was between the temples of Castor and Vesta, near the Porticus | e.g. the compilation of the Annales Maximi, which was the duty Julia and the Arcus Fabiorum, but no remains have been dis- of the pontifices in ancient Rome. The beginnings of literature covered. The idea that an irregular circle of travertine blocks, proper in the shape of ballads and songs may have continued to found near the temple of Castor, formed part of the puteal is be conveyed orally only from one generation to another, long after now abandoned. the record of important religious or civil events was regularly committed to writing. The earliest collections of which we know anything, therefore, were collections of archives. Of this character appear to have been such famous collections as that of the Medians at Ecbatana, the Persians at Susa or the hieroglyphic archives of Knossos discovered by A. J. Evans (Scripta Minoa, 1909) of a date synchronizing with the XIIth Egyptian dynasty. It is not until the development of arts and sciences, and the growth of a considerable written literature, and even of a distinct literary class, that we find collections of books which can be called libraries in our modern sense. It is of libraries in the modern sense, and not, except incidentally, of archives that we are to speak,

a

See Horace, Sat. ii. 6. 35. Epp. i. 19. 8; Cicero, Pro Sestio, 8; for the well-known coin of L. Scribonius Libo, representing the puteal of Libo, which rather resembles a cippus (sepulchral monument) or an altar, with laurel wreaths, two lyres and a pair of pincers or tongs below the wreaths (perhaps symbolical of Vulcanus as forger of lightning), see C. Hülsen, The Re nan Forum (Eng. trans. by J. B. Carter, 1906), p. 150, where a marble imitation found at Veii is also given.

LIBON, a Greek architect, born at Elis, who was employed to build the great temple of Zeus at Olympia (q.v.) about 460 B.C. (Pausanias v. 10. 3).

LIBOURNE, a town of south-western France, capital of an arrondissement of the department of Gironde, situated at the confluence of the Isle with the Dordogne, 22 m. E.N.E. of Bordeaux on the railway to Angoulême. Pop. (1906) town, 15,280; commune, 19,323. The sea is 56 m. distant, but the tide affects the river so as to admit of vessels drawing 14 ft. reaching the town at the highest tides. The Dordogne is here crossed by a stone bridge 492 ft. long, and a suspension bridge across the Isle connects Libourne with Fronsac, built on a hill on which in feudal times stood a powerful fortress. Libourne is regularly built. The Gothic church, restored in the 19th century, has a stone spire 232 ft. high. On the quay there is a machicolated clock-tower which is a survival of the ramparts of the 14th century; and the town-house, containing a small museum and a library, is a quaint relic of the 16th century. There is a statue of the Duc Decazes, who was born in the neighbourhood. The sub-prefecture, tribunals of first instance and of commerce, and a communal college are among the public institutions. The principal articles of commerce are the wines and brandies of the district. Printing and cooperage are among the industries. Like other sites at the confluence of important rivers, that of Libourne was appropriated at an early period. Under the Romans Condate stood rather more than a mile to the south of the present Libourne; it was destroyed during the troubles of the 5th century. Resuscitated by Charlemagne, it was rebuilt in 1269, under its present name and on the site and plan it still retains, by Roger de Leybourne (of Leybourne in Kent), seneschal of Guienne, acting under the authority of King Edward I. of England. It suffered considerably in the struggles of the French and English for the possession of Guienne in the 14th century.

See R. Guinodie, Hist. de Libourne (2nd ed., 2 vols., Libourne, 1876-1877).

LIBRA ("THE BALANCE"), in astronomy, the 7th sign of the zodiac (q.v.), denoted by the symbol, resembling a pair of scales, probably in allusion to the fact that when the sun enters this part of the ecliptic, at the autumnal equinox, the days and nights are equal. It is also a constellation, not mentioned by Eudoxus or Aratus, but by Manetho (3rd century B.C.) and Geminus (1st century B.C.), and included by Ptolemy in his 48 asterisms; Ptolemy catalogued 17 stars, Tycho Brahe 10, and Hevelius 20. 8 Librae is an Algol (q.v.) variable, the range of magnitude being 50 to 6-2, and the period 2 days 7 hrs. 51 min.; and the cluster M. 5 Librae is a faint globular cluster of which only about one star in eleven is variable.

