[54] Cic. de Rep. ii. 19. 34 Videtur insitiva quadam disciplina doctior facta esse civitas. Influxit enim non tenuis quidam e Graecia rivulus in hanc urbem, sed abundantissimus amnis illarum disciplinarum et artium. Cicero is speaking of the very earliest Hellenic influences on Rome, but his description is just as appropriate to the period which we are considering.
[55] Plut. Paul. 28.
[56] Sulla brought back the library of Apellicon of Teos, Lucullus the very large one of the kings of Pontus (Plut. Sulla 26; Luc. 42; Isid. Orig. vi. 5). Lucullus allowed free access to his books. Here we get the germ of the public library. The first that was genuinely public belongs to the close of the Republican era. It was founded by Asinius Pollio in the Atrium Libertatis on the Aventine (Plin. H.N. vii. 45; Isid. Orig. vi. 5).
[57] Macrob. Sat. iii. 14. 7.
[58] Dionys. vii. 71.
[59] They had made contributions in 186 B.C. towards the games of Scipio Asiaticus (Plin. H.N. xxxiii. 138).
[60] Livy (xl. 44) after describing the senatus consultum, in which occur the words Neve quid ad eos ludos arcesseret, cogeret, acciperet, faceret adversus id senatus consultum, quod L. Aemilio Cn. Baebio consulibus de ludis factum esset, adds Decreverat id senatus propter effusos sumptus, factos in ludos Ti. Sempronii aedilis, qui graves non modo Italiae ac sociis Latini nominis sed etiam provinciis externis fuerant.
[61] The effect was still worse when a rich man avoided it. Cic. de Off. ii. 17. 58. Vitanda tamen suspicio est avaritiae. Mamerco, homini divitissimo, praetermissio aedilitatis consulatus repulsam attulit. Sulla said that the people would not give him the praetorship because they wished him to be aedile first. They knew that he could obtain African animals for exhibition (Plut. Sulla 5).
[62] Cic. in Verr. v. 14. 36.
[63] Liv. x. 47; xxvii. 6.