Roman Literature

When Romans got sick of their books (papyrus scrolls) they sometimes used them as wrapping paper in markets or for neighbors. That's like taking your Colleen Hoover book and ripping out three pages to wrap your burger and fries and take your lunch to work.

Romans first started "publishing" their books in the first century. These books were painstakingly copied out by enslaved people to be sold in book markets and shops. Since copyright wasn't a thing yet, the merchants that owned the shops didn't have to pay anyone to publish these texts, especially the author. People in power dictated what could and should be written about, and raids were conducted by emperors to destroy books not approved of. Emperors did not like historians, and many were executed, because the penalty for libel was death. If you, as a historian, wrote something that a powerful person didn't like... Bye, bye! It was a rough job in the Roman Empire.

Literacy in the Roman Empire was based on class. The more populated centers (larger cities and urban areas) had higher levels of literacy, but the rural areas likely only had enough literacy to read and sign bills and receipts. In populated cities there were basic schools, grammar schools, and rhetoric schools that allowed young boys and young men to become learned. Literacy was mostly for the academic elite, although some elite women could read philosophy and other works, write letters, and produce poetry.

Books published in this time were set on papyrus scrolls that were very fragile, and bugs really liked to eat the pages. These scrolls were easily damaged from damp or exposure and were all handwritten. In 365 AD Romans had moved on to use parchment (animal skins! also called vellum) to write on, and they sewed the pages together into a more book-shaped book-thing that we would recognize. A book, called Res Gestae by Ammianus Marcellinus. was a history of Rome during his lifetime. We know the year because he specifically mentioned the new usage of parchment in part of his surviving work. In the 4th century there were public libraries worked by Roman Praetors that were open to anyone, though all the books were approved by the emperor of course.

Some well-remembered poets of the time were Ovid (who wrote Metamorphoses- myths of creation/transformation and mixed Greek and Roman mythology) and Virgil (who wrote the epic Aeneid- a Trojan prince flees Troy and his descendants found Rome). These writers were quite different. Ovid was quite witty and wrote very satiric works that were irreverent to authority, which was brave at the time. Virgil was quite dedicated and wrote very patriotic and solemn poetry. If they were alive at the same time, I bet they would have had beef. Since they never crossed paths as writers, and Ovid came later, he made quite a few references in answer of Virgil's works, most of them teasing or contradictory. Ironically, Augustus promoted Virgil's works as Rome's cultural foundations, and he actually exiled Ovid for mocking Augustan moral reforms. He's like Virgil's really annoying younger brother. (I looked into it further- Ovid was exiled to Romania, and there was a possibility he witnessed, or was in, a scandal with the emperor's granddaughter. Ovid was wildin, he was 51 when he got sent away and the emperor's granddaughter was 27. Maybe he got hotter with age, like Jake Gyllenhaal. Who knows?).