The library of Celsus is an ancient Roman building in Ephesus, Anatolia, now part of Selçuk, Turkey. It was built in honour of the Roman Senator Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus[2][3] (completed in 135 AD) by Celsus' son, Gaius Julius Aquila (consul, 110 AD). Celsus had been consul in 92 AD, governor of Asia in 115 AD, and a wealthy and popular local citizen. He was a native of nearby Sardis and amongst the earliest men of purely Greek origin[4] to become a consul in the Roman Empire and is honoured both as a Greek and a Roman on the library itself.[5] Celsus paid for the construction of the library with his own personal wealth.[6]
The library was built to store 12,000 scrolls and to serve as a monumental tomb for Celsus. Celsus is buried in a sarcophagus beneath the library, in the main entrance[1] which is both a crypt containing his sarcophagus and a sepulchral monument to him.[7] It was unusual to be buried within a library or even within city limits, so this was a special honour for Celsus.