Career
He was born ca. 45 to a family of Greek origin in either Ephesus or Sardis. His family were priests in Rome and were originally from Sardis in Asia Minor. They had been granted Roman citizenship, and some of them held official positions in the service of the Roman Empire.
In 69, during the Year of the Four Emperors, when Celsus was launching his equestrian career, he and his legion acclaimed Vespasian emperor.
After Vespasian solidified his control of the Empire, he rewarded Celsus by raising him to the senatorial class. Celsus went on to hold the highest position open to Roman senatorial aristocrats, becoming suffect consul in 92.
In 105, he was named proconsular governor of the Roman province of Asia by the Emperor Trajan. The in Ephesus was built to honor Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus after his death.
The library was built to store 12,000 scrolls and to serve as a monumental tomb for Celsus.
The library is both a crypt containing his sarcophagus and a sepulchral monument of Celsus. The library collapsed after Ephesus was deserted but it was restored by an Austrian Archaeology Foundation in the 1970s.
