From thence we to Apollo’s temple went, To which by steps there is a faire ascent: Where stand the signs in faire outlandish stone, Of Belus and of Palammed the sonne. There ancient bookes, and those that are more new, Doe all lye open to the Reader’s view. I sought my brethren there, excepting them, Whose haplesse birth my father doth condeme. And as I sought, the chiefe man of the place, Bid me be gone out of that holy space.[3] Here Ovid shows, among other things, that there was a librarian or custodian of the Palatine library. Suetonius tells us he was C. Julius Higinus. In his _Celebrated Grammarians_ he says, “This man presided over the Palatine library; though meanwhile he followed his profession and taught many.” Later there was a special custodian for the books in Greek, and another for those in Latin. On an ancient marble tablet are inscribed these words: ANTIOCHUS IN CHARGE OF THE LATIN BOOKS IN THE LIBRARY OF TI. CLAUDIUS CAESAR IN THE TEMPLE OF APOLLO On another: C. JULIUS FALYX IN CHARGE OF THE GREEK BOOKS OF THE PALATINE LIBRARY There are other similar inscriptions. To this Palatine library Pliny refers when he says, “We may see in the library in the temple of Augustus a Tuscan statue representing Apollo, fifty feet in height.” This quotation, however, may point to the library of Vespasian Augustus, which was in the temple of Peace. But Pliny refers very plainly to the Palatine library when he says, “The old Greek letters were almost the same as the Latin letters of the present time, as is shown by an ancient Delphic tablet of bronze, dedicated to Minerva, which is now in the Palatine--that gift of emperors--in the library.” I am led to believe, from the words of John of Salisbury, that this library was in existence in Rome for a very long time, since he writes, “The learned and most holy Gregory not only banished astrology from the court; but also, as is reported by them of old time, gave to the flames those writings of approved merit, and whatever else the Palatine library in Apollo’s temple possessed. Preëminent among these were some which seemed designed to reveal to men the will of the celestial beings and the oracles of the higher powers.” This quotation is worthy of note. FOOTNOTES: [3] _W. Saltonstall’s translation_, 1637. CHAPTER VII _The Libraries of Tiberius, of Trajan, of Vespasian; also the Capitoline; other unknown Libraries._