What would we like to find in a Roman library?

[Crispvs]

I recall a year or two ago (actually I think it was about five years ago) there was much talk of the Villa of the Papyri and the possibility that there might have been a second and so far undiscovered library.

Now, leaving aside the fact that there may not have really been a second library and the possibility that the works we might have been interested in may have been in the extant library but may have been flung into the sea by workmen who thought them to be lumps of coal, I wonder what work we might like to imagine might be contained in a second, so far undiscovered library. I think we can leave philosophy and poetry out, as that seems to make up the bulk of what has survived from the extant library, meaning it would probably be absent from out hypothetical library. We also need to limit ourselves to works which would have existed prior to AD79, when the villa was buried.

Pliny's 'Natural History' could be present, but would probably be about the latest work there. He certainly didn't write anything else after AD79.

I'll start the ball rolling by suggesting:

-Caesar's letters, speeches and poems (okay, I mentioned poems above, but Caesar's poems might interest us more)

-Sertorius's campaign dairies

-Drusus, Germanicus and Tiberius's campaign dairies

-Cato's Treatise on Military Discipline

-Pompey's campaign diaries and letters

-Livy's entire history

-Vitruvius' works on artillery

-Archimedes' geometry (okay, I know this has already been identified in a pamplimsest, but a complete copy with no gaps would be so much better) and his artillery writings.

-Terrence's complete collection of plays

-Aristophanes' complete works

-Sophocles' complete works

-Aeschylus' complete works

-Euripides' complete works


Well, that lot should fill a few shelves already but there must be more things other people would like to see in our pre-AD79 library. Over to you then.

Crispvs

[Jona Lendering]

The sources of Suetonius, Lifes of famous prostitutes and Physical problems of men. :roll:

[Robert Vermaat]

Claudius' history of Augustus, his Etruscan history (plus the dictonary!), his eight volumes on Carthaginian history, his book on dice playing and his eight-volume autobiography.

Tacitus' lost books.

Ammianus' lost books.

[Astiryu1]

-Life in the Agoge - A first hand account of the Spartan school of War

-Life on Mars - A first hand account of the Roman school of War.

-Construction and use of Ancient Weaponry and Armor

-Construction and use of Modern Weaponry and Armor

-Ship Construction - Rafts to Quinquireme

-From the beginning - Great feats of our ancestors

-Unarmed Fighting - A study on the techniques of Rome and her enemies in Hand to Hand Combat

-Towards the Rising Sun - Travel on the Silk road to the edge of the world.

-Alexander - Journals and History as written by Alexander and Ptolemy.

-Arms, Armor, and Gear of Greece - From Mycenae to Macedonia

-Arms, Armor, and Gear of Rome - From Romulus to Constantine XI

-The Sands of Time - The Persian empire from beginning to end

-The Labyrinth - What in Hades happened here

-Temple Offerings - Relics of ancient conquest

I can keep going!!! :twisted:

[john m roberts]

Sulla's memoirs
The Sybilline prophecies
All of the pre-Homeric Troy poems
The complete Satyricon

[Sean Manning]

Part of Sulla's memoirs
A contemporary historian of the Hellenistic Age other than Polybius
A 5th century comedy by someone other than Aristophanes (he's great, but having something to compare him to would probably square our knowledge)
Speeches by Gaius and Tiberius Gracchus
A centurion's memoirs
One of those works in Greek by Pontic or Armenian nobles
Some of Posidonius' books on his travels

[Jona Lendering]

The full Laws of the XII Tables.
Some works by Pythagoras (or another pre-Socratic philosopher).
The lost publications of Aristotle (what we now have, are his lecture notes)
Pliny the Elder's History of the German Wars and/or "the book of considerable length" Velleius Paterculus wanted to write about the disaster in the Teutoburg Forest

[Robert Vermaat]

Construction and use of Modern Weaponry and Armor

I bet you can go to your local bookstore for that... :mrgreen:

As for the rest: most of those would not be written. Not exactly things a Roman would want to read, and therefore unlikely to end up in a private library.

[Astiryu1]

Modern for the Romans. :roll: It's gotta have all the shield techniques, sword techniques, etc. "Bansenshukai" for Romans instead of Ninjas. :twisted:

A man can dream! 8)

[Crispvs]

"Tacitus' lost books.

Ammianus' lost books."


Hmmm, I'd like to read them too, but I think they might be difficult to find in a library which was buried in AD79. :wink: :twisted:

Crispvs

[Robert Vermaat]

Hmmm, I'd like to read them too, but I think they might be difficult to find in a library which was buried in AD79. :wink: :twisted:

Point taken. :wink: I did not realise the date of the library.

[Epictetus]

Well, I know you suggested not mentioning philosophers, but everyone has already hit history before me. So here are some philosophers I would love to read:

Solon. We only have fragments of his poetry, which reputedly espoused a very political philosophy.
Plato’s “Unwritten Doctrine.” (Yes, the idea seems contradictory.)
Aristotle’s complete works. I understand some scholars think we have lost the majority of his writings.
Diogenes of Sinope. His anti-establishment philosophy didn’t seem to fit with structured prose writing, so we would probably need someone like Arrian, who wrote down the discourses of Epictetus.
Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism.
Chrysippus, also a Stoic. He supposedly was a highly prolific author but we have very little of his work today.
Pythagoras. Everything we know about him has come down through others. It would be wonderful to know all of his writings.
Epicurus, founder of Epicureanism.

[Sean Manning]

Epicurus, founder of Epicureanism.

They actually have some more texts by Epicurus in the part of the villa which has already been excavated. I think some have been published, but I don't know if any have been translated.

[Epictetus]

Yeah, I think I forgot that Epicureanism was the main focus of the library. Look at this list! They have already unearthed a great deal. Stuff is still coming out, evidently: I see some things were just published a couple of years ago. Now we need more translations!

[Caballo]

I'd be much duller and go for the filing cabinets of the Roman equivalent of the Ministry of Defence- org charts, reports from the front, requests for reinforcements, battle reports etc etc....