Laudator Temporis Acti

Ammianus Marcellinus 29.1.41 (tr. John C. Rolfe):

Then, innumerable writings and many heaps of volumes were hauled out from various houses and under the eyes of the judges were burned in heaps as being unlawful, to allay the indignation at the executions, although the greater number were treatises on the liberal arts and on jurisprudence.

deinde congesti innumeri codices, et acervi voluminum multi, sub conspectu iudicum concremati sunt, ex domibus eruti variis ut illiciti, ad leniendam caesorum invidiam, cum essent plerique liberalium disciplinarum indices variarum et iuris.

J. den Boeft et al., Philological and Historical Commentary on Ammianus Marcellinus XXIX (Leiden: Brill, 2013), p. 66:

The juxtaposition of scrolls and books is typical of the transitional period from the former to the latter kind of presenting texts. See for codex and volumen the note ad 28.1.26 (p. 57), Roberts and Skeat, 1983 and Blanck, 1992, 75–102. The phrase sub conspectu iudicum indicates that the burning of books was an official action, not the work of a mob of hooligans. See for iudex denoting a civil official ad 20.5.7 civilis (pp. 125–126). Speyer, 1981, 30–36 explains that burning is not merely a practical method to destroy books once and for all, but above all a religious means to cleanse society from the pollution caused by forbidden ideas: “Die Bücherverbrennung war so zunächst kein Ausdruck einer staatlichen Willkür, Intoleranz oder Tyrannei, sondern vielmehr des religiösen Gewissens der Gemeinschaft” (33–34).

We know of many book burnings in Antiquity. See apart from Speyer, 1981 e.g. Sarefield, 2006, Herrin, 2009. The earliest instance is the burning of Protagoras’ Περὶ Θεῶν in Athens (cf. e.g. Cic. N.D. 1.63 with Pease’s note ad loc.; cf. further Forbes, 1936, 117 n. 15). In Antioch, according to Suda I 401, the library which Julian had founded in the temple of Hadrian was burnt by order of Valens’ predecessor Jovian. Valens’ action in itself could be justified, for to possess books on magic was forbidden: libros magicae artis apud se neminem habere licet (Paul. sent. 5.23.18), and when such books were found they had to be burnt publicly: ambustis his publice (ibid., cf. Cod. Theod. 9.16.12 from 1 February 409). However, Amm.’s remark, that the greater part of the books burnt were treatises on various liberal arts and on law, is significant and shows that in his eyes the emperor went too far. The terror was so great that not only in Antioch but throughout the eastern provinces people burnt their own libraries (29.2.4).

References are to:

• Herrin, J., ‘Book Burning as Purification’, in: Ph. Rousseau and M. Papoutsakis (eds.), Transformations of Late Antiquity. Essays for Peter Brown, Farnham 2009, 205–222.
• Sarefield, D., ‘Bookburning in the Christian Roman Empire: Transforming a Pagan Rite of Purification’, in: H.A. Drake (ed.), Violence in Late Antiquity. Perceptions and Practices (Conference on Shifting Frontiers 5, Santa Barbara, Calif. 2003), Aldershot 2006, 287–296.
• Speyer, W., Büchervernichtung und Zensur des Geistes bei Heiden, Juden und Christen (Bibliothek des Buchwesens 7), Stuttgart 1981.