Note 37 — Chapter VI · PLATONIC CANON, AS RECOGNISED BY THRASYLLUS.

We find interesting information, in the letters of Cicero, respecting the librarii or copyists whom he had in his service; and the still more numerous and effective band of librarii and anagnostæ: (slaves, mostly home-born) whom his friend Atticus possessed and trained (Corn. Nep., Vit. Attici, c. 13). See Epist. ad Attic. xii. 6; xiii. 21-44; v. 12 seq.

It appears that many of the compositions of Cicero were copied, prepared for publication, and published, by the librarii of Atticus: who, in the case of the Academica, incurred a loss, because Cicero — after having given out the work to be copied and published, and after progress had been made in doing this — thought fit to alter materially both the form and the speakers introduced (xiii. 13). In regard to the Oration pro Ligario, Atticus sold it well, and brought himself home (“Ligarianam præclaré vendidisti: posthac, quicquid scripsero, tibi præconium deferam,” xiii. 12). Cicero (xiii. 21) compares the relation of Atticus towards himself, with that of Hermodôrus towards Plato, as expressed in the Greek verse, λόγοισιν Ἑρμόδωρος [ἐμπορεύεται]. (Suidas, s, v. λόγοισιν Ἑρμ. ἐμπ.)

Private friends, such as Balbus and Cærellia (xiii. 21), considered it a privilege to be allowed to take copies of his compositions at their own cost, through librarii employed for the purpose. And we find Galen enumerating this among the noble and dignified ways for an opulent man to expend money, in a remarkable passage, βλέπω γὰρ σε οὐδὲ πρὸς τὰ καλὰ τῶν ἔργων δαπανῆσαι τολμῶντα, μηδ’ εἰς βιβλίων ὠνὴν καὶ κατασκευὴν καὶ τῶν γραφόντων ἄσκησιν, ἤτοι γε εἰς τάχος διὰ σημείων, ἢ εἰς καλῶν ἀκρίβειαν, ὥσπερ οὐδὲ τῶν ἀναγινωσκόντων ὀρθῶς. (De Cognoscendis Curandisque Animi Morbis, t. v. p. 48, Kühn.)