BIBLICAL LIBRARIES
a fact of distinct meaning for Palestinian libraries, for Herod was the great promoter of Greek culture, learning, and architecture in Palestine, and Augustus, not only the great encourager of literature and art everywhere, but a great founder of libraries and an especially cordial friend to Herod. Under Herod who was a convinced Hellenist, the tide of Greek culture long retarded by the Jewish orthodox conservatism reached full flood, and an era of splendid building set in comparable with the earlier building of Alexandria and Pergamon. The spirit of language, learning and architecture were Greek but the movement was not without direct Roman influences. Herod had himself been in Rome and knew its institutions as well as those of various Greek capitals and the visit of Augustus to Syria in 20 B.C., just before Herod began the rebuilding of the temple, makes probable that as everywhere else in his
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