demise, we know the library’s end came as a result of armed conflict; its fate was inexorably tied to the fate of its empire.
Today, the library stands as an idealized symbol of scholarship and learning. But the tale of its rise and fall also tells an instructive story about the inherent instability of institutional systems. And its burning, while surely a great historical tragedy, marks only one in a long progression of historical biblioclasms.
AFTER ALEXANDRIA
While Alexandria occupies a special place in the popular imagination as the iconic library of the ancient world, libraries flourished throughout the Greek and Roman worlds. As Rome began appropriating Greek culture starting in the fourth century BC, Roman citizens populated their private libraries from the great book markets in Athens, Rhodes, and Alexandria. Wealthy citizens collected decorative books to ornament their homes, while less affluent Romans could buy small unadorned books for a few coins. Prominent Roman citizens like Cicero built vast personal libraries. The fashion for book collecting reached such a height that the poet Ausonius satirized the folly of citizens who increasingly purchased books for ornamental purposes:
That thou with Books thy Library hast fill’d
Think’st though thy self learn’d and in Grammar skill’d
Then stor’d with Strings, Lutes, Fiddle-stricks now bought;
Tomrrow thou Musitian may’st be thought. 30
Shortly before his death in 44 BC, Julius Caesar decreed that a great public library should be built. A statesman named Pollio picked up the imperial charter after Caesar’s assassination and started building the first great Roman public library with the support of no lesser public intellectuals than Catullus, Horace, and Virgil. Located near the Roman forum, the library consisted of two distinct collections: one block for Latin works and another for Greek. This precedent ofdividing the library into two parallel collections would persist in subsequent Roman libraries, as generations of Romans built new public libraries modeled on Pollio’s original. Centuries later, early Christian libraries would follow this model of bibliographical bicameralism, splitting their books into collections for Christian and pagan works.
By the fourth century AD, Rome had no fewer than 28 public libraries. While none of these libraries came anywhere close to approximating the vast Greek collections at Alexandria and Pergamum, they played a visible role in everyday Roman life. The typical Roman library stood in close proximity to a temple or palace, usually conjoined by rows of columns. Walking inside, the citizen would traverse a front entryway with busts of famous poets and authors, arranged into their separate chambers for Latin and Greek. The larger libraries featured bookcases with numbers corresponding to entries in a master catalog listing. As in Alexandria, each scroll bore a tag identifying its author and title. The bookcases opened out onto reading rooms, where library users could peruse a chosen manuscript; some libraries permitted private borrowing.
Roman libraries also served as intellectual salons, housing literary, social, and political groups. While only a fraction of Rome’s residents would likely have availed themselves of these services, the public mission of the library nonetheless signaled a continuation of the Greek commitment to public scholarship. In many Roman communities, libraries were attached to the public baths. The library system was administered by a
procurator
, with each individual library headed by a librarian with a staff of assistants and copyists who made up the preponderance of the library staff. Librarians enjoyed high esteem during this period. Martial describes Sextus, the librarian of the Palatine, as having “intelligence approaching that of a god.” 31
By the fourth century AD, Roman libraries had spread throughout the empire, from Africa to Britain.
Today, the library stands as an idealized symbol of scholarship and learning. But the tale of its rise and fall also tells an instructive story about the inherent instability of institutional systems. And its burning, while surely a great historical tragedy, marks only one in a long progression of historical biblioclasms.
AFTER ALEXANDRIA
While Alexandria occupies a special place in the popular imagination as the iconic library of the ancient world, libraries flourished throughout the Greek and Roman worlds. As Rome began appropriating Greek culture starting in the fourth century BC, Roman citizens populated their private libraries from the great book markets in Athens, Rhodes, and Alexandria. Wealthy citizens collected decorative books to ornament their homes, while less affluent Romans could buy small unadorned books for a few coins. Prominent Roman citizens like Cicero built vast personal libraries. The fashion for book collecting reached such a height that the poet Ausonius satirized the folly of citizens who increasingly purchased books for ornamental purposes:
That thou with Books thy Library hast fill’d
Think’st though thy self learn’d and in Grammar skill’d
Then stor’d with Strings, Lutes, Fiddle-stricks now bought;
Tomrrow thou Musitian may’st be thought. 30
Shortly before his death in 44 BC, Julius Caesar decreed that a great public library should be built. A statesman named Pollio picked up the imperial charter after Caesar’s assassination and started building the first great Roman public library with the support of no lesser public intellectuals than Catullus, Horace, and Virgil. Located near the Roman forum, the library consisted of two distinct collections: one block for Latin works and another for Greek. This precedent ofdividing the library into two parallel collections would persist in subsequent Roman libraries, as generations of Romans built new public libraries modeled on Pollio’s original. Centuries later, early Christian libraries would follow this model of bibliographical bicameralism, splitting their books into collections for Christian and pagan works.
By the fourth century AD, Rome had no fewer than 28 public libraries. While none of these libraries came anywhere close to approximating the vast Greek collections at Alexandria and Pergamum, they played a visible role in everyday Roman life. The typical Roman library stood in close proximity to a temple or palace, usually conjoined by rows of columns. Walking inside, the citizen would traverse a front entryway with busts of famous poets and authors, arranged into their separate chambers for Latin and Greek. The larger libraries featured bookcases with numbers corresponding to entries in a master catalog listing. As in Alexandria, each scroll bore a tag identifying its author and title. The bookcases opened out onto reading rooms, where library users could peruse a chosen manuscript; some libraries permitted private borrowing.
Roman libraries also served as intellectual salons, housing literary, social, and political groups. While only a fraction of Rome’s residents would likely have availed themselves of these services, the public mission of the library nonetheless signaled a continuation of the Greek commitment to public scholarship. In many Roman communities, libraries were attached to the public baths. The library system was administered by a
procurator
, with each individual library headed by a librarian with a staff of assistants and copyists who made up the preponderance of the library staff. Librarians enjoyed high esteem during this period. Martial describes Sextus, the librarian of the Palatine, as having “intelligence approaching that of a god.” 31
By the fourth century AD, Roman libraries had spread throughout the empire, from Africa to Britain.
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