LIBRARIES. A library (from Lat. liber, book), in the modern sense, is a collection of printed or written literature. As such, it implies an advanced and elaborate civilization. If the term be extended to any considerable collection of written documents, it must be nearly as old as civilization itself. The earliest use to which the invention of inscribed or written signs was put was probably to record important religious and political transactions. These records would naturally be preserved in sacred places, and accordingly the earliest libraries of the world were probably temples, and the earliest librarians priests. And indeed before the extension of the arts of writing and reading the priests were the only persons who could perform such work as,

ANCIENT LIBRARIES

The researches which have followed the discoveries of P. E. Botta and Sir H. Layard have thrown unexpected light not only upon the history but upon the arts, the Assyria.

sciences and the literatures of the ancient civilizations
of Babylonia and Assyria. In all these wondrous revelations no
facts are more interesting than those which show the existence
of extensive libraries so many ages ago, and none are more
eloquent of the elaborateness of these forgotten civilizations.
In the course of his excavations at Nineveh in 1850, Layard
came upon some chambers in the south-west palace, the floor of
which, as well as the adjoining rooms, was covered to the depth
of a foot with tablets of clay, covered with cunciform characters,
in many cases so small as to require a magnifying glass. These
varied in size from 1 to 12 in. square. A great number of them
were broken, as Layard supposed by the falling in of the roof,
but as George Smith thought by having fallen from the upper
storey, upon which he believed the collection to have been placed.
These tablets formed the library of the great monarch Assur-
bani-pal-the Sardanapalus of the Greeks-the greatest patron
of literature amongst the Assyrians. It is estimated that this
library consisted of some ten thousand distinct works and docu-
ments, some of the works extending over several tablets. The
tablets appear to have been methodically arranged and cata-
logued, and the library seems to have been thrown open for the
general use of the king's subjects. A great portion of this
library has already been brought to England and deposited in
the British museum, but it is calculated that there still remain
some 20,000 fragments to be gathered up. For further details
as to Assyrian libraries, and the still carlier Babylonian libraries
at Tello, the ancient Lagash, and at Niffer, the ancient Nippur,
from which the Assyrians drew their science and literature, see

BABYLONJA and NIPPUR.

Of the libraries of ancient Egypt our knowledge is scattered and imperfect, but at a time extending to more than 6000 years ago we find numerous scribes of many classes who reAncient corded official events in the life of their royal masters Egyptian or details of their domestic affairs and business trans- Libraries. actions. Besides this official literature we possess examples of many commentaries on the sacerdotal books, as well as historical treatises, works on moral philosophy and proverbial wisdom, science, collections of medical receipts as well as a great variety of popular novels and humoristic pieces. At an early date Heliopolis was a literary centre of great importance with culture akin to the Babylonian. Attached to every temple were professional scribes whose function was partly religious and partly scientific. The sacred books of Thoth constituted as it were a complete encyclopaedia of religion and science, and on these books was gradually accumulated an immense mass of exposition and commentary. We possess a record relating to "the land of the collected works [library] of Khufu,” a monarch of the IVth dynasty, and a similar inscription relating to the library of Khafra, the builder of the second pyramid. At Edfu 1 See Menant, Bibliothèque du palais de Ninive (Paris, 1880).

the library was a small chamber in the temple, on the wall of which is a list of books, among them a manual of Egyptian geography (Brugsch, History of Egypt, 1881, i. 240). The exact position of Akhenaten's library (or archives) of clay tablets is known and the name of the room has been read on the books of which it has been built. A library of charred books has been found at Mendes (Egypt Expl. Fund, Two Hieroglyphic Papyri), and we have references to temple libraries in the Silsileh“ Nile " stelae and perhaps in the great Harris papyri. The most famous of the Egyptian libraries is that of King Osymandyas, described Diodorus Siculus, who relates that it bore an inscription which he renders by the Greek words YTXH2 IATPEION“ the Dispensary of the Soul." Osymandyas has been identified with the great king Rameses II. (1300–1236 B.C.) and the seat of the library is supposed to have been the Ramessaeum at Western Thebes. Amen-em-hant was the name of one of the directors of the Theban libraries. Papyri from the palace, of a later date, have been discovered by Professor W. F. Flinders Petrie. At Thebes the scribes of the "Foreign Office" are depicted at work in a room which was perhaps rather an office than a library. The famous Tel-el-Amarna tablets (1383-1365 B.C.) were stored in "the place of the records of the King." There were record offices attached to the granary and treasury departments and we know of a school or college for the reproduction of books, which were kept in boxes and in jars. According to Eustathius there was a great collection at Memphis. A heavy blow was dealt to the old Egyptian literature by the Persian invasion, and many books were carried away by the conquerors. The Egyptians were only delivered from the yoke of Persia to succumb to that of Greece and Rome and henceforward their civilization was dominated by foreign influences. Of the Greek libraries under the Ptolemies we shall speak a little further on.

