Christianity and pagan libraries in the later Roman Empire

Abstract

For centuries scholars have addressed themselves to the problem of the fate of the great libraries of the Roman Empire. Of speculations there have been a great many. But most students .of the subject admit that real answers are unknown. Nevertheless, in an attempt to provide some plausible and possible explanation for the fate of the book collections known to exist at the time of Constantine the Great, the suggestion is frequently made that the rise .of Christianity and the Church to a position of power played some part. Thus, one finds James Westfall Thompson writing, 'When Christianity became the state religion, the organization of the public library, for the most part, was automatically wiped .out of existence'.l The purpose of this essay is t.o ascertain the response of Christianity to t~e libraries of the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries. How did the Church affect the decline and disappearance of the great public libraries of the Roman Empire? Before entering directly into a discussion .of this question, several assumptions and general statements must be made. Treatments of the' problem of Christianity and Roman libraries usually deal with the Christian attitude toward pagan temples and toward classical literature the ingredients of ancient libraries.2 Two assumptions are important here. First, many, if not most, public libraries in the Empire were located in temples or in buildings adjacent to them. Although as a general principle this is true, there are recorded exceptions to this, particularly in large cities, such as Rome and Alexandria.3 The term 'public library' simply indicates that the