The Library of Alexandria was actually two or more libraries in the ancient Egyptian capitol, Alexandria, also a prosperous trade center between East and West, linked, besides the Mediterranean, to the Red Sea and Indian trade routes by canal. A cosmopolitan city of Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, and Jews coexisting. The Alexandrian Museum and Library, attracted scholars of diverse cultures to exchange learning; a repository for literature, arts, sciences, history the Roman Empire. Yet no surviving account of its activities exists, neglected by modern scholarship. The Library seems first mentioned in a Jewish document of 180-145 B.C., The Letter of Aristeas , propagandizing the translation of the Septuagint, commissioned by the Museum's founder, Demetrius, patronage of Ptolemy I, Ptolemy Soter. The Library was apparently established by Ptolemy II, Ptolemy Philadelphus, in 283 B.C., and perhaps at this time began patronage of scholars, housing and funding them in the Museum, along with collection of the vast Library.The Museum, modelled on the Lyceum of Aristotle in Athens, was a shrine for the Muses, but with lecture halls, laboratories, observatories, living quarters, perapatetic colonnades, a dining hall, a garden, a zoo, the shrine itself, and, presumably, the library, believed by archaeologists and scholars to not be a separate building, but housed within the shrine. A priest, appointed by the Pharoah, was administrator of the Museum, with a separate Librarian for the collection. The physical building was supposedly inside the walls of the Royal Palace, with grounds in the Brucheion, Greek sector of Alexandria.
Here lived 100 scholars, engaged in new scientific research, publishing, lecturing, initiating the first systematic study of Greek literature (inventing accents and grammatic structure). They edited, critiqued, collected Greek classics, and translations of Assyrian, Persian, Egyptian, Jewish, Indian, and literature of other nations. A holding of nearly a million works was accumulated by the late Ptolemaic period.
A second Library, the Serapeion, was established in the temple of Serapis, a god invented by the Ptolemies to synthesize Zeus, Pluto, Osiris, and the Apis bull. This library, in the Rhakotis or Egyptian sector, was open to all, not merely to royally pensioned scholars, with copies of many of the Museum's scrolls.
By the time Julius Caesar entered Alexandria in 48 B.C. (ending reign of the Ptolemies), the Museum had already undergone centuries of civil unrest, while producing much of the literature of the Hellenistic era.
Alexandria saw continuance of the civil wars of Caesar; the alliance of Antony and Cleopatra, then of Caesar and Cleopatra. In 48 B.C., occurred the first "burning of the Library", although many subsequent disasters resulted in the final destruction of the Library. Accounts of this are still in controversy.
In the Imperial period, Strabo the geographer based his studies on his research at the Library, living in Alexandria from 25-20 B.C. Strabo's brief description of the Library is our most detailed prior to that of a 4th century scholar, Johannus Tzetzes.Perhaps the Library gradually emulated the practices of Roman collections, or the converse may have occurred. Callimachus circa 250's B.C. set up divisions with ten halls, each separately devoted to literature or science or philosophy. Then contemporary libraries subdivided into Greek and Roman sections. Manuscripts were increasingly prepared on parchment rather than papyrus because Ptolemaic Alexandria was cut off its papyrus shipments to spite the library at Pergamon. The manuscripts were deposited in armaria, in wooden chests, besides the pigeonholes or shelves of earlier times, with linen or leather jackets for the more important scrolls. The Royal Precinct was no longer a restricted area, making the Museum available to the public. An intriguing community of Pagan, Jewish, and, later, Christian thought thrived among scholars of Alexandria, although social friction existed, both between Jews and Greeks, and between old and new.
Didymus, son of a fishmonger, wrote some 3,500 commentaries on Greek classics, including commentaries on Callimachus the poet creator of the world's first known card catalog. Also, Didymus published an authoritative text of Homer from the Hellenistic Aristarchus' version, a critical commentary On Demosthenes, and several Greek lexicons of tragedy, comedy, and Greek vocabulary.Some medical studies emanated from the library, in particular, those of Heraclides of Tarentum and surgeon Celsus. Much later, Galen became the foremost authority on medicine, basing his researches on the Library's literature and his own experiences. Scientific research had mostly shifted to Pergamum, and that in mathematics to Rhodes, while the Museum pursued philosophy -- Neoplatonists and Cynics having popular appeal with the masses. Museums on the Alexandrian model spread throughout the Empire.