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Greece.

Of the libraries of ancient Greece we have very little knowledge, and such knowledge as we possess comes to us for the most part from late compilers. Amongst those who are known to have collected books are Pisistratus, Polycrates of Samos, Euclid the Athenian, Nicocrates of Cyprus, Euripides and Aristotle (Athenaeus i. 4). At Cnidus there is said to have been a special collection of works upon medicine. Pisistratus is reported to have been the first of the Greeks who collected books on a large scale. Aulus Gellius, indeed, tells us, in language perhaps "not well suited to the 6th century B.C.," that he was the first to establish a public library. The authority of Aulus Gellius is hardly sufficient to secure credit for the story that this library was carried away into Persia by Xerxes and subsequently restored to the Athenians by Seleucus Nicator. Plato is known to have been a collector; and Xenophon tells us of the library of Euthydemus. The library of Aristotle was bequeathed by him to his disciple Theophrastus, and by Theophrastus to Neleus, who carried it to Scepsis, where it is said to have been concealed underground to avoid the literary cupidity of the kings of Pergamum. Its subsequent fate has given rise to much controversy, but, according to Strabo (xiii. pp. 608, 609), it was sold to Apellicon of Teos, who carried it to Athens, where after Apellicon's death it fell a prey to the conqueror Sulla, and was transported by him to Rome. The story told by Athenaeus (i. 4) is that the library of Neleus was purchased by Ptolemy Philadelphus. The names of a few other libraries in Greece are barely known to us from inscriptions; of their character and contents we know nothing. If, indeed, we are to trust Strabo entirely, we must believe that Aristotle was the first person who collected a library, and that he communicated the taste for collecting to the sovereigns of Egypt. It is at all events certain that the libraries of Alexandria were the most important as they were the most celebrated of the ancient world. Under the enlightened rule of the Ptolemies a society of scholars and men of science was attracted to their capital. It seems pretty certain that Ptolemy Soter had already begun to collect books, but it was in the reign of Ptolemy Phila-i. delphus that the libraries were properly organized and established in separate buildings. Ptolemy Philadelphus sent into every 1 Grote, History of Greece, iv. 37, following Becker

1

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Alexandria.

