A cyathus was as much as one could easily swallow at once. It contained 4 ligula vel lingulæ, or cochlearia, spoonfuls.1 CONGIUS, the eighth of an amphora, was equal to a cubic half foot, or to 6 sextarii. This measure of oil or wine used anciently to be distributed by the magistrates or leading men among the people. Hence CONGIARIUM, a gratuity or largess of money, corn, or oil, given to the people, chiefly by the emperors, or privately to an individual.2 A gratuity to the soldiers was called DONATIVUM, sometimes also CONGIARIUM.3 The congiaria of Augustus, from their smallness, used to be called HEMINARIA. The weight of rain-water contained in an amphora was 80 Roman pounds, in a congius 10 pounds, and in a sextarius 1 pound 8 ounces. The greatest measure of things liquid among the Romans was the CULEUS, containing 20 amphora. Pliny says, the ager Cecubus usually yielded 7 culei of wine an acre, i. e. 143 gallons 3 pints English, worth at the vineyard 300 nummi, or 75 denarii, each culeus, i. e. £2 : 8:54, about a halfpenny the English pint.5 MODIUS was the chief measure for things dry, the third part of a cubic foot, somewhat more than a peck English. A modius of Gallic wheat weighed about 20 libræ. Five modii of wheat used to be sown in an acre, six of barley and beans, and three of pease. Six modii were called MEDIMNUS, vel -um, an Attic measure. 6 ROMAN METHOD OF WRITING. MEN in a savage state have always been found ignorant of alphabetic characters. The knowledge of writing is a constant mark of civilization. Before the invention of this art, men employed various methods to preserve the memory of important events, and to communicate their thoughts to those at a distance. The memory of important events was preserved by raising altars or heaps of stones, planting groves, instituting games and festivals, and, what was most universal, by historical songs." The first attempt towards the representation of thought was the painting of objects. Thus, to represent a murder, the figure of one man was drawn stretched on the ground, and of another with a deadly weapon standing over him. When the Spaniards first arrived in Mexico, the inhabitants gave notice of it to their emperor Montezuma, by sending him a large cloth, on which was painted every thing they had seen. 1 Columel. xii. 21. Plin. 1. Att. x. 7. Tac. Ann. Plin. Pan. 25. Cic. Att. 4 Quinct. vi. 3. 52. iii. 3. 6 Plin. xviii. 7.21. Nep. Attic. 2. Cic. Verr. iii. 45. 47. 49, &c. 7 Tac. Mor. Germ. 2. The Egyptians first contrived certain signs or symbols called hieroglyphics (from isgos, sacred, and yλuw, to carve), whereby they represented several things by one figure. The Egyptians and Phoenicians contended about the honour of having invented letters.1 Cadmus, the Phoenician, first introduced letters into Greece near 1500 years before Christ, then only sixteen in number, a, B, y, d, 8, 6, x, X, μ, v, o, π, §, o, T, v. To these, four were added by Palamedes, in the time of the Trojan war, 0, 2, 4, x; and four afterwards by Simonides, &, n, 4, w. 2 Letters were brought into Latium by Evander from Greece. The Latin letters at first were nearly of the same form with the Greek.3 Some nations ranged their letters perpendicularly, from the top to the bottom of the page, but most horizontally. Some from the right to left, as the Hebrews, Assyrians, &c. Some from right to left and from left to right alternately, like cattle ploughing, as the ancient Greeks; hence this manner of writing was called Bovorgondov. But most, as we do, from left to right. The most ancient materials for writing were stones and bricks. Thus the decalogue, or ten commandments, and the laws of Moses; then plates of brass, or of lead, and wooden tablets." On these all public acts and monuments were preserved. the art of writing was little known, and rarely practised, it behoved the materials to be durable. Capital letters only were used, as appears from ancient marbles and coins. 