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Library of Celsus

The Library of Celsus (Greek: Βιβλιοθήκη του Κέλσου) is an ancient Roman building in Ephesus, Anatolia, today located near the modern town of Selçuk, in the İzmir Province of western Turkey. The building was commissioned in the years 110s CE by a consul of the Roman Empire, Tiberius Julius Aquila Polemaeanus, as a funerary monument for his father Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus, former proconsul of Asia,[1][2] and completed during the reign of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, sometime after Aquila's death.[3][4]

Location

Ephesus

Aegean

National library

Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome

Greek, Roman

1903–1904, restored 1970–1978

Volker Michael Strocka

partly restored ruins

Archaeological site

The Library of Celsus is considered an architectural marvel, and is one of the only remaining examples of great libraries of the ancient world located in the Roman Empire. It was the third-largest library in the Greco-Roman world behind only those of Alexandria and Pergamum, believed to have held around 12,000 scrolls.[5] Celsus is buried in a crypt beneath the library in a decorated marble sarcophagus.[6][7] The interior measured roughly 180 square metres (2,000 square feet).[8]


The interior of the library and its contents were destroyed in a fire that resulted either from an earthquake or a Gothic invasion in 262 CE,[9][7] and the façade by an earthquake in the 10th or 11th century.[10] It lay in ruins for centuries until the façade was re-erected by archaeologists between 1970 and 1978.[11]

Side view of the Library of Celsus

Side view of the Library of Celsus

Statue of Arete, Greek personification of virtue in the Library of Celsus

Statue of Arete, Greek personification of virtue in the Library of Celsus

Statue of Episteme, Greek personification of knowledge in the Library of Celsus

Statue of Episteme, Greek personification of knowledge in the Library of Celsus

Statue of Sophia, personification of wisdom in the Library of Celsus

Statue of Sophia, personification of wisdom in the Library of Celsus

Architectural design of the Library

Architectural design of the Library

Greco-Roman inscription

Greco-Roman inscription

Latin inscription

Latin inscription

Side view of the Library of Celsus

Side view of the Library of Celsus

Architectural details of the Library

Architectural details of the Library

Façade roof of the Library

Façade roof of the Library

Interior of the Library

Interior of the Library

Interior walkway of the Library

Interior walkway of the Library

Portraiture of Celsus[edit]

The cuirassed statue of Celsus now in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum was one of three statues of the building's patron located on the second level of the façade.[3] He is depicted with a strong jaw, curly hair, and a neat beard, Hellenizing portrait features that echo the stylistic choices of the building's façade.[3] The style imitates traits of Hadrianic imperial portraiture, suggesting that it was sculpted after the lifetime of not only Celsus, but of his son Aquila as well. The choice to depict him in full armor suggests that Celsus's descendants considered his military career memorable and a source of pride.

Commemoration[edit]

The building's façade was depicted on the reverse of the Turkish 20 million lira banknote of 2001–2005[30] and of the 20 new lira banknote of 2005–2009.[31]

List of libraries in the ancient world

List of destroyed libraries

Boethius, Axel; Ward-Perkins, J. B. (1970). Etruscan and Roman Architecture: The Pelican History of Art. Harmondsworth: Penguin. p. 397.  978-0-300-05290-9.

ISBN

Casson, Lionel (2001). Libraries in the Ancient World. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press.  978-0-300-09721-4.

ISBN

Grant, Michael (1995). . London: Routledge. pp. 48–50. ISBN 978-0-415-12031-9.

Art in the Roman Empire

Houston, George W. 2014. Inside Roman Libraries: Book Collections and their Management in Antiquity. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-469-63920-8.

Robertson, D.S. (1964). . London: Cambridge University Press. pp. 289–290. ISBN 978-0-521-09452-8.

Greek and Roman Architecture

Scarre, Christopher (1995). The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Rome. London: Penguin. p. 76.  978-0-14-051329-5.

ISBN

Smith, R. R. R. "Cultural Choice and Political Identity in Honorific Portrait Statues in the Greek East in the Second Century A.D." The Journal of Roman Studies 88 (1998): 56–93. doi:10.2307/300805.

"Greece and Asia Minor". The Cambridge Ancient History – XI. Cambridge University Press. pp. 618–619, 631.  978-0-521-26335-1.

ISBN

"Library, Rome". The Brill's New Pauly Encyclopedia of the Ancient World, volume 7. Brill Leiden. 2005. p. 502.  978-90-04-12259-8.

ISBN

Architecture, classical studies, bibliography (Archived)

classics.uc.edu

Virtual reconstruction of the Celsus library in Ephesus, Turkey

37°56′20.9″N 27°20′26.7″E / 37.939139°N 27.340750°E / 37.939139; 27.340750