Ancient Literacies

(Marvins-Underground-K-12) #1

The front of the Library is built in a style that might be called ‘‘New


Asian Roman.’’ It features tall Composite columns, an order that may have


been seen as particularly Italian, at the lower story, where they would be


noticed more than the smaller and more standard Corinthian columns that


stood above.^39 Monolithic column shafts, of purple-veined marble from


central Phrygia, give the Library a striking resemblance to a Roman-style


theater stage, like the one Ephesos had recently installed in its own


theater.^40 The columns were not just rare, but cut to specially ordered


heights; one wonders whether Celsus, who served ascurator operum locor-


umque publicorum populi Romaniunder Domitian, had made some con-


tacts at the imperial quarries and passed them on to his son.
41
The sheer


expense was obvious, as the facade has no practical function whatever; the


three-story interior as restored, with its niches for bookcases, does not


even correspond to the two-story exterior. Certainly all this was meant to


draw the attention, to make a new civic space; it is so theatrical that it may


have envisioned an audience before it. Its architecture, texts, and sculpture


glorify Celsus as a figure worthy of emulation by all who stood here; but by


the preponderance of the messages, his Roman offices seem the result of
his Greek virtues.^42 It was aimed at a Hellenized and cultivated audience,


and it proved to be a magnet for it.


That the plaza was now designated a separate space is shown by the


fact that it soon received another gate, marking off its southeastern corner


as the Gate of Mazaeus and Mithridates marked off its northwestern one


(figure 4.4). This is often called ‘‘Hadrian’s Gate,’’ but there is little basis


to the name. Only fragments of the Greek dedication inscription on the


two lower of its three architraves have been found, and they could refer to


either Trajan or Hadrian.^43 The Composite capitals are much like those of


the Library of Celsus, and they must come close to it in time. Another


Greek inscription on it dedicates the paving of a street that led from it,


and calls it ‘‘Propylon.’’^44 But the most elaborate side, with brecciated



  1. Onians 1988, 42 8, 53 6.
    40.IvE2034, dedication of the skene under Nero or Domitian (Burrell 2004, 62).

  2. Both Hueber (1997a, 77 81) and Barresi (2003, 377 80) posit the influence of
    Trajan’s Forum and the Bibliotheca Ulpia on the Ephesian building, but the architectural
    resemblance is not strong, and whether Trajan’s Column was planned as his gravesite during
    his lifetime is itself problematic: Davies 2000, 30 4. For new views on the Bibliotheca Ulpia
    and its placement, Meneghini 2002a, b.

  3. On cultured senators, Jones 2005. The Library of Celsus could also have been the
    meeting place for a deliberative body, as when the Roman Senate met in the Latin library in
    the sanctuary of Apollo on the Palatine (Corbier 2006, 163 79). This would have aug
    mented its role in the development of the plaza as a center for speech, leading up to the
    Auditorion, below; but unfortunately no traces of such a use were found in the Library,
    whose original interior fittings had been stripped out in late antiquity.
    43.IvE329 (3): ŠíHØ ̊Æßó½ÆæØ
    The Propylon is published by Thu ̈r (1989, inscriptions discussed pp. 69 75).
    44.IvE422A:...Šò ðºÆôåßÆò ôBò Iðe ôïF ðæïðýºï½ı=ªæŠÆ½ìŠìÆôåýïíôïò ôïF½äÞìïı...


82 Situating Literacies

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