It is not until the last century of the republic that we hear of libraries in Rome, with the exception of the writings of Mago upon agriculture. The first considerable collections of which we hear in Rome were brought there as the spoils of war. The library of Perseus was all that Aemilius Paulus reserved from the prizes of victory (167 B.c.) for himself and his sons. Next came the library of Apellicon the Teian, brought from Athens by Sulla (86 B.c.). The zeal of Cicero and Atticus in adding to their collections is well known. Tyrannion is said to have had 30,00o vols. of his own, and Cicero wrote to M. Terentius Varro: "Si hortum in bibliotheca babes, nihil deerit." The honour of being the first actually to dedicate a library to the public is said by Pliny and Ovid to have fallen to G. Asinius Pollio, who erected a library in the Atrium Libertatis on Mount Aventine. Augustus erected two libraries, the Octavian and the Palatine. The former was founded (33 B.c.) in honour of his sister, the charge of the books being committed to C. Melissus. The Octavian and Palatine libraries perished by fire ; the story that the Palatine was de stroyed by order of Pope Gregory the Great in the 6th century is now generally rejected. Tiberius, the immediate successor of Augustus, established on the Palatine what Gellius refers to as the "Tiberian library." Vespasian established a library in the Temple of Peace erected after the burning of the city under Nero. Domitian restored the libraries then destroyed, and he, or Hadrian, founded the Capitoline library. The most famous and important of the imperial libraries was that created by Ulpius Trajanus, known as the Ulpian library, afterwards removed to the baths of Diocletian. The library of Domitian, which had been destroyed by fire in the reign of Commodus, was restored by Gordian, who added to it the 62,00o books bequeathed to him by Serenus Sannmonicus. In the 4th century there are said to have been 28 public libraries in Rome.
The library which the younger Pliny gave to Comum cost a million sesterces; Hadrian established one at Athens, described by Pausanias, and recently identified with the Stoa of Hadrian. At Ephesus and at Timgad in Algeria, the structural plan of the library buildings is clear (R. Cagnat, "Les Bibliotheques municipales dans l'Empire Ro main," 1906, Mem. de l'Acad. des Insc., tom. xxxviii. pt. I). A private library discovered at Herculaneum contained 1,756 rolls on shelves round the room, to a height of about 6 ft., with a central press. The Christian libraries closely followed the classi cal prototypes.
The names of several librarians (generally slaves or freedmen) are preserved to us in inscriptions, including that of C. Hyme naeus, physician and librarian to Augustus.
When the seat of empire was removed by Constantine to his new capital upon the Bosporus, the emperor established a collection there. Constantine's library, which con tained 6,900 vols., was perhaps mainly intended as a repository of Christian literature ; it was greatly enlarged by Julian and Theodosius, at whose death it is said to have increased to ioo,000 volumes. Julian not only augmented the library at Constanti
nople, but founded others.
As Christian literature grew, libraries became part of the ec clesiastical organization, and it became the rule to attach one to every church. The largest of these libraries, that founded by Pamphilus (d. A.D. 309) at Caesarea, and said to have been in creased by Eusebius to 30,00o vols., 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. Even the hermit com munities of the Egyptian deserts, out of which developed the later monastic orders, accumulated books.
With the removal of the capital to Byzantium 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 church became increasingly hostile to pagan letters. The re peated 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.
During the first few centuries after the fall of the Western empire, in the West, as in the East, few cared for learn ing. Sidonius Apollinaris tells us of the libraries of several private collectors in Gaul.
During the 6th and 7th centuries in the Irish monasteries there appear to have been many books. The library of York, which was founded by Archbishop Egbert, was almost more famous than that of Canterbury, and was described in verse by Alcuin. The inroads of the Northmen in the 9th and loth centuries had been fatal to monastic libraries. The correspondence of Lupus Servatus, a pupil of Hrabanus Maurus at Fulda, and afterwards abbot of Ferrieres, illustrates the paucity and dearness of books, the declining care for learning, and the increasing troubles of the time. Charlemagne collected a number of choice books for his private use. Although these collections were dispersed at his death, his son, Louis, formed a library which continued to exist under Charles the Bald. But the greatest private collector of the middle ages was doubtless Gerbert, Pope Sylvester II.
the next four or five centuries the collect ing and multiplication of books were almost entirely confined to I the monasteries. In each newly-founded monastery there was to be a library, et velut curia quaedam illustrium auctorum, that is of religious writers. Monte Cassino became the starting point of a long tradition. Of the reformed Benedictine orders the Carthusians and the Cistercians were those most devoted to literary pursuits. The abbeys of Fleury, of Melk and of St. Gall were remarkable for the splendour of their libraries. The Au gustinians and the Dominicans rank next to the Benedictines. The libraries of Ste. Genevieve and St. Victor, belonging to the former order, were amongst the largest of the monastic collections. Richard of Bury praises them for their diligence in collecting books. Sir Richard Whittington built a large library for the Grey Friars in London, and they possessed considerable libraries at Oxford.