(If I know you well, you were tired of this long book and about to put down
it, but now you’ll read the whole thing eagerly.)The matrona is explicitly said to hold the book in her own hands; there is
nolector. He follows it up with 3.86.1–2:
Ne legeres partem lasciui, casta, libelli,
praedixi et monui: tu tamen, ecce, legis.(I warned you not to read this part of my naughty book, O chaste lady, and
yet here you are, reading it.)He makes the same joke (and the same point) in 11.16.9–10:
Erubuit posuitque meum Lucretia librum,
sed coram Bruto. Brute, recede: leget.(Lucretia blushed and put down my book, but that was when Brutus was
present. Go away, Brutus: she will read.)No audience, nolector, only the matron alone with her dirty book in her
own hands.^32
A number of descriptions of the daily round mention the same thing: a
quiet morning spent reading by oneself. Cicero describes how after the
morning crowd recedes, he reads or writes, provided he is not holding
office hours; then exercise.^33 Horace describes his modest life: sleep till
ten, then in silence, all by himself (tacitum), he reads or writes; then
exercise.^34 Seneca’s ideal day is the same: bed, reading; then exercise.^35
On a less than ideal day, when he is sick, he progresses from reading to
writing. He does both of these activities alone; only later do friends
arrive.^36 Pliny imagines his own perfect day: reading, and writing, with
- Cf. Ov.Trist. 2.243 80 on women and reading. For other examples in which the
individual reader is explicitly said to hold the book in his/her hands, see Cat. 44.19, Hor.Ep.
1.19.34,Ars446 9, Prop. 3.3.19 20, Pliny 9.22.2, cited below. - Cic.Fam. 9.20 (193 SB): ‘‘ubi salutatio defluxit, litteris me involvo; aut scribo aut
lego. veniunt etiam qui me audiant quasi doctum hominem quia paullo sum quam ipsi
doctior. inde corpori omne tempus datur.’’ Reading is for time when one is alone.
34.Sat. 1.6.122 23: ‘‘ad quartam iaceo; post hanc vagor, aut ego lecto / aut scripto quod
me tacitum iuvet, ungor olivo.’’ That is, he reads or writes in bed or on his couch, cf.Ep.
2.1.112 (rightly Kiessling and Heinze 1958, 127; see n. 44, below). Morris 1968, 110 11:
‘‘I.e. he finds pleasure in his reading or writing, without needing any companion to express it
to.’’ Serafini 1966, 94: ‘‘fra me e me, in silenzio.’’ Fedeli is driven to desperation when his
presuppositions encounter the plain sense of the text (1994, II.2, 461): ‘‘tacitumsi riferisce
qui solo alla scrittura, considerato che la lettura avveniva ad alta voce.’’ - Sen.Ep. 83.3: ‘‘totus inter stratum lectionemque divisus est; minimum exercitationi
corporis datum.’’ - Sen.Ep. 65.1: ‘‘Hesternum diem divisi cum mala valetudine... Itaque lectione
primum temptavi animum; deinde, cum hanc recepisset, plus illi imperare ausus sum, immo
permittere: aliquid scripsi... donec intervenerunt amici...Inlocum stili sermo successit.’’
Books and Reading Latin Poetry 197