In my dissertation, I argue that the architectural space of the library functioned in daily practice as a field where social status and meaning were produced and contested, and that libraries were pivotal in many tactics of social differentiation. I have found that the library is an especially rewarding place to study how physical and social structures interact in the Roman world. I think the reason is that paideia played a major role in social status and social practices, and the library, with its books and statuary, was a physical embodiment of paideia.