Gellius (18.5) tells of an occasion in his youth when Antonius Julianus
heard that a professional reader (anagnostes), who preferred to be called
by the neologismEnnianista, was reading aloud in a theater.^96 They listen
and have a lively debate to prove that Ennius wrote the wordequesnot
equus. Afterward Julianus goes and consults a very old and expensive
edition to verify the reading.^97
There are three things to notice, each of which has been misunder-
stood. First, Gellius shows that such an occurrence was not common.
Someone trying to create a Latin version of aHomeristaby doing shows of
Ennius was a novelty act.
98
Second, these were not people getting to
know Ennius through an oral performance. These were people who
have already read and studied a classic text with professional teachers.
99
Third, what was rare about Julianus’s action was not the act of consulting
a text, for people in Gellius read and compare published texts all the
time.
100
What was rare is the antiquity of the volume consulted. Quinn’s
‘‘professionals’’ are simply the educated population of the Latin-speaking
world.
101
The Role of Books in the Circulation of Roman Poetry
Tolle, lege, tolle, lege.
—Augustine,Confessions8.29
- 18.5: ‘‘Atque ibi tunc Iuliano nuntiatur anagnosten quendam, non indoctum
hominem, voce admodum scita et canora Ennii annales legere ad populum in theatro.
‘Eamus’ inquit ‘auditum nescio quem istum Ennianistam’: hoc enim se ille nomine appellari
volebat. Quem cum iam inter ingentes clamores legentem invenissemus legebat autem
librum ex annalibus Ennii septimum hos eum primum versus perperam pronuntiantem
audivimus.’’ - Cicero does the same; he does not summon anEnnianistato recite to him; he reads
the books (Orat. 48: ‘‘antiqui... libri’’). Gellius is disappointed to discover that Julianus
seems to have cribbed his whole show of erudition from old commentaries on the passage.
Again, commentaries are for texts, not oral performances. - Rightly pointed out by Starr 1989. Ennius is also read aloud on the occasion of a
public holiday (Gell. 16.10.1). - 18.5.7: ‘‘Cumque aliquot eorum, qui aderant, ‘quadrupes ecus’ apud suum quisque
grammaticumlegissese dicerent.. .’’ - For example, texts of Cato (2.14.1, 10.13.3), Claudius Quadrigarius (9.14),
Catullus (6.20.6), Cicero (1.7.1, 1.16.15), Fabius Pictor (5.4.1), Sallust (9.14.26, 20.6.14),
and Vergil (1.21.2, 9.14.7). - There is a certain circularity of argument: anyone who reads a book is
a professional; therefore only professionals read books. The very distinction between
‘‘professionals’’ and others is tendentious and anachronistic. In what sense are the literary
miscellanies, showing profound reading, listed by Gellius (praef. 6 7) of Pliny the Elder,
Masurius Sabinus, Alfenus Varus, Suetonius, not to mention Pollio, Varro, or Gellius
himself, the work of ‘‘professionals’’?
Books and Reading Latin Poetry 211