Page:A Brief Outline of the Histories of Libraries.djvu/99

Rh We note that libraries were placed in the baths, as we did above in the case of the Ulpian library, which was in the Baths of Diocletian. If you ask why, I would say because the Romans, while caring for the body in the bath, found their minds at ease, and discovered that then was a favourable time, especially for those who were deeply engrossed in affairs, to read or to be read to. For a like reason they had books in their villas and country seats. There also they found a leisure and a freedom from care which were favourable to reading.

A decision of the jurisconsult Paulus calls attention to this custom of having libraries: "In a