Library of Pantainos
The Library of Pantainos was surrounded on the north and east sides by stoas, covered walkways that allowed access to the library and the external rooms of the building. On the other side of the library, further along the Panathenaic Way, was an as-yet unidentified (and not fully excavated) building that had a stoa along the road that matched the library’s. On the other side of the library, across the road leading to the Roman market (the Market of Caesar and Augustus), was the Stoa of Attalos, whose two-storied front had two rows of columns.
The stoas, made up of small columns, were made of marble. This technique of fronting buildings with marble while the cores are built of concrete, brick or other stone was a typical Roman construction method. The external rooms off the stoas were used by shopkeepers and those in the crafts trades. The easternmost room in the east stoa (now covered by the Herulian Wall) is known as the “sculptor’s workshop” because pieces of unfinished sculpture and pits of emery dust used to polish the marble were found here.
An intriguing idea is that these shops might have been a way to raise revenue for the library, thus making the library (potentially) self-sustaining through the collection of rents.
Like all public buildings, the capitals and columns, as well as the rest of the artistic decorations, were painted in different colors. Were the capitals of the Library of Pantainos painted? There is a good chance that they might have been to make their architectural and artistic features stand out.
In the reconstruction of the library, the stoa columns are unfluted and had Ionic capitals and bases.