Library; which was afterwards rebuilt, and furnished with a most curious Collection of the best Authors. The _Basilicæ_ at _Old Rome_, were the Places where they used to plead, to hold their Councils and _Senates_, and to carry on the Business of Merchandize and Commerce: At _Constantinople_ they were used as Libraries and Schools of Learning, as appears by what I have already observ’d, as also from the following Inscription. Upon the publick School in _Byzantium_. _This Place was built for all th’ unletter’d Youth Whose_ Genius _leads ’em to the_ Roman _Law. In Pleading skill’d, and fraught with Eloquence, They leave these Walls, and plead their Countrey’s Cause._ Modern Writers tell us, that the Place where the Library stood was of an Octogonal Figure, where there were arch’d _Portico’s_, and a large Room, where the head Master used to converse with his Assistants. _Cedrinus_ affirms, that the great Church, the Hospital of _Sampson_, the Gate-house of the _Basilica_, the _Augusteum_, the _Chalca_, the two long _Portico’s_, as far as the _Forum_ of _Constantine_, the _Octogon_, and the _Bagnio’s_ of _Zeuxippus_, were destroy’d by a Fire, which happen’d in the Reign of _Justinian_. I would observe from this Passage, that there must of Necessity be two _Octogons_ near one another. For if the _Octogon_, as _Cedrinus_ reports, had been the same with that where the Library stood, he would not have omitted to take Notice that the Library was burnt down also in the Reign of _Justinian_. It is my Opinion, that the Place where the Library stood, was of a quadrangular Figure, and seems to be the same Building which _Procopius_ says was encompassed with Pillars erected in a square Manner. _Zonaras_ mentions nothing of the Form of the _Basilica_, which contain’d the Library, but only says, that it adjoin’d to the _Chalcopratia_, or Braziers Shops. _Cedrinus_ calls the _Basilica_, _Cisterna_, which some Writers erroneously tell us, was built by _Constantine the Great_. I am confirm’d in this Opinion from _Procopius_, who says, that near the Imperial _Portico_, where the Lawyers used to plead, there was a spacious Building of a great Length and Breadth, encompassed with Pillars in a quadrangular Manner, situate on a rocky Ground, which was built by _Justinian_ to a great Height, for preserving the Water in Summer, which was brought into it by subterraneous Pipes, and in the Winter from the _Aqueducts_, for the Use of the Poor. _Menander_, surnam’d the _Protector_, says of himself, that it was once against his Inclinations to enter into the Litigations of the Law in the Imperial _Portico_, and by the Force of Pleading, to attempt to reconcile the Jarrings and Contentions of Men. _Agathius_ plays handsomly upon one _Uranius_ a Native of _Syria_, who set up for a Physician, although he was entirely ignorant of the _Aristotelian_ Discipline. This Fellow was blustering, noisy, an impudent Pretender to infallible Cures, and very talkative, among other