Editing Library of Alexandria (section)

===Burning by Julius Caesar===
[[File:César (13667960455).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Julius Caesar]] burned his ships during the [[Siege of Alexandria (47 BC)|Siege of Alexandria]] in 48 BC.{{sfn|Haughton|2011}} Ancient writers said the fire spread and destroyed part of the Library's collections;{{sfn|Haughton|2011}} the Library seems to have partially survived or been quickly rebuilt.{{sfn|Haughton|2011}}]]

In 48 BC, during [[Caesar's Civil War]], [[Julius Caesar]] was [[Siege of Alexandria (47 BC)|besieged at Alexandria]]. His soldiers set fire to some of the Egyptian ships docked in the Alexandrian port while trying to clear the wharves to block the fleet belonging to [[Cleopatra]]'s brother [[Ptolemy XIV]].<ref>[[Justin Pollard|Pollard, Justin]], and Reid, Howard. 2006. ''The Rise and Fall of Alexandria, Birthplace of the Modern World.''</ref><ref name="AulusGellius">Aulus Gellius. Attic Nights [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Gellius/7*.html book 7 chapter 17].</ref>{{sfn|MacLeod|2000|page=7}}{{sfn|Haughton|2011}} This fire purportedly spread to the parts of the city nearest to the docks, causing considerable devastation in that area.<ref name="AulusGellius" />{{sfn|Watts|2008|page=149}}{{sfn|Haughton|2011}} The first-century AD Roman playwright and Stoic philosopher [[Seneca the Younger]] quotes [[Livy]]'s {{lang|la|[[Ab Urbe Condita Libri]]}}, which was written between 63 and 14 BC, as saying that the fire started by Caesar destroyed 40,000 scrolls from the Library of Alexandria.{{sfn|MacLeod|2000|page=7}}{{sfn|Watts|2008|page=149}}{{sfn|Haughton|2011}}{{sfn|McKeown|2013|page=150}} The Greek [[Middle Platonism|Middle Platonist]] [[Plutarch]] ({{circa}} 46–120 AD) writes in his ''Life of Caesar'' that, "[W]hen the enemy endeavored to cut off his communication by sea, he was forced to divert that danger by setting fire to his ships, which, after burning the docks, thence spread on and destroyed the great library."<ref name="Plutarch">Plutarch, ''Life of Caesar'', [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Caesar*.html#49 49.6].</ref>{{sfn|Casson|2001|page=46}}{{sfn|Haughton|2011}} The Roman historian [[Cassius Dio]] ({{circa|155|235 AD}}), however, writes: "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."{{sfn|Casson|2001|page=46}}{{sfn|Watts|2008|page=149}}{{sfn|Haughton|2011}} However, [[Florus]] and [[Lucan]] only mention that the flames burned the fleet itself and some "houses near the sea".<ref name="El-AbbadiFathallah2008">{{cite book|last=Cherf|first=William J.|editor-last1=El-Abbadi|editor-first1=Mostafa|editor-last2=Fathallah|editor-first2=Omnia Mounir|title=What Happened to the Ancient Library of Alexandria?|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gz2wCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA70|year=2008|publisher=Brill|location=Leiden|isbn=978-90-474-3302-6|page=70|chapter=Earth Wind and Fire: The Alexandrian Fire-storm of 48 BC}}</ref>

Scholars have interpreted Cassius Dio's wording to indicate that the fire did not actually destroy the entire Library itself, but rather one or more Library warehouses near the docks.{{sfn|Casson|2001|page=46}}{{sfn|Watts|2008|page=149}}{{sfn|Haughton|2011}}{{sfn|Tocatlian|1991|page=256}} Whatever damage Caesar's fire may have caused, evidently the Library was not completely destroyed.{{sfn|Casson|2001|page=46}}{{sfn|Watts|2008|page=149}}{{sfn|Haughton|2011}}{{sfn|Tocatlian|1991|page=256}}{{sfn|Phillips|2010}} The geographer [[Strabo]] ({{circa|63 BC|24 AD}}) mentions visiting the Mouseion, the larger research institution to which the Library was attached, in around 20 BC, several decades after Caesar's fire, indicating that it either survived the fire or was rebuilt soon afterwards.{{sfn|Casson|2001|page=46}}{{sfn|Haughton|2011}} Nonetheless, Strabo's manner of talking about the Mouseion shows that it was nowhere near as prestigious as it had been a few centuries prior. It is unknown whether this was due to historical decline or catastrophic destruction.{{sfn|Haughton|2011}} Despite mentioning the Mouseion, Strabo does not mention the Library separately, perhaps indicating that it had been so drastically reduced in stature and significance that Strabo felt it did not warrant separate mention.{{sfn|Haughton|2011}} It is unclear what happened to the Mouseion after Strabo's mention of it.{{sfn|MacLeod|2000|page=7}}

Furthermore, Plutarch records in his ''Life of Mark Antony'' that in the years leading up to the [[Battle of Actium]] in 33 BC, [[Mark Antony]] was rumored to have given Cleopatra all 200,000 scrolls in the Library of Pergamum.{{sfn|Casson|2001|page=46}}{{sfn|Watts|2008|page=149}} Plutarch himself notes that his source for this anecdote was sometimes unreliable and it is possible that the story may be nothing more than propaganda intended to show that Mark Antony was loyal to Cleopatra and Egypt rather than to Rome.{{sfn|Casson|2001|page=46}} Casson, however, argues that even if the story was made up, it would not have been believable unless the Library still existed.{{sfn|Casson|2001|page=46}} Edward J. Watts argues that Mark Antony's gift may have been intended to replenish the Library's collection after the damage to it caused by Caesar's fire roughly a decade and a half prior.{{sfn|Watts|2008|page=149}}

Further evidence for the Library's survival after 48 BC comes from the fact that the most notable producer of composite commentaries during the late first century BC and early first century AD was a scholar who worked in Alexandria named [[Didymus Chalcenterus]], whose epithet {{lang|grc|Χαλκέντερος}} ({{lang|grc-Latn|Chalkénteros}}) means "bronze guts".{{sfn|Dickey|2007|page=7}}{{sfn|Casson|2001|page=46}} Didymus is said to have produced somewhere between 3,500 and 4,000 books, making him the most prolific known writer in all of antiquity.{{sfn|Dickey|2007|page=7}}{{sfn|Fox|1986|page=351}} He was also given the nickname {{lang|grc|βιβλιολάθης}} ({{lang|grc-Latn|Biblioláthēs}}), meaning "book-forgetter" because it was said that even he could not remember all the books he had written.{{sfn|Dickey|2007|page=7}}{{sfn|McKeown|2013|pages=149–150}} Parts of some of Didymus' commentaries have been preserved in the forms of later extracts and these remains are modern scholars' most important sources of information about the critical works of the earlier scholars at the Library of Alexandria.{{sfn|Dickey|2007|page=7}} Lionel Casson states that Didymus' prodigious output "would have been impossible without at least a good part of the resources of the library at his disposal".{{sfn|Casson|2001|page=46}}