AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS
The first three public libraries had been opened in Rome under Augustus. By Constantine’s reign there were 28. Libraries at the time were not only repositories of books and manuscripts but places of social congregation of men—a cross between a men’s club and a modern library. In the great Roman library at Ephesus, an underground tunnel connected with the brothel across the street. When the barbarians invaded, all the libraries closed.
There is a certain similarity to the reaction of modern American men with respect to the Super Bowl.
Ammianus Marcellinus (born c. 330, died c. 391 – 400) was a Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from antiquity (preceding Procopius). His work, known as the Res Gestae, chronicled in Latin the history of Rome from the accession of the Emperor Nerva in 96 to the death of Valens at the Battle of Adrianople in 378, although only the sections covering the period 353 to 378 survive.
