THE GREAT LIBRARY OF ALEXANDRIA

Historians through the ages have been appalled of the loss of the contents of the great Library of Alexandria. During the Renaissance period of world history, a list was made of wonders of the ancient world totally to seven dating from the 2^nd to the 1^st century BC. That list is: the Great Pyramid of Giza (only one still standing and oldest), the Colossus of Rhodes, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Temple of Artemis, Gardens of Babylon, and the Statue of Zeus at Olympia. By all rights, the Library of Alexandria should be the eighth wonder.

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” — Jorge Luis Borges 

The Library of Alexandria once held the largest collection of written works from around the known world, which included the works of Socrates, Plato, Homer and other ancient authors. Several topics were covered in fields of study like mathematics, geography, astronomy, history and other topics.

Radiocarbon dating has put human activity at the place of the city of Alexandria during the Old Kingdom of ancient Egypt, the 27^th to 21^st centuries BC. There were absences of human activity after 1000-800 BC. It was a trading post during the time of Rameses the Great for trading with Crete. In the area, east of Alexandria (Abu Qir Bay now) there were ancient marshland and several islands with important port cities of Canopus and Heracleion established in the 7^th century BC. Heracleion was recently discovered under water.

Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great in April of 331 BC, after he captured the Egyptian Satrapy from the Persians, the Greek city that bears his name was built. Alexander chose the sit because he planned to build a causeway to the nearby island of Pharos that would make two natural harbors. It was intended to be a link between the Greek colony of Naucratis and a Hellenistic center in Egypt and a link to the Nile valley. After the foundation of the city was established, Alexander left Egypt and never returned. After Alexander left, his viceroy Cleomenes continued the expansion of the city. The architect Dinocrates of Rhodes designed the city, using a Hippodamian grid plan. [Wikipedia]

After Alexander's death in 323 BC, the Alexandrian empire was divided up and his general Ptolemy Lagides was awarded Egypt, bringing Alexander's body to Egypt with him. Ptolemy first ruled from Memphis. After the execution Cleomenes in 322 BC and in 305 BC, Ptolemy declared himself Pharaoh and moved his capitol to Alexandria.

The Library of Alexandria was not the first library of its kind. A long tradition of libraries existed in both Greece and in the ancient Near East. The earliest recorded archive of written materials comes from the ancient Sumerian city-state of Uruk in around 3400 BC, when writing had only just begun to develop. Scholarly curation of literary texts began in around 2500 BC.[Wikipedia]

The earliest information concerning the founding of the Library of Alexandria is found in the Letter of Aristeas, between 180 and 145 BC. But information found in the letter has been found to be inaccurate. Other sources state that the Library was created under the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (283-246 BC). However, scholars and historians agree that Ptolemy I most likely founded the Library being an historian and author.

The Library was built in the Royal Quarter as part of the Mouseion. The exact layout of the library is not known, but ancient sources describe it to be a mass collection of scrolls. There were Greek columns, a room for dining, a reading room, meeting rooms, lecture halls and even a garden. It was a model for future modern universities. The hall containing shelves of papyrus scrolls was called bibliothekai. An inscription above the shelves read: The place of the cure of the soul.

PTOLEMY IV

The Ptolemaic rulers intended the Library to be a collection of all knowledge and the Library's collection was well-funded for book purchases. They sent royal agents everywhere with money to purchase and collect as many texts they could find – any subject and by any author. The oldest copies of texts were favored to ensure the original author's writing had not been adulterated. In Rhodes and Athens there were book fairs and the royal agents would visit there frequently. According to the Greek medical writer, Galen, Ptolemy II decreed that any books found on ships that came into port were taken to the Library and copied by royal scribes to be returned to the owners. The Library focused upon manuscripts of the Homeric poems, the foundation of Greek education. Each manuscript was tagged with a label to indicate where it had come from.

STRABO

The Library also became the home of those who served it as well as scholars, poets, philosophers, and researchers, according to the Greek geographer Strabo. They were provided a salary, free food and lodging, and exempt from taxation. There was a large circular dining hall where they ate their meals. There were numerous classrooms where scholars taught students. It is said that Ptolemy II Philadelphus was interested in zoology, so it was speculated that the Mouseion district had a zoo with exotic animals. By 283 BC, the group of scholars may have been as much as thirty to fifty academics.

As a religious center, the Mouseion was overseen by a priest of the Muses called an epistates, appointed by the king in the same way priests managed the Egyptian temples. The Library was directed by a scholar who was the head librarian and also a tutor to the king's son.

