_Libraries in Greece, especially those of Pisistratus and
Aristotle. That at Byzantium._
Concerning the libraries of Egypt I have given few and unimportant
facts, though the collections themselves were perhaps many and of
great importance. But history here is dimmed by the mists of time.
The same must be said also of the history of the libraries of Greece.
Athenaeus incidentally refers to the more important of them when he
praises his friend Laurentius for his skill in classifying books, and
says that in this art he surpassed Polycrates of Samos, Pisistratus
the Tyrant, Euclid the Athenian, Nicocrates the Cyprian, Euripides
the poet, and Aristotle the philosopher. I have little of detail
to say about any of these men. Of Pisistratus it should be noted
that A. Gellius gave to him the honour of being the pioneer in this
art of forming a library; though Polycrates had one at about the
same time. A. Gellius says, to quote his very words, “Pisistratus
the Tyrant is said to have been the first to make for public use
in Athens a collection of books on the liberal arts.” Here, then,
was indeed a great man,--he was called the “Tyrant,” but the word
did not convey at that time the odium it does to-day,--and to him
we owe the text of Homer collected and arranged as we now have it.
At that period critical studies, as we now call them, that is, the
collation and emendation of texts, were much followed by princes,
and even by kings. This library, founded by Pisistratus, was added
to from time to time by the Athenians, until Xerxes carried it away
when he captured Athens. Many years afterwards Seleucus Nicanor, King
of Syria, very generously caused the books of this library to be
returned to Athens. They remained there until the time of Sulla, who
captured and plundered the city. But even after that, I am sure we
must believe the library was again established; for how could a city
be, as Athens was, the mother of the arts without the aid of books?
Indeed there must have been many libraries there in later years.
Hadrian, for example, so Pausanias wrote, erected in Athens a temple
to the Panhellenic Jove, and placed in it a library.
Of Euclid, Athenaeus says that he was an archon and one of the more
learned of the magistrates; nothing more.
Of Aristotle, Strabo speaks in terms of highest praise, and I have
already quoted his words. I also cited the statement from Athenaeus
that Aristotle’s library came finally into the possession of the
Ptolemies. Strabo and some others, however, seem to question this
statement. “The books of Aristotle,” says Strabo, “which were
left to Neleus, were finally handed on to certain descendants of
his who were men of no learning. By them the books were kept under
lock and key, and were not used. Then they were buried under ground
and much injured by worms and mould; but finally were purchased at
a great price by Apellicon of Teos. He had the books, now sadly
worm-eaten and tattered, transcribed, though not faithfully or with
good judgement, and published. On his death Sulla, then master of
Athens, seized the books and sent them to Rome, where Tyrannion the
grammarian made use of them and, so it is reported, rearranged them
and to some extent corrupted their text.” Plutarch tells the same
or a very similar story in his life of Sulla. If it is true, how
could the books of Aristotle have come from Neleus to Philadelphus,
as Athenaeus says they did in the passage quoted above? Perhaps we
can reconcile the two statements, and this is my conclusion, by
supposing that Neleus retained Aristotle’s own writings, his original
manuscripts, as a precious heritage for his own family, and sold the
rest of the books, written by others, to Philadelphus.
I do not recall any other matters worth relating about the libraries
of Greece. I do not need to say that the Romans, after they
conquered the country, undoubtedly took to Italy many collections of
books.
Perhaps I should simply mention the Byzantine library of the time
of the Emperors. Zonaras and Cedrenus say that under the Emperor
Basiliscus, the library in Byzantium, into which had been gathered
a hundred and twenty thousand volumes, was destroyed by fire. Among
the books was the gut of a great dragon, one hundred and twenty feet
long, on which was written in letters of gold the whole of the Iliad
and the Odyssey. But this library, being in Thrace and not in Greece,
ought not to be considered as among the Grecian libraries.