Editing Library of Alexandria (section)

==Decline==
===After Ptolemy VIII's expulsions===
Ptolemy VIII Physcon's expulsion of the scholars from Alexandria brought about a shift in the history of Hellenistic scholarship.{{sfn|Dickey|2007|pages=5–6}} The scholars who had studied at the Library of Alexandria and their students continued to conduct research and write treatises, but most of them no longer did so in association with the Library.{{sfn|Dickey|2007|pages=5–6}} Due to this decline in respect and prestige, the Library of Alexandria began a decline.{{sfn|Phillips|2010}} A [[diaspora]] of Alexandrian scholarship occurred, in which scholars of the Library dispersed first into the eastern Mediterranean and then into the world of the western Mediterranean as well.{{sfn|Dickey|2007|pages=5–6}} Former scholars and their disciples took their scholarly energies elsewhere. For example, Aristarchus' student [[Dionysius Thrax]] ({{circa|170|90 BC}}) established a school on the Greek island of Rhodes.{{sfn|Dickey|2007|page=6}}{{sfn|Casson|2001|page=45}} He also wrote the [[The Art of Grammar|first book on Greek grammar]], a succinct guide to speaking and writing clearly and effectively{{sfn|Casson|2001|page=45}} – a book that remained the primary grammar textbook for Greek schoolboys until as late as the twelfth century AD.{{sfn|Casson|2001|page=45}} Another one of Aristarchus' pupils, [[Apollodorus of Athens]] ({{circa|180|110 BC}}), went to Alexandria's greatest rival, Pergamum, where he taught and conducted research.{{sfn|Dickey|2007|page=6}} This scholarly diaspora prompted the historian [[Menecles of Barca]] to sarcastically comment that Alexandria had become the teacher of all Greeks and barbarians alike.{{sfn|Meyboom|1995|page=373}}

Meanwhile, in Alexandria, from the middle of the second century BC onwards, Ptolemaic rule in Egypt grew less stable than it had been previously.{{sfn|Casson|2001|page=47}} Confronted with growing social unrest and other major political and economic problems, the later Ptolemies did not devote as much attention towards the Library and the Mouseion as their predecessors had, continuing the decline that had begun under Ptolemy VIII Physcon.{{sfn|Casson|2001|page=47}}{{sfn|Phillips|2010}} The status of both the Library and the head librarian diminished.{{sfn|Casson|2001|page=47}} Several of the later Ptolemies used the position of head librarian as a mere political plum to reward their most devoted supporters.{{sfn|Casson|2001|page=47}} Ptolemy VIII appointed a man named Cydas, one of his palace guards, as head librarian{{sfn|Watts|2008|page=149}}{{sfn|Casson|2001|page=47}} and [[Ptolemy IX Lathyros|Ptolemy IX Soter II]] (ruled 88–81 BC) is said to have given the position to a political supporter.{{sfn|Casson|2001|page=47}} Eventually, the position of head librarian lost so much of its former prestige that even contemporary authors ceased to take interest in recording the terms of office for individual head librarians.{{sfn|Watts|2008|page=149}}

A shift in Greek scholarship at large occurred around the beginning of the first century BC.{{sfn|Dickey|2007|page=6}}{{sfn|Fox|1986|page=351}} By this time, all major classical poetic texts had finally been standardized and extensive commentaries had already been produced on the writings of all the major literary authors of the [[Greek Classical Era]].{{sfn|Dickey|2007|page=6}} Consequently, there was little original work left for scholars to do with these texts.{{sfn|Dickey|2007|page=6}} Many scholars began producing syntheses and reworkings of the commentaries of the Alexandrian scholars of previous centuries, at the expense of their own originalities.{{sfn|Dickey|2007|page=6}}{{sfn|Fox|1986|page=351}}{{efn|This shift paralleled a similar, concurrent trend in philosophy, in which many philosophers were beginning to synthesize the views of earlier philosophers rather than coming up with original ideas of their own.{{sfn|Fox|1986|page=351}}}} Other scholars branched out and began writing commentaries on the poetic works of postclassical authors, including Alexandrian poets such as Callimachus and Apollonius of Rhodes.{{sfn|Dickey|2007|page=6}} Meanwhile, Alexandrian scholarship was probably introduced to [[Rome]] in the first century BC by [[Tyrannion of Amisus]] ({{circa|100|25 BC}}), a student of Dionysius Thrax.{{sfn|Dickey|2007|page=6}}