The first recorded head librarian was Zenodotus of Ephesus (325-270 BC) who was devoted to the establishment of canonical text of Homeric poems and early Greek lyric poets. Zenodotus wrote a glossary of rare and unusual words and in alphabetical order being the first written dictionary. The collection at the Library of Alexandria was organized in alphabetical order by the first letter of the author's name and it is thought that Zenodotus was the one who organized it that way.

The scholar and poet Callimachus compiled the Pinakes, a 12-book catalogue of various authors and works. The Pinakes did not survive, but fragments of it and references to it has allowed scholars to reconstruct its basic structure. It was divided between writers of poetry and prose with each section subdivided. Each section listed authors in alphabetical order. Each entry included the author's name, father's name, place of birth, and other biographical information as well as a list of their books. Authors like Aeschylus, Euripedes, Sophocles, and Theophrastus must have had a long entry. IN addition to the Great Library, smaller libraries began to appear around Alexandria.

After the death of Zenodotus, Ptolemy II Philadelphus appointed Apollonius of Rhodes as head librarian. He lived from 295 to 215 BC and was a native of Alexandria and student of Callimachus. Apollonius was the author of Argonautica, an epic poem about voyages of Jason and the Argonauts. Some fragments of his scholarly writings have survived. During this time, according to legend, Archimedes, mathematician and inventor (287-212 BC) came to visit the Library of Alexandria. Observing the rise and fall of the Nile river inspired the inventor to invent the Archimedes' screw in order to transport water from the Nile into irrigation ditches.

The third head librarian was Eratosthenes of Cyrene (280-194 BC), known for his scientific works and as a literary scholar. He was the first scholar to apply mathematics to geography and map-making and in his treatise Concerning the Measurement of the Earth, he calculated the circumference of the Earth only being off by a few hundred kilometers. Eratosthenes also produced a map of the entire known world that included accounts of Alexander the Great's campaigns in India and reports by members of Ptolemaic elephant-hunting expeditions along the coast of East Africa. He was the first person to establish geography as a scientific endeavor. There were other scholars interested in scientific subjects: Bacchius of Tanagra who edited the medical writings of Hippocratic Corpus, Herophilus (335-280 BC) and Erasistratus (304-250 BC) who studied human anatomy. Their studies through dissection of human corpses was considered immoral. It was at this time, according to Galen, Ptolemy III obtained permission from the Athenians to borrow original manuscripts of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, but the Athenians demanded that fifteen talents (1,000 lbs.) of precious metal be given to guarantee their safe return. Ptolemy II had copies made on high-quality papyrus and sent the Athenians the copies, telling them to keep the talents.

The Library was expanding and running out of space, so during the reign of Ptolemy II Euergetes, a satellite collection was established in the Serapeum of Alexandria, a Greco-Egyptian temple to the god Serapis located near the royal palace.

The fourth head librarian was Aristophanes of Byzantium (257-180 BC) and according to a Roman writer, Vitruvius, Aristophanes was one of seven judges appointed for a poetry competition hosted by Ptolemy III Euergetes. This is the period when the Library of Alexandria maturity was reached. Aristophanes edited poetic texts and introduced the division of poems into separate lines on the page. He also invented the system of Greek diacritics, wrote works on lexicography, and introduced signs for textual criticism. He wrote introductions to many plays, some of which partially survived.

Not much is known about the fifth head librarian, Apollonius. During the early 2^nd century BC, several scholars at the Library studied works on medicine. A scholar named Ptolemy Epithetes wrote a treatise on wounds.

After the Battle of Raphia in 217 BC, the power of Ptolemy became unstable. There were uprisings and in the first half of the 2^nd century BC, Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt became disconnected. Ptolemaic rulers began to insist upon the Egyptian aspect of Egypt rather than the Greek influence. Many Greek scholars began to leave Alexandria during this conflagration.

Aristarchus of Samothrace (216-145 BC) was the sixth head librarian. He earned a reputation of being the greatest of ancient scholars. A portion of one of his commentaries on the Histories of Herodotus has survived in a papyrus fragment. In 145 BC, Aristarchus was caught up in a dynasty conflict and he supported Ptolemy VII Neos Philopator as ruler of Egypt. Ptolemy VII was murdered and succeeded by Ptolemy VIII Physcon, who immediately punished those who supported his predecessor. Aristarchus fled Egypt and died on the island of Cyprus. Ptolemy VIII expelled all foreign scholars from Alexandria, forcing them to go to the Eastern parts of the Mediterranean. This was the beginning of the decline of the Great Library of Alexandria. Ptolemaic rule became less stable and busy with social and civil unrest as well as economic problems, there was not much attention given to the Library or the Mouseion. One of the palace guards by the name of Cydas, was appointed the head librarian and Ptolemy IX Soter II in 88-81 BC) gave the position to a political supporter.

