groupto intense scrutiny, repeatedly and interactively, is not easy to
parallel in modern society.^8
That this habit of turning over a passage in a group setting is not mere
schoolroom behavior is readily established. Let us take as example a
reading event depicted in extraordinary detail in chapter 3.1, this time
involving Favorinus and back in Rome. Gellius and others were with
Favorinus on a temperate late-winter day, taking a stroll in the courtyard
of the Titian baths. As they were walking, theCatilinaof Sallust was being
read aloud (legebatur); Favorinus had noticed the book in the hand of
a friend and ordered it to be read. Once a short passage on avarice
9
is
reached, Favorinus then looks at Gellius and asks him a pointed question
on the content (‘‘How exactly doesavaricemake a man’s bodyeffemin-
ate?’’). Gellius gains time for himself (cunctabundus) by answering: ‘‘I too
have been on the verge of posing this question for some time now, and,
if you hadn’t beat me to it, I would have asked you this very thing.’’
Immediately, one of thesectatoresof Favorinus, an old hand in things
literary (in litteris veterator), butts in to remark what he had heard the
grammarian Valerius Probus say on the topic. Favorinus dismisses the
remark, and now turns attention to an unnamed man of considerable
learning (homo quispiam sane doctus) who is with them on the walk.
After the learned gentleman opines, Favorinus orders that the same four
lines of Sallust be read aloud again, and once the lines have been reread he
finishes his argument with this learned companion. As the scene unfolds,
we get a gradual sense of the hangers-on involved in this ambulation
around the baths: in addition to Gellius, friends (amici), followers (secta-
tores), and at least onedoctusof rank more or less equal to the great teacher.
None aside from Gellius are named: here as everywhere in Gellius, the
great teacher brings along with him a large, anonymous crowd.
Several aspects of the scene in 3.1 merit our close attention. First is
Favorinus’s reaction to finding an interesting book in the hands of a friend:
he orders that the book be read aloud to himself and his entourage. The
ease of movement from discovery of the book to a group reading event is
arresting. Equally striking is the ease with which the reading event moves
from discussion, back to the passage, and onward to more discussion—in
the end, Gellius records two pages of discussion concerning four lines of
text. Consider also thewaythat the text is used. As indicated, the book is
read until a passage of interest is discovered. Once discovered, the reading
is suspended while the passage and its implications are scrutinized. The
discussion characteristically combines urgent philological investigation
into the meaning of the antiquarian text with optimism that proper
interpretation will lead to more refined thinking: the engagement is
- Perhaps the closest analogue in modern society is the group study of religious texts, for
example, the Talmud or the Bible.
9.Catilina11.3: four lines.
326 Institutions and Communities