THE GREEK PERIOD
earlier. However that may be, it at least helped to fix the type, both of ground plan and architecture, of the libraries of the time. It did not invent the type, for in its main lines it was implied in the Academy and the Museums of Athens and Alexandria, nor for that matter did all the later libraries conform exactly to the type, but the main elements are there in this library.
The later architecture of Athens too was certainly influenced by Pergamon and Egypt, for many of the buildings like the Stoa of Attalus and the Ptolemaeum were built by their kings.
The establishing of this type by the uncovering of Pergamon has already led to interesting results in the identifying of other library buildings, and it promises much in the way of interpreting and guiding future excavations as well as in establishing the nature of elements in older excavations heretofore unrecognized.
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