The picture we are given of Roman poetry (and literature in general),
therefore, is very curious. It is a poetry rich in intertextuality, one that
relies on a profound knowledge of previous Greek and Latin literature,
but there seem to be no opportunities to hear that literature, which we
are told is the only way most people encounter it.
On the contrary, the Latin poets themselves are very clear about how
they came to know the great body of Greek and Latin poetry. They read it
in books.^102 Horace read Lucilius.^103 Horace read the authors of Old
Comedy.^104 Catullus 68.33 ought to be decisive: I can’t write, he says,
nam, quod scriptorum non magna est copia apud me, ‘‘because I don’t have a
large number of books with me.’’ Catullus is paralyzed; his library is back
in Rome and he only brought a single box of books. The very creation
of poetry depends on reading literature in books.
105
If we now ask our question in a slightly more emphatic form—Did the
people who knew (not knew of, but really knew) Roman poetry come to
know it primarily through listening or through reading?—there is a clear
answer. If you wanted to hear poetryonce, there were plenty of oppor-
tunities (too many, said Pliny).
106
Making an initial acquaintance of a poet
at a recitation was easy. However, if you wanted to enjoy the same poem
twice, you had to resort to the written text. Even in the case of private
gatherings, anyone who had the text read to him, should he wish to
reexperience the reading, got hold of the text. He did not ask the host
to restage the reading.
The six observations made above entail six important conclusions
about the role of books.
(1) If you wanted to learn, memorize, or even merely reexperience a poem,
you studied the book.
(2) If you wanted to know the poem in the final form that its author intended,
you bought the book.
(3) If you wanted to experience the complete work, you had to get the book.
(4) If you wanted to hear that strainagain, there was only one possibility,
and that was reading the book.
(5) If you wanted to know the poetry of Callimachus, or any other Greek,
you went and found the book.
(6) If you wanted to know the poetry of Martial, or any other dead poet,
you had to hunt for the book.- Even the Emperor Augustus himself, though fond of reciting his works to friends
and reading improving works to the Senate (Suet.Aug. 85), reads Greek and Latin literature
with his own hands (89: ‘‘Inevolvendisutriusque linguae auctoribus’’).
103.Sat. 1.10.56: ‘‘nosmet Lucili scriptalegentis.’’ - Unlike Hermogenes (Sat. 1.10.18): ‘‘Illi, scripta quibus comoedia prisca viris est, /
hoc stabant, hoc sunt imitandi; quos neque pulcher / Hermogenes umquamlegit.’’ - So, too, Ov.Trist. 3.14.35 37, 5.12.53.
106.Epist. 1.13.
212 Books and Texts