libraries

libraries
By the end of the 5th cent. bc, books were in general circulation, even if some regarded them as a fad of intellectuals like Euripides (Aristophanes Ranae 943, cf. fr. 506 R. Kassel and C. Austin); Athens had booksellers (Eup. fr. 327, Aristomenes (2) fr. 9, R. Kassel and C. Austin), and exports reached the Black Sea (Xenophon Anabasis 7. 5. 14). Individuals collected the best-known poets and philosophers (Xenophon Memorabilia 4. 2. 1); an imagined collection of the later 4th cent. bc includes Orpheus, Hesiod, tragedies, Choerilus (?of Samos), Homer, the comedian Epicharmus, and all kinds of prose, including Simus' Cookery (Alexis fr. 140 R. Kassel and C. Austin). Of famous collectors (Athenaeus 1. 3a), Aristotle took first place (Strabo 13. 1. 54); but...

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