amples the two halves of the roll
are turned inwards, as for instance in the well-known statue of
Demosthenes in the Vatican[62]. The end of the roll was fastened to a
stick (usually referred to as _umbilicus_ or _umbilici_). It is obvious
that this word ought properly to denote the ends of the stick only, but it
was constantly applied to the whole stick, and not to a part of it, as for
instance in the following lines:

... deus nam me vetat
Inceptos olim promissum carmen iambos
Ad umbilicum adducere[63].

... for heaven forbids me to cover the scroll down to
the stick with the iambic lines I had begun a song
promised long ago to the world.

[Illustration: Fig. 9. A reader with a roll: from a fresco at Pompeii.]

These sticks were sometimes painted or gilt, and furnished with projecting
knobs (_cornua_) similarly decorated, intended to serve both as an
ornament, and as a contrivance to keep the ends of the roll even, while it
was being rolled up. The sides of the long dimension of the roll
(_frontes_) were carefully cut, so as to be perfectly symmetrical, and
afterwards smoothed with pumice-stone and coloured. A ticket (_index_ or
_titulus_, in Greek [Greek: sillubos] or [Greek: sittubos]), made of a
piece of papyrus or parchment, was fastened to the edge of the roll in
such a way that it hung out over one or other of the ends. As Ovid says:

Cetera turba palam titulos ostendet apertos
Et sua detecta nomina fronte geret[64].

The others will flaunt their titles openly, and carry
their names on an uncovered edge.

The roll was kept closed by strings or straps (_lora_), usually of some
bright colour[65]; and if it was specially precious, an envelope which the
Greeks called a jacket ([Greek: diphthera][66]), made of parchment or some
other substance, was provided. Says Martial:

Perfer Atestinae nondum vulgata Sabinae
Carmina, purpurea sed modo culta toga[67].

Convey to Sabina at Ateste these verses. They have not
yet been published, and have been but lately dressed in
a purple garment.

Martial has combined in a single epigram most of the ornaments with which
rolls could be decorated. This I will quote next, premising that the oil
of cedar, or _arbor-vitae_, mentioned in the second line not only imparted
an agreeable yellow colour, but was held to be an antiseptic[68].

Faustini fugis in sinum? sapisti.
Cedro nunc licet ambules perunctus
Et front