_The Libraries of Tiberius, of Trajan, of Vespasian; also the
Capitoline; other unknown Libraries._
We have seen that two libraries were established in Rome by the
Emperor Augustus, a most zealous patron of the arts and sciences.
What may be said of other Roman libraries? Certainly there were
others; and there even seems to have been a spirit of rivalry among
the rulers of that time in regard to them, each contending for the
palm as founder of libraries. For example, Tiberius, soon after
the death of Augustus, established one within the limits of the
royal palace itself, on that part which fronts on the Via Sacra.
Students of the subject think that here were Tiberius’s own special
apartments; and A. Gellius locates the library in them when he says,
“While Apollinaris and I were sitting in the library in the house of
Tiberius.” Vopiscus makes the same statement in effect, for he tells
us that he used the books in the Ulpian library and also those in the
apartments of Tiberius.
It seems that in due course Vespasian also collected a library and
placed it in the temple of Peace, as we gather from A. Gellius’s
remark, “We sought very diligently for the Commentary of L. Aelius,
the teacher of Varro, and found it, and read it, in the library in
the temple of Peace.” Galen also mentions it in his _Treatise on the
Compounding of Medicines_.
Another library was gathered by Trajan, of which A. Gellius also
speaks. “We happened,” he says, “to be sitting in the library in
the temple of Trajan.” This is the one which is commonly called the
Ulpian, from the family name of the Emperor Trajan. Vopiscus says,
“I learned these things from the elders; and I read them also, in
the books of the Ulpian library;” also, “If you are still in doubt,
consult the books in Greek, then look up also the linen books, the
ancient chronicles, which the Ulpian library can show to you whenever
you wish.”
I am of the opinion that this Ulpian library was at first in the
forum of Trajan, where the other monuments erected by that emperor
were placed; and was afterwards moved to the Viminal Hill to adorn
the Baths of Diocletian. If so moved, why not by Diocletian himself?
Vopiscus would lead us to think it was, for he says, “I make use
especially of the books of the Ulpian library, which in my time was
in the Baths of Diocletian.” When he expressly says that in his time
it was in a certain place, he plainly implies that it had previously
been in another place.
Let us pass now to the Capitoline library, concerning which Eusebius
says, in speaking of the reign of the Emperor Commodus, “The
lightning struck the Capitol and started a great fire, which consumed
the library and the houses near it.” Orosius relates the incident
more at length: “Upon the city falls the punishment for the crimes
of the emperor. The Capitol was struck by lightning, and a terrible
conflagration burst forth, which devoured both the library, which had
been gathered by men of old with so much zeal and care, and all the
adjoining dwellings.”
Who was the founder of this library? We cannot be sure, but we may
surmise that it was Domitian. At one time he narrowly escaped death
in the Capitol, and there, after he became emperor, he erected a
temple; and if the temple, why not the library within it? No record,
it is true, remains to prove that he did. Suetonius speaks of the
matter in a very vague way where he says, “He, Domitian, was at
great pains to reëstablish the library which had been burned, and at
large expense sought for books in all parts of the world, and sent
savants to Alexandria to copy and edit books there for his library.”
We note from this that even then the Alexandrian was looked upon as
the source and very foster-mother of all other libraries, and that
these others sought from her carefully edited and beautifully written
books to replace their corrupted versions. Moreover, these other
and later libraries were preserved through the enlightened interest
of the princes of their day, for if this had not been so, how could
there have been so many libraries at the time of P. Victor, that is,
in the reign of Constantine? Victor says that he noted, among other
remarkable things in Rome, twenty-nine public libraries; two of which
were especially noteworthy, the Palatine and the Ulpian.
Alas, of how many of these have we no record whatsoever! Out of all
the twenty-nine we discovered, for all our diligence, traces of seven
only, and of these have rescued from oblivion hardly more than their
names.