4 As The materials first used in common for writing, were the leaves, or inner bark (liber) of trees; whence leaves of paper (charte, folia, vel plagulæ), and LIBER, a book. The leaves of trees are still used for writing by several nations of India. Afterwards linen,' and tables covered with wax were used. About the time of Alexander the Great, paper first began to be manufactured from an Egyptian plant or reed, called PAPYRUS, vel -um, whence our word paper, or BIBLOS, whence Bichos, a book, The papyrus was about ten cubits high, and had several coats or skins above one another, like an onion, which they separated with a needle. One of these membranes (philyre vel schede) was spread on a table longwise, and another placed above it across. The one was called stamen, and the other subtemen, as the warp and the woof in a web. Being moistened with the muddy water of the Nile, which served instead of glue, they were put under a press, and after that dried in the sun. Then 1 Tac. Ann. xi. 14. Luc. Plin. vii. 58. 4 Joseph. Ant. Jud. i. xxxiv. 1. Dent. xxvii. 5 Isaiah, xxx. 8. Hor. 6 Cic. Font. 14. Liv. vi. 20. Plin. Pan. 54. Hor. Od. iv. 8. 13. 7 Liv. iv. 7. 13. 20. 1 these sheets, thus prepared, were joined together, end to end, but never more than twenty in what was called one scapus, or roll. The sheets were of different size and quality. Paper was smoothed with a shell, or the tooth of a boar or some other animal; hence charta dentata, smooth, polished.3 The finest paper was called at Rome, after Augustus, AUGUSTA regia; the next LIVIANA; the third HIERATICA, which used anciently to be the name of the finest kind, being appropriated to the sacred volumes. The emperor Claudius introduced some alteration, so that the finest paper after him was called CLAUDIA. The inferior kinds were called Amphitheatrica, Saitica, Leneotica, from places in Egypt where paper was made; and FANNIANA, from Fannius, who had a noted manufactory for dressing Egyptian paper at Rome." 4 Paper which served only for wrappers (involucra vel segestria, sing. -e) was called EMPORETICA, because used chiefly by merchants for packing goods; coarse and spongy paper, SCABRA BIBULAQUE. Fine paper of the largest size was called MACROCOLLA, sc. charta, as we say royal or imperial paper, and any thing written on it MACROCOLLUM, SC. volumen.' 6 The exportation of paper being prohibited by one of the Ptolemies, out of envy against Eumenes, king of Pergamus, who endeavoured to rival him in the magnificence of his library, the use of parchment, or the art of preparing skins for writing, was discovered at Pergamus, hence called PERGAMENA, SC. charta, vel MEMBRANA, parchment. Hence also Cicero calls his four books of Academics, quatuor diplegia, i. e. libri e membranis facti. Some read dipegar, i. e. pelles, by a metonymy, for libri pellibus tecti, vel in pellibus scripti.8 DIPHTHERA Jovis is the register book of Jupiter, made of the skin of the goat Amalthea, by whose milk he was nursed, on which he is supposed by the poets to have written down the actions of men. Whence the proverb, diphtheram sero Jupiter inspexit, Jupiter is long before he punish; and antiquiora diphthera. To this Plautus beautifully alludes, Rud. Prol. 21. 10 The skins of sheep are properly called parchment; of calves, VELLUM. Most of the ancient manuscripts which remain are written on parchment, few on the papyrus. Egypt having fallen under the dominion of the Arabs in the seventh century, and its commerce with Europe and the Constantinopolitan empire being stopped, the manufacture of paper from the papyrus ceased. The art of making paper from cotton or silk 11 was invented in the East about the beginning of the tenth century; and, in imitation of it, from linen rags in the fourteenth century. Coarse brown paper was first manufactured in England, A. D. 1588; for writing and printing, A. D. 1690; before which time about £100,000 are said to have been paid annually for these articles to France and Holland. The instrument used for writing on waxen tables, the leaves or bark of trees, plates of brass or lead, &c. was an iron pencil, with a sharp point, called STYLUS, OF GRAPHIUM. Hence stylo abstineo, I forbear writing.1 On paper or parchment, a reed sharpened and split in the point, like our pens, called CALAMUS, ARUNDO, fistula vel canna, which they dipped in ink, as we do our pens. SEPIA, the cuttle-fish, is put for ink; because, when afraid of being caught, it emits a black matter to conceal itself, which the Romans sometimes used for ink.