===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}}

===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}}

===Arabic sources on the Arab conquest===
In 642 AD, Alexandria was [[Arab conquest of Egypt|captured by an Arab army]] under the command of [[Amr ibn al-As]]. Several later Arabic sources describe the library's destruction by the order of [[Caliph Omar|Caliph Umar]].<ref>[[Antoine Isaac Silvestre de Sacy|De Sacy]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=NGrRAAAAMAAJ {{lang|fr|Relation de l'Egypte par Abd al-Latif}}], Paris, 1810. [http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/?p=4926 Translated] by Roger Pearse. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511081440/http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/?p=4926|date=11 May 2011}}. "Above the column of the pillars is a dome supported by this column. I think this building was the portico where Aristotle taught, and after him his disciples; and that this was the academy that Alexander built when he built this city, and where was placed the library which Amr ibn-Alas burned, with the permission of Omar."</ref> The earliest was [[al-Qifti]] who described the story in a biographical dictionary ''History of Learned Men'', written before 1248.<ref>Samir Khalil. {{lang|fr|italic=no|"L'utilisation d'al-Qifṭī par la Chronique arabe d'Ibn al-'Ibrī († 1286)"}}. In Samir Khalil Samir, ed. {{lang|fr|Actes du IIe symposium syro-arabicum (Sayyidat al-Bīr, septembre 1998). Études arabes chrétiennes, {{=}} Parole de l'Orient}} 28 (2003) 551–598. An English translation of the passage in Al-Qifti by Emily Cottrell of Leiden University is acceptable [http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/?p=5004 at the Roger Pearse blog]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511081446/http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/?p=5004|date=11 May 2011}}</ref> [[Bar-Hebraeus]], writing in the thirteenth century, quotes Umar as saying to Yaḥyā al-Naḥwī ([[John Philoponus]]): "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." So, Ibn al Qifti recounts, the general ordered that the books be burned to fuel the fires that heated Alexandria's city baths. It is said that they were enough to provide heating for six months.<ref>Ed. Pococke, p. 181, translation on p. 114. [http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/?p=4936 Translated] by Roger Pearse. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100915061814/http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/?p=4936|date=15 September 2010}}. {{langx|la|Quod ad libros quorum mentionem fecisti: si in illis contineatur, quod cum libro Dei conveniat, in libro Dei [est] quod sufficiat absque illo; quod si in illis fuerit quod libro Dei repugnet, neutiquam est eo [nobis] opus, jube igitur e medio tolli. Jussit ergo Amrus Ebno'lAs dispergi eos per balnea Alexandriae, atque illis calefaciendis comburi; ita spatio semestri consumpti sunt. Audi quid factum fuerit et mirare.}}</ref>

Later scholars, beginning with Father [[Eusèbe Renaudot]] in his 1713 translation of the ''[[History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria]]'', are skeptical of these stories, given the amount of time that had passed before they were recorded and the political motivations of the various authors.<ref>E. Gibbon, ''Decline and Fall'', chapter 51: "It would be endless to enumerate the moderns who have wondered and believed, but I may distinguish with honour the rational scepticism of Renaudot, (Hist. Alex. Patriarch, p. 170: ) 'historia ... habet aliquid ut απιστον ut Arabibus familiare est.' However Butler says: 'Renaudot thinks the story has an element of untrustworthiness: Gibbon discusses it rather briefly and disbelieves it.{{'"}} (ch. 25, p. 401)</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/3517|title=The Vanished Library by Bernard Lewis|magazine=The New York Review of Books|access-date=26 November 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061116003731/http://www.nybooks.com/articles/3517|archive-date=16 November 2006|url-status=live|date=27 September 1990|last1=Lewis|first1=Bernard|last2=Lloyd-Jones|first2=Hugh}}</ref>{{sfn|Trumble|MacIntyre Marshall|2003|p=51|ps=.&nbsp;"Today most scholars have discredited the story of the destruction of the Library by the Muslims."}} [[Roy MacLeod]], for example, points out that the story first appeared 500 years after the event, that John Philoponus was almost certainly dead by the time of the conquest of Egypt and that both the Great Library of Alexandria and the Mouseion were likely long gone by then.{{sfn|MacLeod|2000|p=71|ps=.&nbsp;"The story first appears 500 years after the Arab conquest of Alexandria. John the Grammarian appears to be John Philoponus, who must have been dead by the time of the conquest. It seems, as shown above, that both of the Alexandrian libraries were destroyed by the end of the fourth century, and there is no mention of any library surviving at Alexandria in the Christian literature of the centuries following that date. It is also suspicious that Omar is recorded to have made the same remark about books found by the Arab during their conquest of Iran."}} According to Diana Delia, "Omar's rejection of pagan and Christian wisdom may have been devised and exploited by conservative authorities as a moral exemplum for Muslims to follow in later, uncertain times, when the devotion of the faithful was once again tested by proximity to nonbelievers".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Diana|first=Delia|date=December 1992|title=From Romance to Rhetoric: The Alexandrian Library in Classical and Islamic Traditions|journal=The American Historical Review|volume=97|issue=5|pages=1449–1467|doi=10.2307/2165947|jstor=2165947}}</ref> The historian [[Bernard Lewis]] suggests the myth came into existence during the reign of [[Saladin]] in order to justify the Sunni [[Ayyubid dynasty|Ayyubids]]' breaking up of the Shia [[Fatimid Caliphate|Fatimid]] collections and library at public auction.<ref>Bernard Lewis (2008). Mostafa El-Abbadi and Omnia Mounir Fathallah, eds. ''What Happened to the Ancient Library of Alexandria''. Leiden: Brill. pp. 213–217</ref>