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The transition from the Greek to the Roman period in the history of libraries comes in the reign of Augustus Caesar. It is in this reign too of course that the Gospel history begins, and in fact the New Testament history of libraries begins with that very enrolment which occasioned that the birth of Jesus Christ should be at Bethlehem rather than Nazareth.

At this time Palestine had been for sixty years under Roman authority although it was not until ten years later that it became a Roman province. For thirty-three years Herod the Great had been king under the Romans and for twenty-seven years under the Great Augustus