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The libraries of the Caesareum

Known · AttestedExistence: AttestedKnown · AttestedLocation: AttestedConjectured · After an analogy: Library of Hadrian AthensForm: After an analogyafter Library of Hadrian Athens

Philo lists libraries among the Caesareum's buildings: proof that Roman Alexandria had more than one library.

The evidence: Philo only; their form is shown after the imperial libraries of Athens and Ephesus.

Within The Caesareum.

This place through time

  1. c. 20 BCE–50 CE · Philo reads Moses with Plato Known: attested

Drawn after

  • after The Library of Hadrian, Athens (132–134 CE) Pausanias describes a hundred columns of Phrygian marble and rooms with gilded roofs and alabaster where books were kept. The east hall has wall niches for cupboards. A model for a grand imperial library court.
  • after The Library of Celsus, Ephesus (c. 110s–135 CE) Built by Tiberius Julius Aquila as library and tomb for his father, the consul Celsus, whose sarcophagus lies beneath the apse. One hall of about 16.7 by 10.9 metres with rectangular wall niches for wooden book cupboards in tiers, a gallery to reach the upper ones, an apse for a statue, and a double wall with a gap, usually explained as a guard against damp. The best model for a Roman-period book-room; some three centuries later than the Ptolemaic foundation.
  • after The Library of Pantainos, Athens (c. 100 CE) A book-room with porticoes in the Athenian Agora, dedicated by Titus Flavius Pantainos. Its rules survive on stone: "No book shall be taken out, since we have sworn it. Open from the first hour until the sixth." A model for a reading room's daylight hours and house rules.

In the show

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Sources
  • Philo, Embassy to Gaius 151