To understand Hadrian’s Library and Hadrian’s Arch, it helps to understand Hadrian himself. Born in 76 AD in what is now Spain, he rose through the Roman military and political ranks to become emperor in 117 AD, ruling until his death in 138 AD.
Of all the places he visited during his reign, Athens held a particular place in his affections. He visited the city at least three times, studied Greek philosophy there, was initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries, and was eventually granted Athenian citizenship, an extraordinary honor for a Roman emperor.
Each visit left a permanent mark on the city. He completed the Temple of Olympian Zeus, a project begun more than six centuries before his time. He built an arch to mark the boundary between the old Greek city and his new Roman expansion. And he gave Athens a library, the largest and most culturally ambitious building he constructed anywhere in his empire.
Hadrian’s Library, built in 131 and 132 AD, was not simply a repository for books. It was a full cultural complex, a rectangular peristyle structure measuring approximately 122 by 82 meters, with a single grand entrance on its western side and an enormous interior courtyard surrounded by 100 marble columns.
At its center sat a long ornamental pool, and along the eastern and northern sides were reading halls, lecture rooms, music halls, and exhibition spaces. The library proper housed papyrus scrolls and manuscripts stored in wooden cupboards set into niches in the walls, with an estimated collection of more than 17,000 scrolls at its height.
The western facade facing Areos Street near Monastiraki Square gives the best surviving sense of the building’s original grandeur. Seven of the original fourteen towering Corinthian columns of Karystian marble still stand to their full height, and the four columns of the central gateway were made of rare Phrygian marble imported from what is now Turkey, a deliberate display of Roman wealth and reach.
The library was severely damaged during the Herulian invasion of 267 AD but was subsequently rebuilt, serving different functions across different eras with remarkable resilience. During the Byzantine period it became a church dedicated to the Archangel Michael. During the Ottoman period it served as a mosque, a fortress, the residence of the Turkish governor of Athens, and eventually as an army barracks and a prison.
The building was rediscovered by archaeologists in 1885 and has been under ongoing excavation and study ever since, with later structures gradually cleared to reveal the Roman foundations beneath.
Hadrian’s Arch stands at the edge of Plaka at the junction of Amalias Avenue and Dionysiou Areopagitou, within sight of both the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Acropolis. Standing approximately 18 meters high and built from Pentelic marble, it is in remarkably fine condition and remains one of the most photographed structures in the entire city.
The arch marked the formal boundary between the ancient Greek city and the new Roman quarter Hadrian had built to its east. Two inscriptions carved on opposite sides made this division explicit. The side facing the Acropolis reads that this is Athens, the ancient city of Theseus. The side facing the new city reads that this is the city of Hadrian and not of Theseus.
Together, the two inscriptions capture something essential about the relationship between Greek heritage and Roman ambition that defined Athens throughout the imperial period.
