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been legally punished (compare Cic. adFam. iii. II),1 and that Augustus provoked by the audacity with which Cassius Severus brought into disrepute the most illustrious persons of the age, ordained, by a lex nmjcstatis, that the authors of libelli famosi should be brought to trial. On this occasion Au­gustus, who was informed of the existence of several such works, had a search made at Rome by the aediles, and in other places by the local magis­trates, and ordered the libels to be burnt ; some of the authors were subjected to punishment. (Dion Cass. Ivi. 27.) A law quoted by Ulpian (Dig. 47. tit, 10. s. 5) ordained that the author of a libellus famosus should be intestabilis, and during the later period of the empire we find that capital punish­ment was not only inflicted upon the author, but upon those persons in whose possession a libellus famosus was found, or who did not destroy it as soon as it came into their hands. (Cod. 9. tit. 36.) For further information on this subject see Rein, Das Criminalrecht der Romer, pp. 378, &c. 531.

3. Libellus memorialis, a pocket or memorandum book. (Suet. Caes. 56.) The libellus, from which Cicero (ad Alt. vi. 1. § 5) communicates a memo­randum of Brutus, appears to have been a book of this kind.

4. Libellus is used by the Roman jurists as equivalent to Oratio Principis. [orationes piiin-cipum.]

5. The word libellus was also applied to' a variety of writings, which in most cases probably consisted of one page only : —

-L O v

a. To short letters addressed to a person for the purpose of cautioning him against some danger which threatened his life (Sueton. Caes. 81, Ccdig. 15) ; and to any short letters or reports addressed to the senate or private individuals. (Suet. Caes. 5G, August. 84 ; Cic. ad Fam. xi. 11.)

b. To the bills called libelli gladiatorii, or mune-rarii, which persons who gave gladiatorial exhibi­tions distributed among the people. [gladiatores, p. 574, b.]

c. To petitions to the emperors. (Suet. Aug. 53 ; Mart. viii. 31. 3, 82. 1.) The emperors had their especial officers or secretaries who attended to all petitions (Ubellis praefectus, Dig. 20. tit. 5), and who read and answered them in the name of the emperor. (Suet. Domit. 14.) Such a libellus is still extant. See Gruter, Inscript. p. dcvil 1.

d. To the bill of appeal called libellus appella-torius, which a person who did not acquiesce in a judicial sentence, had to send in after the lapse of two or three days. (Dig. 40. tit. 1.)

e. To the bills stuck up in the most frequented parts of the city, in case of a debtor having ab­sconded. (Cic. pro Quint. 6, 15, 19 ; Rein, Rom. Privatr. p. 499.) Such bills were also stuck upon the estates of such a debtor, and his friends who wished to pay for him sometimes pulled down such bills. (Senec. de Benef. iv. 12.)

f. To bills in which persons announced to the public that they had found things which had been lost, and in which they invited the owner to claim his property. (Plaut. Rud. v. 2. 7, &c. ; Dig. 47. tit. 2. s. 44.) The owner gave to the finder a re­ward (evperpa) and received his property back. Sometimes the owner also made known to the public by a libellus what he had lost, stated his name and residence, and promised to give a reward to the person who found his property, and brought it back to him. (Propert. iii. 21. 21, &c.) [L. S.]



LIBER (&ig\iop') a book. The most common material on which books wero written by the Greeks and Romans, was the thin coats or rind (liber, whence the Latin name for a book) of the Egyptian papyrus. This plant was called by the Egyptians byblos (/3u§Aos), whence the Greeks de­rived their name for a book (ftiS\iov). It formed an article of commerce long before the time of Herodotus (v. 58), and was extensively used in the western part of Europe, as is proved by the number of rolls of papyri found at Herculaneuin. In the sixth century of the Christian aera the duty on imported papyrus was abolished by Theo-doric the Great, on which occasion Cassiodorus wrote a letter (xi. 38), in which he congratulates the world on the cessation of a tax so unfavourable to the progress of learning and of commerce. The papyrus-tree grows in swamps to the height of ten feet and more, and paper was prepared from the thin coats or pellicles which surround the plant in the following manner according to Pliny (xiii. 23) :— The different pieces were joined together by the turbid Nile water, as it has a kind of glutin­ous property. A layer of papyrus (sclteda or philyrct) was laid flat on a board, and a cross layer put over it; and being thus prepared, the layers were pressed and afterwards dried in the sun. The sheets were then fastened or pasted together, the best being taken first and then the inferior sheets. There were never more than twenty in a scapus or roll. The papyri found in Egyptian tombs differ very much in length, but not much in breadth, as the breadth was probably determined by the usual length of the strips taken from the plant. The length might be carried to almost any extent by fastening one sheet to another. The writing was in columns with a blank slip between them. (Egyptian Antiquities, vol. ii. ch. 7. Loncl. 1836.) The form and general appearance of the papyri rolls will be understood from the following woodcut taken from paintings found at Pompeii. (Gell. Pomp. vol. ii. p. 187.)

The paper (cftarta) made from the papyrus was of different qualities. The best was called after Au­gustus, the second after Livia, the third, which was originally the best, was named Hieratica, because it was appropriated to the sacred books. The finest paper was subsequently called Clatidia, from the emperor Claudius. The inferior kinds were called Ampldilteatrica, Saitica, Leneotica, from the places in Egypt where it was made, and also Fanniana, from one Fannius, who had a celebrated manufactory at Rome. The kind called Emporetica was not fit for writing, and was chiefly used by merchants for packing their goods, from which cir­cumstance it obtained its name. (Plin. xiii. 23, 24.)

Next. to the papyrus, parchment (membrcma) was the most common material for writing upon.




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