an officer without whose permission, formally granted, no book could be published. It has been proved by Beckman that such an office was established, not only in the Roman empire, but also in the states of Greece. All the copies of the works of Protagoras which could be procured were burned at Athens by the public crier, and the satirical works of Labienus shared the same fate under the reign of the Emperor Augustus. Not long after the invention of printing, laws were enacted for subjecting books to examination. See Bibliography.