Editing Library of Alexandria (section)

===Roman period and destruction===
[[File:Alexandria Library Inscription.jpg|thumb|right|This Latin inscription regarding [[Tiberius Claudius Balbilus]] of Rome (d. c. AD 79) mentions the {{lang|la|italic=no|"ALEXANDRINA BYBLIOTHECE"}} (line eight).]]

Very little is known about the Library of Alexandria during the time of the Roman [[Principate]] (27 BC – 284 AD).{{sfn|Watts|2008|page=149}} The emperor [[Claudius]] (ruled 41–54 AD) is recorded to have built an extension to the Library,{{sfn|Casson|2001|pages=46–47}} but it seems that the Library of Alexandria's general fortunes followed those of the city of Alexandria itself.{{sfn|MacLeod|2000|page=9}} After Alexandria came under Roman rule, the city's status and, consequently that of its famous Library, gradually diminished.{{sfn|Phillips|2010}}{{sfn|MacLeod|2000|page=9}} While the Mouseion still existed, membership was granted not on the basis of scholarly achievement, but rather on the basis of distinction in government, the military, or even in athletics.{{sfn|Casson|2001|page=47}}

The same was evidently the case even for the position of head librarian;{{sfn|Casson|2001|page=47}} the only known head librarian from the Roman Period was a man named [[Tiberius Claudius Balbilus]], who lived in the middle of the first century AD and was a politician, administrator, and military officer with no record of substantial scholarly achievements.{{sfn|Casson|2001|page=47}} Members of the Mouseion were no longer required to teach, conduct research, or even live in Alexandria.{{sfn|Watts|2008|page=148}} The Greek writer [[Philostratus]] records that the emperor [[Hadrian]] (ruled 117–138 AD) appointed the ethnographer Dionysius of Miletus and the sophist [[Polemon of Laodicea]] as members of the Mouseion, even though neither of these men is known to have ever spent any significant amount of time in Alexandria.{{sfn|Watts|2008|page=148}}

As the reputation of Alexandrian scholarship declined, the reputations of other libraries across the Mediterranean world improved, diminishing the Library of Alexandria's former status as the most prominent.{{sfn|MacLeod|2000|page=9}} Other libraries also sprang up within the city of Alexandria itself{{sfn|Watts|2008|page=149}} and the scrolls from the Great Library may have been used to stock some of these smaller libraries.{{sfn|Watts|2008|page=149}} The [[Caesareum of Alexandria|Caesareum]] and the Claudianum in Alexandria are both known to have had major libraries by the end of the first century AD.{{sfn|Watts|2008|page=149}} The Serapeum, originally the "daughter library" of the Great Library, probably expanded during this period as well, according to classical historian Edward J. Watts.{{sfn|Watts|2008|pages=149–150}}

By the second century AD, the Roman Empire grew less dependent on grain from Alexandria and the city's prominence declined further.{{sfn|MacLeod|2000|page=9}} The Romans during this period also had less interest in Alexandrian scholarship, causing the Library's reputation to continue to decline as well.{{sfn|MacLeod|2000|page=9}} The scholars who worked and studied at the Library of Alexandria during the time of the Roman Empire were less well known than the ones who had studied there during the Ptolemaic Period.{{sfn|MacLeod|2000|page=9}} Eventually, the word "Alexandrian" itself came to be synonymous with the editing of texts, correction of textual errors, and writing of commentaries synthesized from those of earlier scholars—in other words, taking on connotations of pedantry, monotony, and lack of originality.{{sfn|MacLeod|2000|page=9}} Mention of both the Great Library of Alexandria and the Mouseion that housed it disappear after the middle of the third century AD.{{sfn|Watts|2008|page=150}} The last known references to scholars being members of the Mouseion date to the 260s.{{sfn|Watts|2008|page=150}}

In 272 AD, the emperor [[Aurelian]] fought to recapture the city of Alexandria from the forces of the [[Palmyrene Empire|Palmyrene]] queen [[Zenobia]].{{sfn|Watts|2008|page=150}}{{sfn|Casson|2001|page=47}}{{sfn|Phillips|2010}} During the course of the fighting, Aurelian's forces destroyed the Broucheion quarter of the city in which the main library was located.{{sfn|Watts|2008|page=150}}{{sfn|Casson|2001|page=47}}{{sfn|Phillips|2010}} If the Mouseion and Library still existed at this time, they were almost certainly destroyed or damaged during the attack.{{sfn|Watts|2008|page=150}}{{sfn|Casson|2001|page=47}} If they did survive the attack, whatever was left of them would have been further damaged or destroyed during the emperor [[Diocletian]]'s siege of Alexandria in 297, when the Brouchion quarter was again destroyed.{{sfn|Watts|2008|page=150}}