Half way point

This week in addition to the earlier discovered thesis I took to searching through Britannica Online for any relevant materials. So far Britannica has provided a great deal of information that I can put to use. Unsurprisingly however it doesn't provide a clear breakdown of libraries during the period although it does provide information on how they preserved a great deal of the ancient works that survived to the modern day.
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At the start of this new empire Constantine I modeled it greatly on the fallen empire of old Rome (Ilie 2007 p. 2). Consequently he modeled the new empire's literary culture after that of the old; Latin was the official language of speech and literature in theory if not in practice. Greek, which would, in time, completely replace Latin for the majority of the life of the empire, was still the language of the day to day and continued to be used in books produced.

Constantine's emphasis on literacy and learning would see the creation of the Imperial and Patriarchal (in the religious sense) libraries of the empire.
The old empire's literary culture would become the basis for the development of these new libraries which were inspired by old Rome's many libraries (Ilie 2007 p.2); The great private libraries, including those of Cicero, and the public libraries such as that planned by Julius Caesar that was eventually realised after his death by a man named Gaius Asinius Pollio, a patron of the literary arts (Britannica Online 2012).

Constantine I, and by extension, the empire placed such importance upon literacy and education that the Imperial Library & Patriarchal Library were created at the very inception of the empire. The date of their creation, as Ilie puts it "illustrates the significance the founding emperor placed on them as integral pieces of the new empire."

Constantine was a very generous benefactor for the Imperial Library. Agents were sent across the empire in order to find books with which to fill it (Ilie 2007 p. 4). Indeed by the time of his death in 337 A.D., a mere seven years after the Library was opened, possessed an amazing 6900 volumes (Ilie 2007 p. 4); An astonishing number for a time before print.

These first library institutions were soon joined by two additions; The Academy or University Library and the Law Library (Ilie 2007 p. 3).

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'library' 2012. Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica Online, viewed 19 September, 2012

'Byzantine Empire' 2012. Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica Online, viewed 19 September, 2012

Ilie, B 2007, 'Libraries and Book Culture of the Empire', Master's, University of North Carolina

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A late Byzantine fact update: One emperor, Michael II, began his career as a soldier. Rising through the ranks he would later mastermind a conspiracy that would result in Emperor Leo V the Armenian's death and his own rise to power.