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WRITING MATERIALS 200.00%
 
STILUS 126.35%

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[wrongly spell stylus]. An iron instrument, pointed at one end and flat at the other, for writing on tablets covered with a thin coating of wax. (See WRITING MATERIALS.)
 
PHILOLAUS 100.00%
A Greek philosopher, a pupil of Pythagoras (q.v.). He was the first to commit to writing the doctrines of the Pythagorean school. He wrote in Doric Greek. Only a few fragments of his writings remain.
 
ACROLITHS 79.30%
Statues whose uncovered extremities are made of stone, the covered parts of another material, such as wood.
 
DURIS 62.62%
A Greek historian, a native of Samos, and a disciple of Theophrastus. For some time he was despot of Samos. In the first half of the 3rd century B.C. he wrote, besides other historical works, a comprehensive history, in twenty-three books, of Greece and Macedonia, from 370 to at least 281 B.C. He was also the author of Annals of Samos, in at least twelve books. Nothing but fragments of his writings remain, which show that they were no more than uncritical collections of material carelessly treated.
 
SORANUS 57.75%
A Greek physician from Ephesus, who lived in the first half of the 2nd century A.D., under Trajan and Hadrian. His writings are now represented by a work of considerable extent on the diseases of women, and a surgical treatise on fractures. The writings of Caelius Aurelianus (q.v.) on Acute and Chronic Diseases are translated from him.
 
BOOKS AND BOOK-TRADE 57.13%

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The Greeks were early familiar with the practice of multiplying copies of books by transcription, either to private order or for public sale. As far back as the 5th Century B.C. the Athenians had a special place in their market-place for selling books, and it is clearly established that a regular book-fair existed at Athens by about 300 B.C. In Rome, towards the end of the republican age, the business of copying books and the book-trade in general developed on a large scale, and it became a fashionable thing to possess a library. The book-trade, in the proper sense of the term, owes its existence to Atticus, the well-known friend of Cicero. He kept a number of slaves skilled in shorthand and calligraphy (librarii), whom he set to copy a number of Cicero's writings, Which he then disposed of at a considerable profit in Italy and Greece. His example was soon followed, especially as the interest in new literary productions, and the love of reading, greatly increased after the time of Augustus. To facilitate the appearance of a great number of copies at the same time, the scribes were often set to write from dictation. Much use was made of the abbreviations (notae) invented by Tiro, the freedman of Cicero. The binding was done, as well as the writing, by the librarii ; and as the brittle papyrus was the usual material, the book was generally made up in the form of a roll (see WRITING MATERIALS). The ends of the roll were strengthened with thin strips of bone or wood, which were either provided at top and bottom with a knob (umbilicus), or finished off in the shape of a horn. Previously to this, the upper and lower edges were carefully clipped, smoothed with pumice-stone, and tinted with black. To protect it from moths and worms, the roll was dipped in cedar oil, which gave it a yellowish tinge. The title of the work (titulus or index) was written in red on a strip of parchment attached to the end of the roll. Expensive copies, especially in the case of poems, had a gilt umbilicus, as well as a parchment cover of purple colour. The books were then exposed for sale in the bookseller's shops, and sold at what appear, considering the circumstances, reasonable prices. The booksellers were called librarii or bibliopoloe; their shops were situated in the most frequented parts of the city, and much used, both as reading-rooms and rendezvous for learned discussion. As a general rule there was a good sale for books, especially such as had won popularity before publication in the public recitations (see RECITATIONS). Books were also much bought in the provinces, whose inhabitants were anxious to keep abreast with the intellectual life of the capital. Even works which were little thought of in Rome sometimes found an easy sale in other parts of the empire. It does not appear that the author received any honorarium from the publisher.[1]
 
DIPTYCHON 56.98%
This Greek word was applied in antiquity to a pair of writing tablets fastened together by rings, so that the inner sides, covered with wax, lay one upon the other. They were fastened sometimes by a strap, on the side opposite to the rings: sometimes by a string passed through two holes in the middle, and secured, if necessary, by seals at the back. (See the engravings under WRITING MATERIALS.) Two or more of the tablets (Triptycha, Polyptycha) were sometimes joined in the same way. They were used for notes, letters, and documents. Under the Empire much fancy and expense were lavished on them, the outer side being sometimes made of gold, silver, or magnificently carved ivory. This was especially the case after it became the fashion for consuls, and other high officials, to give presents of diptycha when entering upon office. For the diplomas made out on bronze diptycha for soldiers who had served their time, see MISSIO.
 
VICTORINUS 50.68%
A Latin rhetorician, born in Africa, who, about the middle of the 4th century A.D. taught at Rome, where St. Jerome enjoyed his instruction. In his old age he became a convert to Christianity, and served its cause by his writings. Besides numerous theological works, he is the author of a comprehensive treatise mainly on metres, called Ars Grammatica, in four books. His name is also given to some other grammatical writings, as well as some poems on biblical subjects; but it is doubtful whether they are from his hand. A commentary on Cicero's work De Inventione, which used to be ascribed to him, was more probably composed by one Fabius Marina Victorinus.
 
EUDEMUS 48.78%
A Greek philosopher, native of Rhodes. After Theophrastus he was the chief of Aristotle's disciples, and was the author of the seven books of Eudemian Ethics, which have come down to us among his writings.
 
DIOGENES LAERTIUS 48.55%
A Greek author, who flourished about 150 A.D., the author of a work, in ten books, on the lives and doctrines of celebrated Greek philosophers. It is an uncritical compilation from books of earlier and later date, but the richness of the material gathered from lost writings gives it inestimable value for the history of philosophy. Books 1-7 embrace the Ionic philosophers from Thales onwards, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and the Stoics down to Chrysippus. Books 8, 9 treat of the philosophers whom he includes under the name of Italian, Pythagoras, Empedocles, Heraclitus, the Eleatics and Atomists, Protagoras, Pyrrho and Epicurus, to the last of whom the whole tenth book is devoted.
 
