Library of Hadrian
Not much of this library, a gift from the Emperor Hadrian to Athens, is extant. Built ca. 135, the complex called the Library of Hadrian is misleading. Rectangular walls on four sides had a peristyle running around inside. On one end was the library, which consisted of the main room, two smaller rooms, and two auditoriums at both ends. Many believe that the smaller rooms were the reading rooms, where the stacks and staff offices were located. Other scholars believe that the main room was used for something other than a library, and only the two smaller rooms were in fact the library. The entire structure is therefore referred to here as a complex.
There were possibly small reading rooms located in the longer walls around the complex and under the peristyle. In the uncovered central area there was a large fountain and a grassy area. It has been suggested that the complex, across from the Roman agora (the Market of Caesar and Augustus) may also have served as some type of market.
Only the wall where the main entrance was located had decoration externally. Several steps led up to a portico with Corinthian columns. On each side of the portico were smaller, unfluted Corinthian columns on pedestals, seven of which on one side of the portico remain. These unfluted columns used to have large statuary of famous Athenian philosophers decorating their tops. From the archaeological evidence, it has been suggested that this is not the original façade of the complex, but one that was reconstructed later, perhaps after the library was destroyed in 267 by the Heruli invasion. What is known is that two of the complex walls were incorporated into the new Athenian city walls after 267. If the pedestaled columns are part of a newer façade, when was it built? More importantly, does this mean that the library was reconstructed?
The destruction of the library rooms was complete; there is no real sense of how the interiors were organized. The main room may have been two floors, but more likely one floor with a very high ceiling with openings to allow in natural light. Only one of the auditorium rooms has been excavated, with the other still buried under the modern Adrianou Street.
