Celsus Library

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Description of the Original Celsus Library
Construction of the great library began in the early second century, and the library was dedicated to Celsus in 115 AD (Finley 286). The most famous part of the building is the grand façade (see 1 and Figure 2), which rose to a height of 17 metres and had a width of 21 metres (Strocka 33). Its two levels were made of marble and adorned with columns and statues. The female statues on the lower level, representing Wisdom (Sophia), Virtue (Arete), Knowledge (Episteme), and Intelligence (Ennoia), were said to be exemplified by Celsus and are also “goals that one can seek through the resources of a library” (Casson 116). Statues of Celsus and his son Tiberius Julius Aquila Polemaeanus occupied the upper …show more content…
Today, visitors to Ephesus can easily get a sense of the grand visage the library presented to the city’s people. The remains of the four original ground floor statues are housed in the Ephesus Museum in Vienna, replaced at the original site by replicas (Finley 286).
Conclusions
Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus had shown that a man of Greek descent could become highly successful in the Roman government, making Roman rule more palatable for his fellow Greeks (Finley 291). The Romans in their turn valued Celsus for his help in bringing the Greek and Roman people together, and for helping the Greeks to accept Roman rule. Celsus by no means was handed his positions of responsibility, however. He is widely held to have been an effective administrator, working diligently in each position he held and avoiding scandal and corruption (Finley
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