The Alexandrian Library

Of all the lost treasures of the world, the systematic and wanton devastation of the greatest sanctuary of knowledge in the ancient world, the Alexandrian Library, is the most stupendous of losses. The destruction of the world's great libraries has been commonplace through history; the great collections of Thebes, Nineveh, Baghdad, and Louvain were all destroyed, but none of these libraries can compare to the myth and legend surrounding the library and museum that was the jewel of the sophisticated culture of ancient Alexandria, Egypt.

Legend tells us Alexandria contained a library and museum that eventually held every great work of literature in the world. The library and museum flourished from roughly 300 B.C. to 300 A.D. Every great literary work of the Greeks was there, as well as other collections of Roman, Jewish, and Arabian scholars. What became of all these treasures has been the collective wonderment of historical detectives for centuries.

Aristotle, Plato's brilliant student and eventual tutor of Macedonia's Alexander the Great, was one of the first scholars to collect and preserve the written word. Aristotle's collection included versions of Homer that were certainly different than what we know today. Aristotle bequeathed his collection to a favorite student who subsequently left the library to a relative (Nelius of Serpris). It is believed that Nelius eventually sold part of his collection to Ptolemy who was responsible for starting the Alexandrian Library.

When Alexander died there was tremendous in-fighting among his confederates as to who would rule his domain. Ptolemy, one of Alexander's generals and reputedly a half brother, seized control of a large part of Egypt, which included Alexandria. Ptolemy became the most successful of Alexander's successors.

Alexander the Great, son of Phillip II and Olympias, inherited the crown of Macedonia at the age of twenty when his father was assassinated in 336 B.C. Until his death in India of malaria in 324 B.C., he conquered most of the known world in and around the Mediterranean and spread Hellenistic culture into Asia, Persia, and Egypt. His astounding accomplishment in just twelve years - though at a tremendous cost of human life - left a mythical aura around his name. In 332 B.C., he established Alexandria, which became Egypt's largest city for 2000 years.

Alexander was embalmed by eastern masters, swathed in malleable plates of gold to fit the contour of the body, and set in a golden casket that was paraded through his kingdom behind sixty-four gold-bedecked mules. For months the funeral procession journeyed from Babylon through Mesopotamia, over Syria, to Damascus and was eventually to end at Aegae, Macedonia where Alexander would be placed with other royalty. Ptolemy realized what a great political coup it would be to have the remains of the great king in Alexandria. He took an army to the procession and persuaded the leader to allow him to perform the last rites. While Alexander rested in Memphis, Ptolemy built an impressive mausoleum in Alexandria made of the rarest Greek and Egyptian marbles. This became Alexander's final resting place that lasted three centuries. In 89 B.C., Ptolemy IX, in a great need of money to continue his reign over Alexandria, had the gold sarcophagus melted into coin. The sarcophagus was housed in colored glass and eventually disappeared completely in the centuries that followed.

Ptolemy went about creating the most comprehensive library known in the ancient world. The organization of the library was trusted to Demetrius Phalereus, who was familiar with the library at Athens. Ptolemy went about purchasing scrolls and copying those he could not purchase. His goal was to accumulate all of the known literary works of the world, which was an estimated 500,000 scrolls. Ptolemy ordered that all books on ships that called on Alexandria were to be copied; copies were returned to the ships and the originals were confiscated and stored in the library.

A 120-volume catalog of the contents of the library was written by Callimachus, but nothing of the catalog has survived. It is estimated that the total accumulation swelled to 400,000 to 700,000 at the time of Julius Caesar's infamous arrival in 48 B.C. These works included every major work of the ancient Greeks. It was also the home of great sculpture and the workplace of distinguished scholars like Aristophanes of Byzantium and Apollinius of Rhodes.

The complex of rooms for the library and the museum that contained art works was known as the Place of the Muses. In it contained the sacred writings of the Egyptians and Jews, music scores, medicine and science texts, and philosophy. It is believed that the entire works of Sophocles, Euripides, Aristotle, Plato, and Homer were present, though what was lost from these masters is unknown. Claudius wrote a history of the Etruscans, a civilization occupying northeast Italy from 8th to 1st century of which we know very little at present. Pliny wrote the world's first encyclopedia from sources in the library during the first century A.D.; Euclid wrote the first textbook on geometry; Dionysius wrote Art of Grammar, which became a model for much of the world's grammarian ordinances. Junius Venator, the last curator of the library, wrote over a hundred books covering two thousand years of the world's known history to that time (350 A.D.).

For nearly two centuries the library had served as the greatest treasury of learning known to the world and successfully escaped any threats of destruction. What eventually happened to the greatest collection of knowledge and wisdom of the ancient world, as well as the sculpture, and the tomb of Alexandria is unknown, but the beginning of the end most certainly began with Caesar's arrival in 48 B.C.

There were many reasons for Caesar to visit Alexandria: to collect debts; to gain political prestige with Egypt by settling a dispute over the will of Cleopatra's father, Ptolemy Auletes, which had created friction between Cleopatra and her brother Ptolemy; and to enjoy the culture and civilization of the world's most literate and aesthetic city.

Cleopatra offered Julius Caesar, the present day master of the world, a great gift of hundreds of rare scrolls and art objects from the library and museum. A banquet was scheduled to celebrate agreements to the will. As Cleopatra and her guests reveled, Ptolemy's general Achillas seized the opportunity to attack the palace with a force of Egyptian soldiers and slaves. Caesar sent for reinforcements but realized the Egyptian navy would cause the Roman ships difficulty in rescuing him, so he ordered some of his remaining soldiers to sneak into the harbor and throw burning torches onto the Egyptian ships containing the treasures. His gift from Cleopatra was destroyed as were books stored in warehouses along the waterfront, but Caesar escaped with his life. It was estimated that 40,000 books were lost.

By the third century A.D., Alexandria had become a cosmopolitan population with conflicting philosophies and religions that eventually turned the city's cultural melting pot into a boiling cauldron of civil dissent. Under the rule of Aurelian (272) and Diocletius (296) the library suffered several destructive assaults. Areas that contained scientific, alchemy, and other pseudo-science texts were burned but much of the rest of the library remained intact.

In 391 A.D. Junius Venator, the last great director of the library fell out of favor with the Christian Bishop of Alexandria, Theophilos. It is believed that Theophilos considered the library a hotbed of paganism and convinced the Emperor Theodosius, also a Christian, to burn the library. Junius Venator was rumored to be murdered by fanatical followers of Theophilos.

It is not known how much of the collection was destroyed due to the fact that the library was stored in several buildings. There are reports that only one building was destroyed, and the main collection stored in the Library of the Serpeum survived. After all of these disasters the Alexandriana scholar Parsons wrote in his book The Alexandrian Library, " . . . if there is one outstanding characteristic of the library . . . it is its genius in surviving destruction."

The last assault on the legendary library has been attributed to Islam. The Muslims conquered Alexandria in 642 under the leadership of 'Am ibn al-As. Like previous conquerors, the Muslims were fanatics in spreading their own philosophy. Sometime between 642 and 646 the library suffered several fires by orders of Am ibn al-As's spiritual leader Omar, a Muslim fanatic who believed that there was only one book to read - the Koran.

In the end the destruction came from the pagan Caesar, the Christian Theophilos, the Muslim Omar, and the civil strife of Alexandria's own people.

Throughout the entire history of the library, scholars have found conflicting stories as to how much of the library was destroyed during each assault. Only one thing is certain as of today - it has completely vanished.