Hadrian’s Library (ca 132 AD)
Τhe imperial forum termed conventionally the Library was Hadrian’s response to the neighboring forum of Ceasar and Augustus, now known as the “Roman Agora”. It was constructed in around 132 AD and in order for the new compound to be founded, 24 standard house blocks of a Roman city were expropriated and demolished.
General view of the Library of Hadrian from the northwest. Next to it is the Roman Market and behind is the Pantheon.
CREDITS:
The models of the reconstructions are after the survey and CAD plans by Chrysanthos Kanellopoulos, professor of Archaeology in the University of Athens and were created by Dimitris Tsalkanis for Ancient Athens 3d.
The Nikae above the columns of the west facade are after Dimitris Sourlas, archaeologist in the Ephorate of Antiquities of Athens, 2018.
Nike Acroterion sculptures © 2019 John Goodinson.
We thank the professors of Archaeology of the University of Athens Stylianos Katakis, Dimitrios Plantzos and Georgios Pallis for their participation.
Creator of the roman toga: Anastasis Keramaris.
The Library of Hadrian is of rectangular plan, measuring aproximately 119×89 metres. It had an internal enclosure was embellished with a portico of 100 columns, in the form of a garden with a large pool in the centre. In the east part were the halls were the books were and the amphitheaters, while smaller halls served as reading rooms.
In each one of the north and south side there were 3 “exedrae“, niches of semicircular and rectangular shape, which were probably used for lectures. The ancient writer Pausanias, while visiting Athens, briefly describes the Library as one of the most important buildings of Hadrian in the city:| Ἀδριανὸς δὲ κατεσκευάσατο μὲν καὶ ἄλλα Ἀθηναίοις, ναὸν Ἥρας καὶ Διὸς Πανελληνίου καὶ θεοῖς τοῖς πᾶσιν ἱερὸν κοινόν, τὰ δὲ ἐπιφανέστατα ἑκατόν εἰσι κίονες Φρυγίου λίθου· πεποίηνται δὲ καὶ ταῖς στοαῖς κατὰ τὰ αὐτὰ οἱ τοῖχοι. (Παυσανίου Ελλάδος Περιήγησις – Αττικά, 18.9) | [Hadrian constructed more buildings in Athens, like the temple of Hera and Zeus Panhellenios, the common sanctuary of all the gods (Pantheon), but of great importance is the one with the one hundred columns made of phrygian stone (the library). In the same material the stoas and the walls are made.] |
The western façade
The one and only entrance to the building was located in its western side.
The façade was embellished with a propylon constructed with four corinthian columns made of pink marble from Phrygia and with columns made of green cipollino rock, quarried and transported from the island of Euboea from imperial property quarries. Upon each column must have stood Nikae and gods statues, sculpted in white marble from the Penteli mountain of Attica.
View of the Library's facade.
View of the Propylon with the entrance to the Library of Hadrian.
The propylon from the south. On the right are the marble columns of Carystos.
View of the propylon of the Library.
The garden and the portico
While entering the building from the Propylon, the visitors found themselves inside a portico, in front of the big rectangular garden.
Unlike the adjacent busy and loud, commercial, forum of Ceasar and Augustus, Hadrian’s forum, adorned with a garden and a 60 meter long pool, would be a quiet and peaceful island within the hustle and bustle of the city. The enclosure was embellished with a portico of 100 columns made of Phrygian marble (pavonazzetto), pink with blueish veins. The quarries, located in Phrygia -today in Turkey- were imperial property. The Pantheon, a colossal temple dedicated by Hadrian to the worship of all gods, concealed behind the enclosure of the forum, would be viewed from inside the garden. Today, the nail holes on the walls reveal the courses of the revetment slabs; these were also made of Phrygian marble. An equally luxurious ceiling would have matched the colorful architecture of the portico.
General view of the stoa of the peristyle from the northeast corner. On the right is the entrance to the exedra.
View from the entrance of the Library. In the far right, behind the Library, is the Pantheon, the colossal temple also built by Hadrian.
The garden of the Library with the pool. In the background is the Acropolis with the Erechtheion and the back side of the Pantheon.
View of the western side of the peristyle.
The Library's entrance from inside the stoa.
On the right, behind the colonnade, is the entrance of the Bibliostasion.
The northwest corner of the courtyard with the garden.
View of the garden.
The Bibliostasion
In the eastern part of the building, there was a series of rooms. The central and biggest of them is considered to be the “Bibliostasion”; that means the place were the books were kept inside niches with wooden cupboards (armaria). Ιt is debated whether the great eastern hall was the actual library or a hall adorned with statues of the imperial family dedicated to the cult of the emperor. Quite possibly, both functions were housed in the same space.
In his book Description of Attica, 18.9, Pausanias describes the hall of Bibliostasion:
| καὶ οἰκήματα ἐνταῦθά ἐστιν ὀρόφῳ τε ἐπιχρύσῳ καὶ ἀλαβάστρῳ λίθῳ, πρὸς δὲ ἀγάλμασι κεκοσμημένα καὶ γραφαῖς· κατάκειται δὲ ἐς αὐτὰ βιβλία | [… and there are rooms there adorned with gilded roofs and with alabaster stone, as well as with statues and paintings. In them are kept books…] |
The Bibliostasion with the nitches for the books. In the centre is the statue of the emperor Hadrian.
The west inner wall of the Bibliostasion.
View of the Bibliostasion from the upper floor.
The roof of the Bibliostasion.
The entrance of the Bibliostasion from the peristyle.
The interior of the Bibliostasion.
The first row of armaria was on a high podium.
The amphitheaters
In the northeast and southeast corners of the Library were two similar spaces designed as amphitheaters with marble seats. These amphitheaters do not look like the known lecture rooms (auditoria) of the ancient world. Quite possibly, these rooms were the meeting places (bouleuteria) of the Panhellenion, a league of Greek city-states established by emperor Hadrian.
Unlike all other revetment features in the compound, the wall surfaces of the amphitheaters were solemnly dressed with slabs of pristine white Pentelic marble.
The interior of the north amphitheatre.
The interior of the south amphitheatre.
The interior of the southern amphitheatre.
The exedrae
The exedrae were tree on each of the north and south sides. They were niches in the wall (two semicircular and one rectangular) and their entrance was embellished with columns, probably of pergamine order. Each of the exedrae is approximately 10 meters wide. Clear nail holes on the extant masonry indicate that the same courses of Phrygian slabs also ran on the interior surfaces of the exedrae.
The north stoa of the peristyle. On the left is the entrance of the central, rectangular exedra and in the background the semicircular one.
The central rectangular exedra (oikos) of the north side.
The semicircular exedra of the north peristyle.
