The reason of this obviously was that it would have been impossible to cut slices of great length to the requisite thinness and evenness of substance, and so papyrus manuscripts are always made up of a large number of separate sheets carefully pasted together. This was very skilfully done by workmen who (in Pliny's time) were called _glutinatores_; cf. Cic. _Att._ IV. 4. The two adjacent edges of the sheets, which were to be joined together by lapping, were thinned down by careful rubbing to about half their original substance. The two laps were then brushed over with paste, accurately applied together, and the union was then completed by beating with the wooden mallet. When the pasted joint was dry it was rubbed and polished with the ivory burnisher till scarcely any mark of the joining remained. In this way long rolls were formed, often fifty feet or more in length; as a rule, however, excessive length for a single roll was inconvenient. Pliny mentions 20 sheets as being an ordinary limit. Thus, for example, in such works as Homer's _Iliad_ or Virgil's _Aeneid_, each _book_ would form a separate _volumen_ or roll (Greek [Greek: kylindros] or [Greek: tomos]). The invention of papyrus paper dates from an early period in the history of Egypt. Examples still exist which are as early as 2300 B.C., and its manufacture was probably known long before that. _Papyrus used in Greece._ In later times Egyptian papyrus was an important article of export into many countries. An Attic inscription of the year 407 B.C. tells us what the cost of paper then was in Athens; two sheets ([Greek: chartai duo]) cost two drachmae and four obols, equal in modern value to about four shillings; see _C. I. A._ I. 324. The [Greek: chartai] in this case probably mean, not a single page, but several sheets pasted together to form a roll. _Papyrus made in Rome._ _Old MSS. on papyrus._ In Pliny's time paper was made not only in Egypt but also in Rome and at other places in Italy[18]. The best kind was formerly called _Hieratica_, because it was used in Egypt for sacred hieroglyphic writing only. In later times this finest quality, in Rome at least, was called _Augusta_, and the second quality _Liviana_, from Livia the wife of Augustus. A coarse variety used for wrapping up parcels and the like was called "shop-paper," _emporetica_. Pliny also tells us that paper was manufactured of many different breadths, varying from about four to eighteen inches. The commonest width was about twelve inches; see Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ XIII. 71 to 83. In the last of these paragraphs Pliny mentions examples of old papyrus manuscripts existing in his time, such as manuscripts in the handwriting of Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus, which were nearly two centuries old. Manuscripts written by Cicero, Augustus and Virgil are, he says, still frequently to be seen.