part of Greece and Asia to secure the most valuable works, and
no exertions or expense were spared in enriching the collections.
Ptolemy Euergetes, his successor, is said to have caused all
books brought into Egypt by foreigners to be seized for the
benefit of the library, while the owners had to be content with
receiving copies of them in exchange. Nor did the Alexandrian
scholars exhibit the usual Hellenic exclusiveness, and many of
the treasures of Egyptian and even of Hebrew literature were
by their means translated into Greek. There were two libraries
at Alexandria; the larger, in the Brucheum quarter, was in
connexion with the um, a sort of academy, while the smaller
was placed in the Serapeum. The number of volumes in these
libraries was very large, although it is difficult to attain any
certainty as to the real numbers amongst the widely varying
accounts. According to a scholium of Tzetzes, who appears to
draw his information from the authority of Callimachus and
Eratosthenes, who had been librarians at Alexandria, there
were 42,800 vols. or rolls in the Serapeum and 490,000 in the
Brucheum. This enumeration seems to refer to the librarianship
of Callimachus himself under Ptolemy Euergetes. In any case
the figures agree tolerably well with those given by Aulus Gellius'
(700,000) and Seneca (400,000). It should be observed that, as
the ancient roll or volume usually contained a much smaller
quantity of matter than a modern book—so that, e.g. the history
of Herodotus might form nine "books" or volumes, and the
Iliad of Homer twenty-four-these numbers must be discounted
for the purposes of comparison with modern collections. The
series of the first five librarians at Alexandria appears to be
pretty well established as follows: Zenodotus, Callimachus,
Eratosthenes, Apollonius and Aristophanes; and their activity
covers a period of about a century. The first experiments in
bibliography appear to have been made in producing catalogues
of the Alexandrian libraries. Amongst other lists, two cata-
logues were prepared by order of Ptolemy Philadelphus, one of
the tragedies, the other of the comedies contained in the collec-
tions. The Ilivaxes of Callimachus formed a catalogue of all the
principal books arranged in 120 classes. When Caesar set fire
to the fleet in the harbour of Alexandria, the flames accidentally
extended to the larger library of the Brucheum, and it was
destroyed. Antony endeavoured to repair the loss by presenting
to Cleopatra the library from Pergamum. This was very probably
placed in the Brucheum, as this continued to be the literary
quarter of Alexandria until the time of Aurelian. Thenceforward
the Serapeum became the principal library. The usual statement
that from the date of the restoration of the Brucheum under
Cleopatra the libraries continued in a flourishing condition until
they were destroyed after the conquest of Alexandria by the
Saracens in A.D. 640 can hardly be supported. It is very possible
that one of the libraries perished when the Brucheum quarter
was destroyed by Aurelian, A.D. 273. In 389 or 391 an edict of
Theodosius ordered the destruction of the Serapeum, and its
books were pillaged by the Christians. When we take into
account the disordered condition of the times, and the neglect
into which literature and science had fallen, there can be little
difficulty in believing that there were but few books left to be
destroyed by the soldiers of Amru. The familiar anecdote of
the caliph's message to his general rests mainly upon the evidence
of Abulfaraj, so that we may be tempted to agree with Gibbon
that the report of a stranger who wrote at the end of six hundred
years is overbalanced by the silence of earlier and native annalists.
It is, however, so far from easy to settle the question that a
cloud of names could easily be cited upon either side, while some
of the most careful inquirers confess the difficulty of a decision®
(see ALEXANDRIA, III.).

The magnificence and renown of the libraries of the Ptolemies excited the rivalry of the kings of Pergamum, who vied with the Egyptian rulers in their encouragement of literature. The Ritschl, Die alexandrinischen Bibliotheken, p. 22; Opusc. phil. § 123.

De

for doubting this story.
Parthey (Alexandrinisches Museum) assigns topographical reasons
Some of the authorities have been collected by Parthey, op. cit

German researches in the acropolis of Pergamum between 1878 | generally rejected. The successors of Augustus, though they and 1886 revealed four rooms which had originally been appro- did not equal him in their patronage of learning, maintained the priated to the library (Alex. Conze, Die pergamen. tradition of forming libraries. Tiberius, his immediate sucBibliothek, 1884). Despite the obstacles presented by cessor, established one in his splendid house on the Palatine, to the embargo placed by the Ptolemies upon the export which Gellius refers as the "Tiberian library," and Suetonius of papyrus, the library of the Attali attained considerable relates that he caused the writings and images of his favourite importance, and, as we have seen, when it was transported Greek poets to be placed in the public libraries. Vespasian to Egypt numbered 200,000 vols. We learn from a notice in established a library in the Temple of Peace erected after the Suidas that in 221 B.C. Antiochus the Great summoned the poet burning of the city under Nero. Domitian restored the libraries and grammarian Euphorion of Chalcis to be his librarian. 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.