By the time of Emperor Caius (Caligula), there was extensive rioting between Greeks and Jews, perhaps due to Caligula's appointing Herod Agrippa to be King of Judea, although Herod was a debtor to many Alexandrian moneylenders. Jewish historian Philo wrote of these riots, while acting as envoy to Rome in 38 AD in his Delegation to Caius and On Flaccus . The only mention of The Museum in this period is the comment by Suetonius that it was substantially enlarged by the Emperor Claudius. When Jews in the East revolted under Emperor Trajan in 116, Alexandria revolted also. Emperor Hadrian finally quelled the Alexandrian uprising. During his visit to Alexandria in 130, the Emperor restored the city, founding a new library in the Caesareum, attracting sophists such as Dionysius of Miletus and Polemon of Laodikeia to the Museum, initiating a minor second century revival of Alexandrian scholarship. Christianity strength began to challenge both Jew and Pagan. Riots broke out in 265 A. D., as described by Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, with no mention either of Library or Museum. In the 270's war, Queen Zenobia of Palmyra conquered Alexandria, declaring herself emperor, but was defeated by Roman emperor Aurelian. This war apparently damaged the Libraries' collections. Upon his abdication in 305, Emperor Diocletian issued an edict to destroy Christianity, also that all the Museum's books on metallurgy were to be burned. While Christianity had been popular with the masses, at Alexandria learned intellectual debate developed over the more philosophical parts of the religion, anticipating Medieval theological debates. Arianism and Gnosticism developed here (although later declared heretical), alongside what became Christian orthodoxy. Gnosticism still thrives in Egypt, arguing that the world is a blunder of the Demiurge, son of the true God -- Demiurage, the Jehovah of the old Testament. In pity, God sent Christ to reunite huamity with Himself. The Ophites, an offshoot of the Gnostics with Cretan influences, worshipped snakes and the divine mother Sophia, who sent the serpent of Eden to warn Eve and Adam that Jehovah was the Demiurge and they should seek wisdom or knowledge to unite with the true God. Twenty years after the Edit of Diocletian against Christianity, Emperor Constantine proclaimed Christianity to be Rome's official religion. By 391, Emperor Theodosius reversed Diocletian's edict, commanding all paganism to be stamped out, a threat to the Museum ("Library of Alexandria").Throughout the fourth century the church's power increased. A cohort of Gnostic monks supported the Patriarch of Alexandria, enforcing his will. After the edict of Theodosius, the mob was summoned by the Patriarch Theophilus to demolish the Serapeum, but the Library at the Caesarium may have survived.
In 412 Theophilus' nephew Cyril succeeded as Patriarch, exercising even greater control over the city. Conflict between secular and religious authority climaxed in 415, when Roman prefect Orestes objected to Cyril's order expelling all Jews from the city. Cyril's cohort of monks murdered the prefect and these monks were cannonized by Cyril for this assassination.
Marauding through Alexandria, the Gnostic monks encontered Hypatia, daughter of the Museum's last great mathematician Theon. Hypatia was a Neoplatonist philosopher, mathematician and astronomer, whose teachings are partially recorded by admirer and pupil, the Christian Synesius, and she was also supposedly an advisor to Orestes and one of the last members of the Museum. Driving home from her own lectures without protection, this independent woman and scholar seemed to flaunt the antithetic aspect of Paganism and its heretical scientific teachings. Hypatia was dragged from her chariot by the mob, stripped, flayed, and finally burned alive in the Library of the Caesareum as a witch. For this, Cyril was made a saint.
After Hypatia's death, the instability of Alexandria increased as the city was overrun by these monks who were to evolve into the Copts, incorporating old Alexandrian prejudices towards foreigners with new prejudice towards any scientific or classical knowledge. Too truculent to bow to the Emperor, Alexandria eventually revolted against Constantinople, winding up with two factions contending between two Patriarchs, and eventually fell to Arab conquerers, who had the last of the Library burned as fuel in the bath-houses of the city in 686.
Thus the Library of Alexandria and the Museum declined during the disruptive history of the Empire, yet outliving it by a little time, although lack of sources makes difficult reconstruction exact chronology of events. Its research probably reflected both the riches and the limitations of the times, and, while mainly Neoplatonist, also attracted other religious scholars, especially Jews, from Hellenistic times onward. Repeatedly rebuilt, modified, and burned, "The Great Library of Alexandria" absorbed the violent beginnings of Christianity which the very city of Alexandria largely shaped. Lessons in Terrorism learned from the Past, transmitted to the Future.
ONLINE www.perseus.tufts.edu/greek science/students/Ellen/museum.html#RTFToC2
www.bibalex.gov.org/
www.bede.org.uk/library.htm
www.digital.brilliance.com/kab/alex.htm
Rebuilding Library today: www.unesco.org/webworld/alexandria_new