetae Macer Licinius citat
identidem auctores, septimo post demum anno cum T. Quinctio Poeno
A. Cornelium Cossum consulem habeant, existimatio communis
omnibus est.