* The ordinary writing materials of the Romans were tablets covered with wax, paper, and parchment. Their stylus was broad at one end; so that when they wished to correct any thing, they turned the stylus, and smoothed the wax with the broad end, that they might write on it anew. Hence sæpe stylum vertas, make frequent corrections.5 An author, while composing, usually wrote first on these tables, for the convenience of making alterations; and when any thing appeared sufficiently correct, it was transcribed on paper or parchment, and published." It seems one could write more quickly on waxen tables than on paper, where the hand was retarded by frequently dipping the reed in ink.7 8 The labour of correcting was compared to that of working with a file (lime labor); hence opus limare, to polish; limare de aliquo, to lop off redundancies; supremam limam operiri, to wait the last polish; lima mordacius uti, to correct more carefully; liber rasus lima amici, polished by the correction of a friend; ultima lima defuit meis scriptis, i. e. summa manus operi defuit, vel non imposita est, the last hand was not put to the work, it was not finished; metaph. vel translat. a pictura, quom manus complet atque ornat suprema; or of beating on an anvil; thus, et male tornatos (some read formatos) incudi reddere versus, to alter, to correct; uno opere eandem incudem diem noctemque tundere, to be always teaching the same thing; ablatum mediis pus est incudibus illud, the work was published in an imperfect state.1 4 The Romans used also a kind of blotting or coarse paper, or parchment (charta deletitia), called PALIMPSESTOS2 vel palincestus,* on which they might easily erase what was written, and write it anew. But it seems this might have been done on any parchment. They sometimes varied the expression by interlining." The Romans used to have note-books (ADVERSARIA), in which they marked down memorandums of any thing, that it might not be forgotten, until they wrote out a fair copy; of an account, for instance, or of any deed. Hence referre in adversaria, to take a memorandum of a thing. The Romans commonly wrote only on one side of the paper or parchment, and always joined one sheet" to the end of another, till they finished what they had to write, and then rolled it up on a cylinder or staff; hence VOLUMEN, a volume or scroll. Evolvere librum, to open a book to read; animi sui complicatam notionem evolvere, to unfold, to explain the complicated conceptions of his mind.10 An author generally included only one book in a volume, so that usually in a work there was the same number of volumes as of books. Thus, Ovid calls his fifteen books of Metamorphoses, mutate ter quinque volumina forma, thrice five volumes.1 When the book was long, it was sometimes divided into two volumes; thus, STUDIOSI tres, i. e. three books on Rhetoric, in sex volumina propter amplitudinem divisi, divided, on account of their size, into six volumes. Sometimes a work, consisting of many books, was contained in one volume; thus, Homerus totus in uno volumine, i. e. forty-eight books. Hence annosa volumina vatum, aged books; peragere volumina, to compose.12 When an author, in composing a book, wrote on both sides 13 of the paper or parchment, it was called OPISTOGRAPHUS, vel -on, i. e. scriptus et in tergo (ex oriolev, a tergo, et yeaQw, scribo), in charta aversa, in very small characters.15 14 When a book or volume was finished, a ball or boss 16 of wood, bone, horn, or the like, was affixed to it on the outside, for security and ornament," called UMBILICUS, from its resemblance 10 Cic. Tusc. i. 11. Top. 13 in utraque pagina. 9. Oft. iii. 19. 1 Ov. ibid. 29. Cic. Or. ii. 39. 2 a waλiv, rursus, 20, rado. 3 a e, rado. 4 delere. et 5 Mart. xiv. 7. Cic. Fam. vii. 18. Hor. Art. P. 389. 6 suprascriptio, Plin. 7 ut ex iis just tabulæ 11 Trist. i. 1. 117. Cic. 14 Juv. i. 1. 6. Mart. 15 minutissimis, sc. li- 17 ad conservationern |