The early Romans were far too warlike and practical a people to devote much attention to literature, and it is not until the last century of the republic that we hear of libraries Rome. in Rome. The collections of Carthage, which fell into their hands when Scipio sacked that city (146 B.C.), had no attractions for them; and with the exception of the writings of Mago upon agriculture, which the senate reserved for translation into Latin, they bestowed all the books upon the kinglets of Africa (Pliny, H.N. xviii. 5). It is in accordance with the military character of the Romans that the first considerable collections of which we hear in Rome were brought there as the spoils of war. The first of these was that brought by Aemilius Paulus from Macedonia after the conquest of Perseus (167 B.C.). The library of the conquered monarch was all that he reserved from the prizes of victory for himself and his sons, who were fond of letters. Next came the library of Apellicon the Teian, brought from Athens by Sulla (86 B.C.). This passed at his death into the hands of his son, but of its later history nothing is known. The rich stores of literature brought home by Lucullus from his eastern conquests (about 67 B.C.) were freely thrown open to his friends and to men of letters. Accordingly his library and the neighbouring walks were much resorted to, especially by Greeks. It was now becoming fashionable for rich men to furnish their libraries well, and the fashion prevailed until it became the subject of Seneca's scorn and Lucian's wit. The zeal of Cicero and Atticus in adding to their collections is well known to every reader of the classics. Tyrannion is said to have had 30,000 vols., of own; and that M. Terentius Varro had large collections we may infer from Cicero's writing to him: "Si hortum in bibliotheca habes, nihil deerit." Not to prolong the list of private collectors, Serenus Sammonicus is said to have left to his pupil the young Gordian no less than 62,000 vols. Amongst the numerous projects entertained by Caesar was that of presenting Rome with public libraries, though it is doubtful whether any steps were actually taken towards its execution. The task of collecting and arranging the books was entrusted to Varro. This commission, as well as his own fondness for books, may have led Varro to write the book upon libraries of which a few | words only have come down to us, preserved by a grammarian. 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, defraying the cost from the spoils of his Illyrian campaign. The library of Pollio was followed by the public libraries established by Augustus. That emperor, who did so much for the embellishment of the city, erected two libraries, the Octavian and the Palatine. The former was founded (33 B.C.) in honour of his sister, and was placed in the Porticus Octaviae, a magnificent structure, the lower part of which served as a promenade, while the upper part contained the library. The charge of the books was committed to C. Melissus. The other library formed by Augustus was attached to the temple of Apollo on the Palatine hill, and appears from inscriptions to have consisted of two departments, a Greek and a Latin one, which seem to have been separately administered. The charge of the Palatine collections was given to Pompeius Macer, who was succeeded by Julius Hyginus, the grammarian and friend of Ovid. The Octavian library perished in the fire which raged at Rome for three days in the reign of Titus. The Palatine was, at all events in great part, destroyed by fire in the reign of Commodus. The story that its collections were destroyed by order of Pope Gregory the Great in the 6th century is now

Nor were public libraries confined to Rome. We possess records of at least 24 places in Italy, the Grecian provinces, Asia Minor, Cyprus and Africa in which libraries had been established, most of them attached to temples, Roman provincial. usually through the liberality of generous individuals. libraries. The library which the younger Pliny dedicated to his townsmen at Comum cost a million sesterces and he contributed a large sum to the support of a library at Milan. Hadrian established one at Athens, described by Pausanias, and recently identified with a building called the Stoa of Hadrian, which shows a striking similarity with the precinct of Athena at Pergamum. Strabo mentions a library at Smyrna; Aulus Gellius one at Patrae and another at Tibur from which books could be borrowed. Recent discoveries at Ephesus in Asia Minor and Timegad in Algeria have furnished precise information as to the structural plan of these buildings. The library at Ephesus was founded by T. Julius Aquila Polemaeanus in memory of his father, pro-consul of Asia in the time of Trajan, about A.D. 106-107. The library at Timegad was established at a cost of 400,000 sesterces by M. Julius Quintianus Flavius Rogatianus, who probably lived in the 3rd century (R. Cagnat, "Les Bibliothèques municipales dans l'Empire Romain," 1906, Mém. de l'Acad. des Insc., tom. xxxviii. pt. 1). At Ephesus the light came through a circular opening in the roof; the library at Timegad greatly resembles that discovered at Pompeii and possesses a system of book stores. All these buildings followed the same general plan, consisting of a reading-room and more or less ample book stores; the former was either rectangular or semi-circular in shape and was approached under a stately portico and colonnade. In a niche facing the entrance a statue was always erected; that formerly at Pergamum-a figure of Minerva-is now preserved at Berlin. From a wellknown line of Juvenal (Sat. iii. 219) we may assume that a statue of the goddess was usually placed in libraries. The readingroom was also ornamented with busts or life-sized images of celebrated writers. The portraits or authors were also painted on medallions on the presses (armaria) in which the books or rolls were preserved as in the library of Isidore of Seville; sometimes these medallions decorated the walls, as in a private library discovered by Lanciani in 1883 at Rome (Ancient Rome, 1888, p. 193). Movable seats, known to us by pictorial representations, were in use. The books were classified, and the presses (framed of precious woods and highly ornamented) were numbered to facilitate reference from the catalogues. A private library discovered at Herculaneum contained 1756 MSS. placed on shelves round the room to a height of about 6 ft. with a central press. In the public rooms some of the books were arranged

Per gamum.