Athenaeum

The Athenaeum was a school founded by the Emperor Hadrian in Rome, for the promotion of literary and scientific studies and called Athenaeum from the city of Athens, which was still regarded as the seat of intellectual refinement. The Athenaeum was situated near the Capitoline Hill: its site was discovered in 2009 during excavation for the construction of the Rome Metro C Line, in the middle of what is now Piazza Venezia.

A staff of professors, for the various branches of study, was regularly engaged. Under Theodosius II, for example, there were three orators, ten grammarians, five sophists, one philosopher, two lawyers, or jurisconsults. Besides the instruction given by these magistri, poets, orators, and critics were accustomed to recite their compositions there, and these prelections were sometimes honoured with the presence of the emperors themselves. There were other places where such recitations were made, as the Library of Trajan; sometimes also a room was hired, and made into an auditorium.

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