The Athenaeum was a school (ludus) founded by the Emperor Hadrian for the promotion of literary and scientific studies (ingenuarum artium).

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.

Little is known of the details of study or discipline in the Athenaeum, but in the constitution of the year 370, there are some regulations respecting students in Rome, from which it would appear that it must have been a very extensive and important institution.

And this is confirmed by other statements contained in some of the Fathers and other ancient authors, from which we learn that young men from all parts, after finishing their usual school and college studies in their own town or province, used to resort to Rome as a sort of higher university, for the purpose of completing their education.

In the modern period, the term Athenaeum is widely used in various countries for schools, libraries, museums, cultural centers, performance halls and theatres, periodicals, clubs and societies – all aspiring to fulfill a cultural function similar to that of the ancient Roman school.