BIBLICAL LIBRARIES
ever the library at Delphi established by the Amphyctionic council from temple funds and its librarian in apostolical times was one Flavius Soclarus.
At Rome at the time of the visits of St. Paul there had been founded at least four great public libraries, one founded by Pollio after 39 B.C. in the Atrium Libertatis, the Octavian and Apollonine or Palatine, founded by Augustus 28 and 23 (33?) B.C. respectively and a fourth by Tiberius, founded about the time of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. There doubtless may have been others as well, for at a later date there are said to have been no less than 28 such public libraries in the city.
While the era of great free public libraries at Rome began with Augustus, royal, national or official collections, archival and mixed, had long existed and many private collections, as well as certainly temple collections, had been quasi public.
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