Ancient Literacies

nomenque erit indelebile nostrum,

quaque patet domitis Romana potentia terris,

ore legar populi, perque omnia saecula fama,

siquid habent veri vatum praesagia, vivam. (Met. 15.876 79)

(My name will be never be erased, and wherever Roman power spreads

itself over conquered lands, I shall be read by the mouth of the people,

and through all ages, if the prophets’ predictions have any truth, in fame

shall I live.)

His name can never be blotted out (indelebile) from the page.
151
His

immortality is guaranteed by the physical existence of his books.

dumque suis uictrix omnem de montibus orbem

prospiciet domitum Martia Roma, legar. (Trist. 3.7.51 52)

(And while from her hills Mars’ own Rome surveys the conquered world,

I shall be read.)

Quanta tibi dederim nostris monumenta libellis,

o mihi me coniunx carior, ipsa uides.

Detrahat auctori multum fortuna licebit,

tu tamen ingenio clara ferere meo;

dumque legar, mecum pariter tua fama legetur,

nec potes in maestos omnis abire rogos. (Trist. 5.14.1 5)

(How great are the monuments I have given you in my books, you can see

for yourself, my wife, dearer to me than myself. Fortune may take away

much from the author, but you will be made famous by my talent. While

I am read, your fame will be read equally with me.)^152

Ovid is the most widely read author in the whole world (Trist. 4.10.128:

et in toto plurimus orbe legor).^153

151. This text demonstrates an important methodological point. Whereas the
     metaphors of listening, speaking, singing, and so on are available to all poets, the act of
     reading (in literary contexts) is not a metaphor. So one can speak of the ‘‘audience’’ for a
     silent film; Yeats can urge Irish poets to sing whatever is well made without intending
     them to take actual harps in actual hands (‘‘Under Ben Bulben’’); Whitman writes ‘‘I sing
     the body electric’’ in a published poem (in fact an addition to that poem). See Nauta
     2002, 137 8 on metaphors of ‘‘listening’’; and n. 142 above.


152. And cf.Am. 1.3.25, 1.15.7 8,Ars2.740,Rem. 363,Trist. 2.118, 4.9.17 26. His
     claims to immortality grow more insistent precisely as books become his only possible means
     of contact with his readership.


153. So, too, Mart. 1.1: ‘‘Hic est quem legis ille, quem requiris, / toto notus in orbe
     Martialis / argutis epigrammaton libellis’’ (‘‘Here is the one you read, the one you want,
     Martial, known throughout the world for his clever books of epigrams.’’) Cf. 5.13.3,
     5.60.4 5, 6.60 (contrast 6.61), 11.3, 12.2.

Books and Reading Latin Poetry 223