h
may be taken as types of Roman libraries,--the library of Apollo on the
Palatine Hill, and that in the Campus Martius called after Octavia, sister
to the emperor. I will take the latter first.

The _Porticus Octaviae_, or, as it was sometimes called, the _Opera
Octaviae_, must have been one of the most magnificent structures in Rome
(fig. 3). It stood in the Campus Martius, near the Theatre of Marcellus,
between the Capitoline Hill and the Tiber. A double colonnade surrounded
an area which measured 443 feet by 377 feet, with _Jani_, or four-faced
archways, at the four corners, and on the side next the Tiber a double
hexastyle porch, which, with a few fragments of the colonnade, still
exists in a fairly good state of preservation[30]. Within this space were
two temples, one of Jupiter, the other of Juno, a _curia_ or hall, in
which the Senate frequently met, a _schola_ or "Conversation Hall[31],"
and two libraries, the one of Greek, the other of Latin books. The area
and buildings were crowded with masterpieces in bronze and marble.

[Illustration: Fig. 3. Plan of the Porticus Octaviae, Rome. From _Formae
Urbis Romae Antiqua_, Berlin, 1896.]

This structure was originally built by Quintus Metellus, about 146
B.C.[32]. One of the temples was due to his own liberality, the other had
been erected by Domitius Lepidus, B.C. 179. Now twenty years before,
Metellus had fought in a successful campaign against Perseus king of
Macedonia, in which the Romans had been assisted by Eumenes II.: and in
B.C. 148, as Praetor, he received Macedonia as his province. Is it not
possible that on one or other of these occasions he may have visited
Pergamon, and, when designing his buildings in Rome, have copied what he
had seen there? Again, in B.C. 157, Crates of Mallus, a distinguished
grammarian, was sent from Pergamon as ambassador to Rome, and, being laid
up there by an accident, gave lectures on grammar, in the course of which
he could hardly have failed to mention the new library[33].

The buildings of Metellus were altered, if not entirely rebuilt, by
Augustus, B.C. 33, out of the proceeds of his victorious campaign against
the Dalmatians; with the additional structures above enumerated. The
_schola_ is believed to have stood behind the temples, and the libraries
behind the _schola_, with the _curia_ between them[34]. Thus the
colonnades, which Metellus had restricted to the two temples, came at last
to serve the double purpose for