Greek Authors in Herod's Library

Abstract

The Hellenistic period witnessed the spread of libraries throughout the Medi terranean world. Gone were the days when large Greek libraries were re stricted to Alexandria, Rhodes or Athens.1 Almost every city of distinction in the first century B.C.E. boasted public libraries whose rolls sometimes numbered in the hundreds of thousands and private collectors who owned more than a thousand books.2 Cleopatra's petition to Antony for 200,000 rolls from Pergamum to compensate for the alleged burning of parts of the Alexandrian library during Caesar's siege (48 B.C.E.) shows that prestige was accruable from possessing the largest collection of books in the world.3 Whether or not the Pergamum Library was actually stripped to satisfy Cleopatra is still a debatable issue. There is, moreover, reason to suspect that the loss of books from Caesar's warfare was minor.4 But it shows that Cleopatra was determined to preserve the supremacy of Alexandria's cultural treasures just as she strove to enlarge her dominion over foreign lands. The Romans, somewhat boorish in cultural matters, were at first tardy in the building of public libraries. Julius Caesar was prevented by death from fulfilling his ambition to build the first public library in Rome.s That honor belongs to C. Asinius Pollio, who after returning from the Parthian campaign in 39 B.C.E. founded a public library in the Temple of Libertas.6 Augustus, made it a matter of policy to build and enlarge public libraries.7 It may be presumed that Herod, who aspired to become the Augustus of the East and whose building program paralleled that of Augustus, also built a public library. Walter Otto has already pointed out that Herod possessed a large Greek court library.8 Josephus, it is true, describing the royal constructions, makes no mention of a library although he does mention the libraries owned by the Essenes.9 But Josephus' silence is no argument that such a library did not exist, since this historian is notoriously weak in his description of cultural events. It is conceivable, however, that Josephus assumed that the reader would know that one of the buildings he described, for example the stoas where books were usually housed, was intended for a library. Whatever the meaning of Josephus' silence, the central issue is not in doubt. Herod's aspirations to make Jerusalem an important cultural center whither Greek scholars flocked presupposes a large collection of Greek books in that city.10 If Cleopatra, his bitter enemy, went to great lengths to maintain Alexandria's cultural supremacy, the least Herod could do was to void the impression that Jerusalem was an intellectual wilderness. It is perhaps not without significance that when the king sent his sons to study in Rome they were the guests of an Asinius Pollio, perhaps the same who built the first public library there. 102

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