LAENA 44.54%
An ancient Roman garment. It was a woollen mantle, fastened by a brooch, of a coarse, shaggy material, twice as thick as an ordinary toga. Under the Empire it was very generally worn as an outer cloak by all classes of society, especially on going out to supper.
 
CLEMENS 43.43%
A Greek ecclesiastical writer, born at Alexandria about 150 A.D. Originally a heathen, he gained, in the course of long travels, a wide knowledge of philosophy. Finding no satisfaction in it, became a Christian, and about 190 A.D. was ordained priest in Alexandria, and chosen to preside over a school of catechumens there. The persecution under Septimius Severus having compelled him to take flight, he founded a school in Jerusalem, and came afterwards to Antioch. He died in 218 A.D. His writings contributing as they do to our knowledge of ancient philosophy, have an important place, not only in Christian, but also in profane literature. This is especially true of the eight books called Stromata; a title which properly means " many coloured carpets," or writings of miscellaneous contents.
 
AGRIPPA 42.83%
Born B.C. 63, died B.C. 12. He was the friend, son-in-law, general, and minister of Augustus. He was also a speaker and writer of some repute. Under his supervision was carried out the great survey of the Roman empire which Caesar had begun in 44 B.C. With the help of the materials thus obtained he constructed a circular Map of the World. About B.C. 7, Augustus had it engraved on a large scale in marble, and set up for public use in the colomnade built by Agrippa's sister Polla (porticus Pollae). It may be regarded as the source and model of all succeeding aids to geography, especially the Itineraries (q.v.) and the Peutinger Table. A book on the results of the survey, which Agrippa had begun writing, was continued and published, by order of Augustus, under the title of Chorographia.
 
EPHORUS 42.81%
A Greek historian, born about 400 B.C. at Cyme, in Asia Minor. He lived to see the invasion of Asia by Alexander the Great in 334. Like Theopompus, he was a pupil of Isocrates, who, seeing that he was not likely to succeed as a public speaker, persuaded him to write history. He was the author of a Universal History, which omitted the mythical age, and began with the return of the Heraclide into the Peloponnese. It treated in thirty books the history of the Greek and barbarian world, during a space of 750 years, ending in 340 B.C. The last book is said to have been completed by his son Demophilus. The work was continued in the Alexandrian period by Diyllus of Athens, Psaon of Plataeea, and Menodotus of Perinthus. It was much read and used for the wealth and excellent arrangement of its material, which embraced geography, ethnography, mythology, and the history of civilization and literature. It met with much hostile criticism, but had its admirers, among whom was Polybius.
 
FRONTO 42.39%
The most celebrated orator in the age of the Antonines, born at Cirta in Numidia, about 100 A.D. As an advocate and speaker at Rome, he earned not only considerable wealth and reputation, but the favour of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, who entrusted him with the education of the imperial princes Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. In 143 he was consul for two months, but his health was too weak to allow of his administering a province as proconsul. This ill-health, and many family misfortunes, embittered the last years of his life. He died about 170. He was much admired by his contemporaries, some of whom formed a school of their own bearing the name of Frontoniani, and this reputation survived after his death. Accordingly he used to be regarded as one of the chief representatives of Roman eloquence. But the discovery of part of his writings in 1815 dispelled the illusion. The recovered writings consist mainly of the correspondence, the greater part of which they preserve, between Fronto and the members of the imperial family, especially with Marcus Aurelius as prince and emperor. A number of the letters are written in Greek. Besides these we have a few fragments of historical works, and some rhetorical declamations. Of the speeches only a few meagre fragments remain. The character of Fronto, as revealed in these writings, is that of a man of some knowledge, honourable and independent, but vain and borne. His main ambition is to pave the way for the regeneration of the Latin language; and this, not by a study of the classical models, but by quarrying in the works of the auto-classical writers. Their antiquated expressions he revives, and uses in the most tasteless manner to clothe the poverty of his own thoughts. But his letters are of some value as contributing to our knowledge of the age and the persons then living.
 
HERODOTUS 41.87%
 
ANTIGONUS 40.87%
A Greek writer of Carystus, about 240 B.C., author of a collection of all kinds of curiosities and fictions in natural history. The work is now extant only in a much abbreviated form, and is of no value but for its numerous quotations and fragments from lost writings.
 
ARTEMIDORUS 40.45%
Artemidorits the Dream-Interpreter, born at Ephesus at the beginning of the 2nd century A.D., surnamed "the Daldian from his mother's birthplace, Daldis in Lydia, wrote a work on the Interpretation of Dreams, the Oneirueritica, in four books. He had gathered his materials from the works of earlier authors, and by oral inquiries during his travels in Asia, Italy and Greece. The book is an acute exposition of the theory of interpreting dreams, and its practical application to examples systemstically arranged according to the several stages of human life. An appendix, counted as a fifth book, gives a collection of dreams that have come true. For the light thrown on the mental condition of antiquity, especially in the 2nd century after Christ, and for many items of information on religious rites and myths relating to dreams, these writings are of value.
 
PHOCYLIDES 40.43%
A gnomic poet of Miletus, born about 540 B.C. He wrote in hexameters and in elegiac metre. Of his terse and pointed maxims, we have a few remaining. An admonitory poem in 230 hexameters, has his name, is the work of an Alexending. Jewish Christian, who took most of his material from the Old Testament.
 
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