In 48 BC, during Caesar's Civil War, Julius Caesar besieged the city of Alexandria. His soldiers set fire to Egyptian ships at the dock in order to block the fleet of Cleopatra's brother Ptolemy XIV. The fire spread to other parts of the city. Seneca the Younger (1^st century AD), quoted Ab Urbe Condita Libri by Livy, that the fire started by Caesar's troops destroyed 40,000 scrolls of the Library of Alexandria. Plutarch (46-120 AD) wrote:

“When the enemy endeavored to cut off his communication by sea, he was forced to divert that danger by setting fire to his own ships, which, after burning the docks, thence spread on and destroyed the great library.”

The Roman historian, Cassius Dio (155-235 AD) wrote:

“Many places were set on fire, with the result that, along with other buildings, the dockyards and storehouses of grain and books, said to be great in number and of the finest, were burned.”

The account of Cassius Dio indicates that the fire did not actually destroy the Library itself, but the warehouse near the docks that was being used to store scrolls. Be as it may, the Library was NOT destroyed by fire. However, according to Strabo, the Great Library was nothing as prestigious as it was before.

Plutarch records in his Life of Marc Antony that, in years leading up to the Battle of Actium in 33 BC, Mark Antony was rumored to have given Cleopatra the 200,000 scrolls in the Library of Pergamum.

After Cleopatra's death, Alexandria became a Roman Principate (27 BC-284 AD). It is recorded that the emperor Claudius (41-54 AD) built an addition to the Library. The status of Alexandria and its Library continued to decline under Roman rule. Head librarians were not chosen for their academia, but as a politician, administrator, or a military officer. While the Great Library declined, other libraries across the Mediterranean improved. Other smaller libraries emerged in Alexandria and scrolls from the Great Library may have been used to stock those libraries.

By the 2^nd century AD, the Roman Empire became less dependent upon grain from Egypt and so Alexandria went further into decline.

In 272 AD, emperor Aurelian fought to recapture the city of Alexandria from Queen Zenobia. During the fighting, Aurelian's forces destroyed the Broucheion quarter where the Library was located. If it still existed, it was at that time it became completely destroyed. If anything remained of the Library and Mouseion, it was certainly destroyed by the siege of Diocletian in 297.

In 642 AD, Alexandria was captured by the Muslim army of Amr ibn al-As. The Caliph Omar ordered the library's destruction quoted by Bar-Hebraeus (13^th century) as saying:

“If those books are in agreement with the Quran, we have no need of them; and if these are opposed to the Quran, destroy them.”

The Serapeum has been often referred to as the “daughter library” of Alexandria. It was a center of a large collection of books in Alexandria in the late 4^th century AD. It was still a major pilgrimage site for pagans in the 370s and 380s, attracting philosophers like Damascius (458-538) who taught at Serapeum. Under the Christian rule of Roman emperor Theodosius I, pagans were persecuted and pagan rituals were outlawed as well as pagan temples being destroyed. In 391 AD, Bishop of Alexandria, Theophilus, ordered the destruction of the Serapeum and its conversion into a church. A battle in the streets between pagans and Christians began over the act of desecration of the Serapeum. None of the accounts of the Serapeum mention about it containing a library, speaking of book collection in the past tense.

After the Roman Empire became Christianized, Christian libraries were modeled after the Library of Alexandria and other great libraries of the pagan era, especially in the Greek eastern part of the empire. The largest and most prominent of those libraries were the Theological Library of Caesarea Maritima and the Library of Jerusalem. Those libraries had both pagan and Christian writings. Until the Renaissance, Christian scriptures held priority. We can thank those scholars who copied diligently and prolifically those papyrus onto parchment that we have anything written then today.

In 1974, it was proposed that the ancient Library of Alexandria be reborn by Lofty Dowidar, president of the University of Alexandria. In 1986, Egypt requested to allow an international organization (UNESCO to conduct a feasibility project on the subject. Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak became interested and contributed to its advancement.

Completed in 2002, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina is now a modern library and culture center commemorating the original Library of Alexandria by housing the International School of Information Science and collecting works from all over the world in various languages. In addition to the main library, it is comprised of six special libraries: Arts and Multimedia Library, Taha Hussein Library, Children's Library, Young People's Library, the Exchange and Archive Section and the Rare Books Section. It has become a major attraction of tourists visiting Alexandria, Egypt.

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