The Destruction of the Royal Library of Alexandria

The ancient world was home to many wonders, a number of which were constructed with design and technology that astounds people even today. Seven of these wonders were named as such, and include the likes of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Colossus of Rhodes and Pharos of Alexandria, and the surviving Giza Pyramids. Most of these wonders, and many others though have been lost, destroyed in antiquity. Alexandria in particular has lost much of its ancient buildings, and although the famed lighthouse lives on in legend, the Royal Library of Alexandria though deserves an equal level of fame.

The Royal Library of Alexandria was famed in its day as the largest library anywhere to be found in the world, the library of Alexandria is considered to have been the seat of all of the world’s knowledge. The fame still survives and even in modern movies, such as National Treasure, makes reference to the wonders that the library held.There is no exact known number of scrolls held within the Library of Alexandria, although it was given a target for five hundred thousand scrolls. What is known though is that the most learned individuals of the time all made use of its resources.

"The Great Library of Alexandria"- O. Von Corven - PD-old-100

The Library of Alexandria though did not survive into modernity but no one year can be given as to the date of its destruction. The library was originally started in the third century BC, after the founding of the city by Alexander. The construction of the library is credited to the Ptolemy and his family. Ptolemy being one of Alexander’s generals.

How long the library survived for is a matter of debate, and is dependant on when you consider the library to have been destroyed. Julius Caesar is often blamed for the destruction of the library during his conquest of Alexander in 48BC. Caesar was fighting Ptolemy XIII when the docks of Alexandria were set alight, a fire that spread to the library. It is though generally agreed though that it wasn’t the library that was destroyed in this fire but rather a store room of accounts and ledgers. This is based on the fact that the library is not thought to have been near the docks, but additionally the Roman writer, Strabo, made use of the library some twenty five years after this event.

Confusion continues as it is not known how many libraries existed in the city and what each building was used for. The library is still thought to exist in the third century AD as the remaining contents of the library were said to have been moved to Constantinople after the attack of the Roman Emperor Aurelian, against the revolt of Queen Zenobia of Palmyra. In this attack the library building were said to have been destroyed with the loss of much of its contents.

Even after this date there is the possibility that the Library of Alexandria still existed. The Emperor Theodosius I made a decree that all non-Christian temples should be destroyed in 391 AD. The Library of Alexandria was thought to be at least partially housed in the Serapeum, a temple, and so would have been destroyed by the Patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria. There is though no evidence to suggest that the Searpeum still acted as a library at this time, indicative that there was no scrolls left to be destroyed with the destruction of the building.

Burning of the Library of Alexandria - Ambrose Dudley - PD-old-100

One final finger of blame is pointed to the Muslim conquest of Alexandria in 642 AD when the city was sacked. This though is often seen as propaganda to blame the Muslims for burning books to heat bathwater.

Another theory is that the library was destroyed by a natural disaster just as the city’s Pharos was destroyed. There is though no evidence for this, the fact is that the site of the library is not known for certain. I for one prefer to think that an earthquake or tidal wave destroyed the library rather than being a deliberate act of destruction by one man.

Today searches continue for the site of the Library of Alexandria, and are a search made difficult by the fact that the city has been rebuilt so many times. In fact most searches now focus in on the harbour area where there is no new building to obstruct the search. Statues and monuments are regularly discovered, but there is no certain site even today. It is difficult to imagine that there was a deliberate destruction of a library, but it is not so long a go that people burnt books because they disagreed with their contents. Whether it was a natural disaster or whether it was a deliberate attack, it is known that much ancient knowledge was lost through the destruction of the Royal Library of Alexandria.

Copyright - First Published 12th October 2008

Keywords - Library of Alexandria, Library of Alexandria burning,