Britannica Sources used in this answer

Who established the first public library in Rome after Julius Caesar died?

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British Museum: Reading Room — library Reading Room of the British Museum, designed by Sidney Smirke in collaboration with Anthony Panizzi and built in the 1850s. Illustration by Smirke, from the *Illustrated London News*, 1857.

The first public library in Rome was established by the literary patron Asinius Pollio within five years of the death of Julius Caesar.1

While Caesar had originally planned to create a public library and had entrusted the project to the scholar Marcus Terentius Varro, he died before these plans could be realized. Pollio subsequently built the library in the Atrium Libertatis using spoils from his military campaign against the Parthini. In his Natural History, Pliny the Elder noted the significance of this achievement, stating that Pollio made men's talents a public possession.12