when the epic is very old (cana), people will still unroll the scroll, because
it has been recopied and preserved thanks to his friends.
On the other hand, the innumerable verses of theAnnalesof Horten-
sius, handed over to the people (populus), which will undoubtedly like his
swollen style (tumido), will provide masses of ‘‘paper’’ to wrap fish. Once
again, the goal of the poet is not to please the greatest number, with his
books sold and resold in the bookstores, because afterward he will be
forgotten (Cat. 95):
Zmyrna^19 mei Cinnae^20 nonam post denique mensem
quam coepta est nonamque edita post hiemem,
milia cum interea quingenta Hortensius^21 uno
...
Zmyrna cavas Satrachi penitus mittetur ad undas,
Zmyrnam cana diu saecula pervolvent.
At Volusi Annales Paduam morientur ad ipsam
et laxas scombris saepe dabunt tunicas.
Parva mei mihi sint cordi monumenta sodalis,
at populus tumido gaudeat Antimacho.^22(TheZmyrnaof my Cinna, nine summers
and nine winters after it was begun, has been made public!
While in the meantime, Hortensius five hundred thousand in one
...
Zmyrnawill be sent as far as the hollow waves of the Satrachus
The white haired ages will long unroll theZmyrna.
But theAnnalsof Volusius will die beside the Padua
and make loose jackets for mackerel.
Let me love my friend’s little monument;
and let the crowd enjoy swollen Antimachus.)DESPERATELY SEEKING A LIBRARY
Ovid in exile combines the different meanings of thevolumen, both as a
support of a fictive utterance and as a material object, in theTristiaand
theEx Ponto. Further, he gives to the book an epistolary function, in
keeping with its ability to serve as a support.
TheTristiais a collection of books gathering poems in the form of
letters. The poet, exiled on banks of the Black Sea, sends books composed
of letters to Augustus in order to obtain his return. The book acts as a gift
in an exchange ofbeneficia. It is also the messenger of its master who
- Also called Myrrha, who fell in love with her father Cinyras, king of Cyprus.
- C. Helvius Cinna, the orator.
21.Annalesof Q. Hortensius Hortalus, perhaps on the Marsic War. - Greek poet (end fifth cent. beginning sixth cent.B.C.), author of aThebaidand a
Lydia;criticized by Callimachus.
156 Books and Texts