BOOK XIII. xAiv. 79-xxv. 8i 



emperor Claudius. The reason was that the thin 

 paper of the period of Augustus was not strong 

 enough to stand the friction of the pen, and moreover 

 as it let the writing show through there was a fear 

 of a smudge being caused by what was WTitten on 

 the back, and the great transparency of the paper 

 had an unattractive look in other respects. Conse- 

 quently the foundation was made of leaves of second 

 quahty and the woof or cross layer of leaves of the 

 first quahty. Claudius also increased the width of 

 the sheet, making it a foot across. There were also 

 eighteen-inch sheets called ' macrocola,' « but 

 examination detected a defect in them, as tearing 

 ofF a single strip damaged several pages. On this 

 account Claudius paper has come to be preferred to 

 all other kinds, although the Augustus kind still 

 holds the field for correspondence ; but Livia paper, 

 having no quahty of a first-class kind, but being 

 entirely second class, has retained its position. 



XXV. Roughness is smoothed out with a piece of Finishing 

 ivory or a shell, but this makes the lettering apt to fade, ^^"^^''** 

 as owing to the polish so given the paper does not 

 take the ink so well, but has a shinier surface. The 

 damping process if carelessly appUed often causes 

 difficulty in writing at first, and it can be detected 

 by a blow with the mallet, or even by the musty smell 

 if the process has been rather carelessly carried out. 

 Spottiness also may be detected by the eye, but a bad 

 porous strip found inserted in the middle of the pasted 

 joins, owing to the sponginess of the papyrus, sucks up 

 the ink and so can scarcely be detected except when 

 the ink of a letter runs : so much opportunity is there 

 for cheating. The consequence is that another task is 

 added to the process of paper-weaving. 



147 



