Suetonius relates that he caused the writings and images of his favourite Greek poets to be placed in the public libraries. Vespasian established a library in the Temple of Peace erected after the burning of the city under Nero. Domitian restored the libraries which had been destroyed in the same conflagration, procuring books from every quarter, and even sending to Alexandria to have copies made. He is also said to have founded the Capitoline library, though others give the credit to Hadrian. The most famous and important of the imperial libraries, however, was that created by Ulpius Trajanus, known as the Ulpian library, which was first established in the Forum of Trajan, but was afterwards removed to the baths of Diocletian. In this library were deposited by Trajan the "libri lintei " and "libri elephantini," upon which the senatus consulta and other transactions relating to the emperors were written. The library of Domitian, which had been destroyed by fire in the reign of Commodus, was restored by Gordian, who added to it the books bequeathed to him by Serenus Sammonicus. Altogether in the 4th century there are said to have been twenty-eight public libraries in Rome.
Nor were public libraries confined to Rome. Besides a library at Tibur, which is twice mentioned by Gellius, and was probably founded by Hadrian, the younger Pliny mentions that he had himself dedicated a library to his fellow-townsmen at Comum; and an inscription discovered at Milan proves that he also contributed a large sum to the support of a library there. Hadrian established a library at Athens; and Strabo mentions the library of Smyrna. Gellius also mentions a library at Patrae. From one of his references (xix. 5) to the Tiburtine library we may infer that it was not unusual for books to be lent out from these libraries. Considerable care was bestowed by the Romans upon the placing of their libraries. The room or building generally had an eastern aspect. The books or rolls were arranged upon the shelves of presses running round the walls, with additional presses placed in the middle of the room. Thus the library discovered at Herculaneum contained 1756 MSS. placed on shelves running round the room to a height of some 6 feet, with a detached central press. These presses in large libraries were numbered. They were often made of precious woods and richly ornamented, while the room was adorned with portraits and statues.
As the number of libraries in Rome increased, the librarian, who was generally a slave or freedman, became a recognized public functionary. The names of several librarians are preserved to us in inscriptions, including that of C. Hymen-jeus, who appears to have fulfilled the double function of physician and librarian to Augustus. The general superintendence of the public libraries was com mitted to a special official. Thus from Nero to Trajan Dionysius, an Alexandrian rhetorician, discharged this function. Under Hadrian it was entrusted to his former tutor C. Julius Vestinus, who afterwards became administrator of the Museum at Alexandria.
Constantinople.When the seat of empire was removed by Constantine to his new capital upon the Bosporus, the emperor established a collection there, in which Christian literature was probably admitted for the first time into an imperial library. Diligent search was made after the Christian books which had been doomed to destruction by Diocletian. Even at the death of Constantine, however, the number of books which had been brought together amounted only to G900. The smallness of the number, it has been suggested, seems to show that Constantine's library was mainly intended as a repository of Christian literature. However this may be, the collection was greatly enlarged by some of Constantine's successors, especially by Julian and Theodosius, at whose death it is said to have increased to 100,000 volumes. Julian, himself a close student and voluminous writer, though he did his best to discourage learning among the Christians, and to destroy their libraries, not only augmented the library at Constantinople, but founded others, including one at Nisibis, which was soon afterwards destroyed by fire. From the Theodosian code we learn that in the time of that emperor a staff of seven copyists was attached to the library at Constantinople under the direction of the librarian. The library was burnt under the emperor Zeno in 477, but was again restored.
Meanwhile, as Christianity made its way and a distinctively Christian literature grew up, the institution of libraries became part of the organization of the church. When the church of Jerusalem was founded in the 3d century a library was added to it, and it became the rule to attach to every church a collection of the books necessary for the inculcation of Christian doctrine. The largest of these libraries, that founded by Pamphilus at Cresarea, and said to have been increased by Eusebius, the historian of the church, to 30,000 volumes, is frequently mentioned by St Jerome. St Augustine bequeathed his collection to the library of the church at Hippo, which was fortunate enough to escape destruction at the hands of the Vandals.
The removal of the capital to Byzantium was in its result a serious blow to literature. Henceforward the science and learning of the East and West were divorced. The libraries of Rome ceased to collect the writings of the Greeks, while the Greek libraries had never cared much to collect Latin literature. The influence of the church became increasingly hostile to the study of pagan letters. The repeated irruptions of the barbarians soon swept the old learning and libraries alike from the soil of Italy. With the close of the Western empire in 476 the ancient history of libraries may be said to cease.
Mediæval Period.
During the finit few centuries after the fall of the Western empire, literary activity at Constantinople had fallen to its lowest ebb. In the West, amidst the general neglect of learning and literature, the collecting of books, though not wholly forgotten, was cared for by few. Gaul.Sidonius Apollinaris tells us of the libraries of several private collectors in Gaul. Publius Consentius possessed a library at his villa near Narbonne which was due to the labour of three generations. The most notable of these appears to have been the prefect Tonantius Ferreolus, who had formed in his villa of Prusiana, near Nimes, a collection which his friend playfully compares to that of Alexandria, The Goths, who had been introduced to the Scriptures in their own language by Ulfilas in the 4th century, began to . pay some attention to Latin literature. Cassiodorus, the favourite minister of Theodoric, was a collector as well as an author, and on giving up the cares of government retired to a monastery which he founded in Calabria, where he employed his monks in the transcription of books.
Henceforward the charge of books as well as of education fell more and more exclusively into the hands of the church. While the old schools of the rhetoricians died out new monasteries arose everywhere. Knowledge was no longer pursued for its own sake, but became subsidiary to religious and theological teaching. The proscription of the old classical literature, which is symbolized in the fable of the destruction of the Palatine library by Gregory the Great, was only too effectual. The Gregorian tradition of opposition to pagan learning long continued to dominate the literary pursuits of the monastic orders and the labours of the scriptorium.
