The Publication of Latin Literature

You have been reading Latin poetry for some time now. You have learned about techniques such as ellipsis, syncope, and simile. You have learned that Latin poets would often rearrange word order for special effects. You have learned about Latin meter. Let's look now at the background for this writing – the setting, the publication, the audience.

Today, if you are interested in reading a new book, you might go to the library or bookstore or even the internet and peruse the available books. You would look at the cover, notice the title and author, and thumb through the book to get an idea of its content. You would probably also read the jacket cover for a short synopsis or description of the book. Romans, on the other hand, did not have such an easy method of perusing a book. If a Roman stopped at a book shop in the Argiletum (a street running from the Forum Romanum to the Subura), he would find a selection of scrolls which may or may not have a tag on them listing the title and author of the text. To learn about the book, he would have to unroll the scroll and start reading, much more difficult than thumbing through a book. There would be no jacket cover summarizing the book or giving a hint of its content. Moreover, there were no newspapers with a list of the best selling books or advertisements enticing potential readers. How, then, did Romans learn about new books?

Public Readings

One way to learn about new books was to attend public readings usually by the author himself. These public readings took many forms. It would not be unusual to walk down a busy Roman street and see and hear someone standing on a corner reading his newly composed poems. If a Roman were in a barbershop getting his beard trimmed or his hair cut, he would not be surprised if someone walked in and began reading to him. Our friend Martial, in one of his epigrams, complains of one such Roman by the name of Ligurinus who constantly harassed him, showing up at dinner, at the baths, in the streets, in the public lavatory, even his home.

Authors often gave a more private reading of their new work at a dinner party. These events were often sponsored by their patron. Other times, they would invite friends to their own home for a reading. These groups of individuals were specially chosen for their interest in the writer, his work, and literature in general. Sometimes, though, the host was not an especially good author and would bore his listeners with a long reading.

A more open kind of public reading was the recitatio. Again, the audience would be restricted to select individuals but on a larger scale than in a private home. The recitatio would be held in a hall which had been rented for this purpose. Chairs would be set up (more comfortable ones in the front for special guests) and sometimes even a tiered platform was erected to accommodate more people. The audience sometimes included friends designated to make appropriate comments and to applaud at select moments to make the rest of the audience believe they had just heard an excellent piece of literature. Programs were distributed by slaves.

Image: a painting of Vergil reading the Aeneid to Augustus' family. Usually, the author himself would read from his new creation. Some, however, who considered themselves poor readers, would have selected someone to do the reading for them. The author would be dressed in a freshly cleaned toga. He would step to the front of a raised platform that had been erected for the occasion, address the audience briefly, and then sit down to read. A second or even third recitatio would be held if there was enough interest and the work was a long one.

Much of our information on recitationes comes to us from works of literature or letters which relay certain incidents or criticize recitationes. The satirist Juvenal is an especially good source. He lists recitationes as one of the dangers of living in Rome much like fires and falling buildings. From these sources we learn that some people came just to be seen. They would not really be interested in the literature itself, so they would loiter outside until a key moment and then enter the auditorium to hear the grand finale. Some audience members would be rowdy during the reading and at times became so raucous that the author would have to end the reading. Much of this behavior was a direct result of the work itself. While Romans would at times have an opportunity to hear readings by such authors as Martial, Catullus, Ovid and Vergil, much of the writing put forth as literature was at best passable and often considered trash.

Goals

Why would an author tolerate this kind of behavior? To sell his books. The hope was that audience members would be so entranced by the work that they would go immediately to a bookseller and either buy a copy or order one to be made for them. Books, after all, were relatively inexpensive, considering that each one was copied individually, often by slaves. Unfortunately, the bookseller kept all of the proceeds from the sale of books for himself. There were no copyright laws. The advantage for the author was the widespread audience he would reach and the hope that his patron would be duly impressed and provide him with more than just enough money to survive. Some authors, such as Horace and Vergil were so well respected that their patrons, e.g., Maecenas, provided them with country villas where they could escape the hustle and bustle of the city and write in a peaceful, sylvan setting. Why would a patron be willing to support a writer? To enhance his own reputation. Maecenas was well-respected in Roman society in part because he made it possible for poets like Horace and Vergil to write.

Another advantage of a recitatio was the idea of reading the work aloud. Unlike modern day authors, Roman writers intended for their books to be read aloud. Even an individual Roman, reading in the privacy of his own tablinum, would read aloud. In part, this is due to the training of writers. All well-educated Romans had a thorough grounding in rhetoric and the effect the words would have on the audience. Therefore, authors not only thought about the way the work looked on paper, but they were also keenly aware of its aural effect and would strive, especially in poetry, to produce something that would be pleasing to the ear.

One disadvantage of the recitatio was that it sometimes gave authors a false sense of accomplishment. For a variety of reasons, many Romans were reluctant to be honest in their appraisal of new works and would applaud loudly and give effusive praise to the author. These kinds of reactions also caused authors to please the audience rather than to write what they believed would be good literature. On the other hand, audience members at times gave constructive criticism that enabled an author to revise and improve his work before it was published.