rst war
against Mithridates, Sylla visited Athens, whence he took with him the
library of Apellicon the Teian, in which were the works of Aristotle and
Theophrastus. Lucullus, another conqueror of Mithridates, was not less
distinguished by his taste for books. The number of volumes in his
library was immense, and they were written in the most distinct and
elegant manner. But the use which he made of his collection was still
more honorable to that princely Roman than the acquisition or possession
of it. "It was a library," says Plutarch, "whose walls, galleries, and
cabinets were open to all visitors; and the ingenious Greeks, when at
leisure, resorted to this abode of the Muses, to hold literary
conversations, in which Lucullus himself loved to join." But although
both Sylla and Lucullus liberally gave public access to their literary
treasures, still their libraries can, in strictness, be considered as
only _private_ collections. Among the various projects which Julius
Caesar had formed for the embellishment of Rome, was that of a _public_
library, which should contain the largest possible collection of Greek
and Latin works; and he had assigned to Varro the duty of selecting and
arranging them. But this design was frustrated by the assassination of
the dictator, and the establishment of public libraries did not take
place in Rome until the reign of Augustus.

The honor of having first established these valuable institutions is
ascribed by the elder Pliny to Asinius Pollio, who erected a public
library in the Court of Liberty, on the Aventine Hill. The credit which
he gained thereby was so great, that the emperors became ambitious to
illustrate their reigns by the foundation of libraries, many of which
they called after their own names. Augustus was himself an author, and
in one of those sumptuous buildings called _Thermoe_, ornamented with
porticoes, galleries, and statues, with shady walks and refreshing
baths, he testified his love of literature by adding a magnificent
library, which he fondly called by the name of his sister Octavia. The
Palatine Library, formed by the same emperor, in the Temple of Apollo,
became the haunt of the poets, as Horace, Juvenal, and Perseus have
commemorated. There were deposited the corrected books of the Sibyls;
and from two ancient inscriptions, quoted by Lipsius and Pitiscus, it
would seem that it consisted of two distinct collections--one Greek,
and the other Latin. This library hav