14. The Ulpian library was built by the Emperor Trajan when the Roman Emperor wanted to present himself as an enlightened and educated ruler
Out of the numerous libraries the Romans built, just one survived until the end of the Roman Empire in the mid-fifth century. And that was arguably the greatest one of them all. The Ulpian Library was founded by the Emperor Trajan in the year 114 and was one of the centrepieces of his Forum. Its collections were so impressive that, after the destruction of the Library of Alexandria in the third century, it came to be regarded as the greatest library in all of the Western World. Tragically for history lovers, however, nothing remains of it today.
It’s believed Trajan commissioned the construction of his Ulpian Library due to a mix of pragmatism and vanity. The Latin and Greek collections were housed separately, each in huge rooms adored with statues. Nobody knows just how many manuscripts were housed in the Ulpian Library. Since historians believe that Trajan acquired the private library of Epaphrodites of Cheronea, which on its own boasted 30,000 volumes, it was almost certainly a vast and wide-ranging collection. Certainly, Trajan’s own works, including his commentaries on the Dacian Wars, were a highlight, as were all the volumes of Julius Caesar’s autobiography.