Page:A dictionary of printers and printing.djvu/44

 BEFORE THE CHRISTIAN ERA.

36

(he Roman women fordeluges, earthquakes, Sec. Merchants and purveyors of com, used to invent false news for interested purposes. It was not uncommon to put thehearersof badnewstodeath.

We gather, from references made to the Acta Divma by Seneca and other writers of antiquity, that it contained abstracts of the proceedings m courts of law and at public assemblies; also accounts of public works or buildinii^ in pro- gress; a recital of the various punishments in- flicted upon offenders; and a list of births, deaths, marriages, ice. We are told that one article of news in which it particularly abounded, was that of reports of trials for divorces, which were re- markably prevalent among the Roman citizens.

The history of the lives which have come down to us show, that in the Roman Republic, with all its boasted equality and freedom, the Senate frequently contrived to exercise a power as ar- bitraiy as that of the sternest despot. Like the proceedings of all arbitrary bodies, those of the Roman Senate would not bear the test of pub- Ucity ; and, therefore, all mention of their acts or discussions were prohibited in the Acta Di»ma ; until Julius Cssar (as we are informed by Suetonius, in his life of that great man), upon obtaining the first-consulship, made provision for giving the same publicity to all the proceedings of the senate, which already existed for the more popular assemblies. In the time of Augustus, nowever, the government had again so ur as- sumed a despotic character, that an institution of this nature was considered inconvenient, and therefore repealed ; while, at the same time, the ntilitv of this daily record was still further nar- rowed by the extinction of popular assemblies; and by the sanguinary laws promulgated against " libels;" under which head was probably classed the publication of any circumstance unpalatable to those in power. By way of further restraining the liberty of the pen, in the reign of the em- peror Augustus, it was ordained that the authors of all lampoons and satirical writings should be

^i«hed with death ; and succeeding tyrants uently availed themselves of this blood-thirsty enactment to wreak their vengeance on those thej hated, or had occasion to dread, — a course, not wholly dissimilar from that pursued by vin- fetive men in our own day, when they avail themselves of the anomalous state of the English hw of libel, to inflict deep and often total ruin upon those who may have unconsciously brought themselves within the operation of thatlaw. We have said, that the Roman gazettes contained merely an abstract of public events, — and a very pieagre abstract it must necessarily have been, in the absence of the art of printing, and with the awkward writing-materials then in use ; but it appears that the art of the short-hand writer, whereby a speech or debate might be preserved twiiKtm, was not unknown to the Romans ; for we read, that persons of this description were employed by Cicero to take down the speech of Cato, in the celebrated debate of the Roman Senate, apon the punishment of those who had heen concerned in the Catiline conspiracy.

The classical ancients had white walls on pur- pose for inscriptions in red chalk, like our hand- bills, of which the gates of Pompeii shew instances. Plutarch mentions expedients similar toour hand- bills used by tradesmen for custom. Houses were let by a writing over the door. Auctioneering bills ran thus: "To be sold, a good and well-built house," and "Julius Proculus will have an auc- tion of his superfluous goods to pay his debts." *

60. According to Chinese chronology, the art of printing was discovered in China at this period, under Uie reign of Ming Tsong the First, the se- cond emperor of the Tartarian dynasty. Paper was first written upon by Tsaolun, at the end of the first century, previous to which the people of China had been accustomed to transcribe, or print their writings, in volumes of silk or cloth, cut in the form of leaves; they also wrote upon thin wooden boards or bamboos, with a pointed stick and liquid ink. Fung Taou, a minister of state, in the 10th century, introduced printing from stone, having white characters upon a black ground.

In order to establish the great antiquity of the art in China, Father du Halde cites the follow- ing, as given by an old author, from the pen of the celebrated emperor Van Vong, who flourished 1,120 years before Christ :

" A« the stone 'Me,' (• word ilsnlfylni: Ink In the Chinese language ' which used to blacken the engraved characters, can never become white ; so a heart blackened by vice will always retain its blackness.' "

The above passage has led several writers to conclude, that printing was known in the East more than 3,000 years ago.

The severest penalties are denounced by the Chinese code of laws against all publications unfriendly to decency and good order: the pur- chasers of them are held in detestation bv the greater part of the community ; and, with the publishers, are alike obnoxious to the laws, which no rank or station, however exalted, can violate with impunity. The greatest encouragement is given by this extraordinsuy people to the cultiva- tion of letters. The literati rank above the military, are eligible to the highest stations, and receive the most profound homage from all ranks.

" The paper, ink, pencil, and marble, are called ' Pau-tsee,' or, the four precimuthingi." — Mason.

47. The Alexandrian library, containing near 700,000 volumes, burnt by order of JuliusCassar.

44, March 15, Julius Cicsar, amutinated in the senate house, constructed by Pompey. He perished at five o'clock in the afternoon, by 23 wounds. His character as a citizen is variously stated by diflerent factions.

18. The interview between Cicero and

Cleopatra took place about the present day, in the gardens of Ctesar on the Tiber, with whom she was living at the moment of his death. The object of this singular meeting was the acknow- ledgment of her son (by Julius Csesar) as king of Egypt, which the orator, no doubt, promised

• Ben Jonson, somewhere says, " he will not have the titles of his works affixed to the waUs, or stuck upon a cleft (tick."

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