the performance.^45 The recitation is an event characterized by radically
asymmetrical inputs on the part of reciter and audience respectively.
At another extreme is a scene of socioliterary interaction described by
Plutarch. In hisLife of Lucullushe writes as follows about Lucullus’s
generosity in sharing his books:
His use of his books did him more credit than his getting of them.
He opened up every corner of his libraries. The porticoes and rooms
surrounding them afforded unlimited hospitality to the Greeks who flocked
there as to a haven of the Muses, sharing one another’s company and
happily slipping away from other cares. Lucullus himself often joined
them, dropping in on the scholars in the porticoes, and he helped those in
politics with anything they needed. All in all, his house served as hearth and
headquarters of Greece for all who had come to Rome. (l ôå åæBóØò qí
çغïôØìïôÝæÆ ôBò ŒôÞóåøò; IíåØìÝíøí ðAóØ ôHí âØâºØïŁÅŒHí;ŒÆd ôHí ðåæd
ÆPôaò ðåæØðÜôøí ŒÆd óåïºÆóôÅæßøí IŒøºýôøò ðïäååïìÝíøí ôïfò‘^0 ̄ººÅíÆò;
uóðåæ åNò ÌïıóHí ôØ ŒÆôƪþªØïí KŒåEóå çïØôHíôÆò ŒÆd óıíäØÅìåæåýïíôÆò
IººÞºïØò; Iðe ôHí ¼ººøí åæåØHí IóìÝíøò IðïôæÝåïíôÆò: ðﺺ܌Øò äb ŒÆd
óıíåóåüºÆÇåí ÆPôeò Kìâܺºøí åNò ôïfò ðåæØðÜôïıò ôïEò çغïºüªïØò;ŒÆd ôïEò
ðïºØôØŒïEò óıíÝðæÆôôåí ‹ôïı äÝïØíôïŒÆd ‹ºøò óôßÆ ŒÆd ðæıôÆíåEïí‘ ̄ººÅíØŒeí
› ïrŒïò qí ÆPôïF ôïEò IçØŒíïıìÝíïØò åNò ôcí‘ÑþìÅí.)^46Let me sidestep the question whether Plutarch is here describing a his-
torical reality or instead concocting a fantasy of how Roman grandees
should treat Greek scholar-statesmen like himself. His description can
serve a purpose even if it is taken simply as an imagined model of
intercourse. The comfortable appointments of Lucullus’s library are the
magnet on which persons of culture converge. Yet Plutarch does not offer
a glimpse of books actually being consulted, and although it may be
implicit that they are the subject of conversations, that, too, is not made
explicit. The books remain in the background. What is foregrounded is
the liberal give-and-take among intellectual peers, among whom the most
striking oddity is the absence of all Roman interlocutors but Lucullus
himself.
With these paradigms in mind, we may now revisit the Roman book-
shop, by way of a story that Galen tells in order to explain what led him
to compose his own bio-bibliography:
In the Vicus Sandaliarius, where a great many of the bookshops in Rome are
located, I observed some people arguing whether a book being sold was
mine or written by somebody else. It was inscribed ‘‘Galen the physician.’’
The purchaser took it for mine, but a scholarly individual, struck by the- Pliny puts much more emphasis on the body language (‘‘ex vultu oculis nutu manu
murmure silentio’’) of a recitation audience than on explicit comment (Epist. 5.3.9). - Plut.Luc. 42. For a discussion of this and other sources on the library of Lucullus, see
Dix 2000.
Bookshops in the Literary Culture of Rome 283