Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 143, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 June 1914 — Publication in Old Rome. [ARTICLE]

Publication in Old Rome.

Some publishers in ancient Roma could turn out books rapidly and cheaply. A publisher of the Augustan era produced 1,000 copies of the second book of Martial in ten hours, and these sold at about twelve cents apiece, gave him a profit of 100 per cent. This was done by employing slaves carefully trained to write swiftly and legibly. Working in batchea of IDO, with an overseer dictating the book in hand, the task was completed tn a very short time. - As soon as the copies were written they were revised, corrected, rolled up and bound. Being slaves, the men required only maintenance from their master, and thus he could t afford to sell the productions at a very low rate.