According to Hecataeus, whose extensive account is quoted by Diodorus Siculus, the magnificent and opulent tomb of the Egyptian king Ozymandias contained a sacred library with the inscription: “Healing-Place of the Soul”1.
In antiquity, the most famous were the Pergamon Library and the Library of Alexandria, where, according to Ammianus Marcellinus, nearly 700,000 volumes were destroyed during a fire2.
Education, and in particular acquiring knowledge in antiquity, was a priority. Diodorus managed to reflect on this personally:
The acquisition of [historical knowledge] is the most useful thing for all the chances of life3.
However, according to Lucian of Samosata:
A terrible thing is ignorance, the source of endless human woes, spreading a mist over facts, obscuring truth, and casting a gloom upon the individual life4.
