In an earlier post, I reviewed the evidence for a stichos or versus being equal (in theory) to 16 prose syllables. The count of stichoi in a work provided a standardized way of describing its length. A stichometric count could also be used as a means of calculating the cost of writing or copying a text. An important piece of evidence for this is the so-called Edict on Maximum Prices of Diocletian issued in the year 301. The complete text of the edict does not survive, but epigraphic remains, some quite substantial, preserve much of it.

Both Greek and Latin versions survive for the portion of the edict that is relevant to the discussion of stichometry.

There are a few lacunae, but between the two versions, the sense is reasonably clear. The text given here is that of Lauffer.¹

39 καλλιγράφῳ ἰς γραφὴν κα̣[λλίστην] στίχων ρʹ [𐆖 κεʹ]
40 δευτέρας γραφῆς στίχω̣ν ρʹ [𐆖 κʹ]
41 ἀγοραίοις γράφουσι λιβέλλα ἢ τάβλας στίχους ρʹ [𐆖 ιʹ]

39 scriptori in sc<ri>ptura optima versus n. centum D̸ XXV
40 sequ[enti]s scripturae bersuum no. centum D̸ XX
41 tabellanioni in scriptura libelli bel tabularum [in ver]sibus no. centum [D̸] X

After a word about payment for the parchment maker, the inscription gives maximum prices to be paid to a scriptor or καλλιγράφος (copyist) for two types of writing, “the best writing” and “second quality writing.” In each case the basis for price is the sum of στίχων ρʹ, versus centum, 100 stichoi. A third type of writing is attributed to a different type of writer. The ἀγοραῖος or tabellio,² figures who execute the writing used in different kinds of documents (the terms libelli and tabulae cover a variety of documentary texts). Again, the unit for determining pay is 100 stichoi.

So accuracy of stichometric counts would seem to be important not just for knowing the length of texts but also for paying those who copied texts of all kinds. One would thus expect that stichometric counts for a given text would be basically stable, but this doesn’t really seem to be the case.³ I will explore this issue a bit in another post.

1. Siegfried Lauffer, Diokletians Preisedikt (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1971). ↩︎
2. Presuming that tabellanioni is synonymous with (or an error for) tabellioni. ↩︎
3. The statement in the Cheltenham List mentioned in an earlier post already suggested that getting such a count might not be an entirely straightforward matter: “Because the index of verses (indiculum versuum) in Rome is not clearly given, and because in other places too, as a result of greed, they do not preserve it in full, I have gone through the books one by one, counting sixteen syllables per line, and have appended to each book the number of Virgilian hexameters it contains.” Edition and translation of Rouse and McNelis, “North African Literary Activity: A Cyprian Fragment, the Stichometric Lists and a Donatist Compendium,” Revue d’histoire des textes 30 (2000) 189-238: Quoniam indiculum versuum in urbe Roma non ad liquidum sed et alibi avariciae causa non habent integrum per singulos libros computatis syllabis posui numero XVI versum Virgilianum omnibus libris numerum adscribsi. ↩︎