The Great Library of Alexandria: The Ancient World's Center of Knowledge

The ancient city of Alexandria was a centre of architectural grandeur, maritime trading and forward thinking. Within the city itself however was a piece of history that gave the greatest gift to humankind. In the centre of the royal quarter was the Great Library of Alexandria. Created by the visionary early Ptolemaic rulers of the third century BCE, this library and its research academy, the Mouseion, aimed to collect all books and scrolls written in the entire human world. Bringing together scholars, poets, mathematicians and astronomers from across the Mediterranean, the city of Alexandria created new ways of studying knowledge through creating academic institutions, textual criticism and scientific research. We can see why the Great Library of Alexandria was created, what books were added from the empire, its success in academia and its demise.

1. Creation and the Imperial Drive

Great Library of Alexandria was created with a very ambitious and focused goal.

A. Ptolemaic Vision

After the death of Alexander the Great and the splitting of his empire, Ptolemy I Soter became the King of Egypt. With the help from some of the greatest philosophers and politicians of the time such as Demetrius of Phalerum he knew that to rule he must have cultural power as well. He decided to create a place to keep all human knowledge. The Mouseion (which means Temple of the Muses and is the origin of the word Museum) and Great Library were built around 283 BCE under Ptolemy I but were greatly expanded by his son Ptolemy II Philadelphus.

B. Accumulation of Books

The Kings of Ptolemy used aggressive tactics to acquire books. Imperial workers would visit the book shops in Athens, Rhodes and near east and buy extremely expensive manuscripts. A famous part of history is how the Ptolemies insisted that all ships entering the harbour of Alexandria had to hand over any books or scrolls they had. Royal scribes would then make copies and the originals would go into the Great Library. Another example is when Athens were persuaded to lend the incredible official copies of tragedies by Sophocles, Euripides and Aeschylus. The Ptolemies paid a huge amount of money to loan the books but happily lost their money as they had the originals to add to their library.

2. Organisation and Academic Life

The Great Library was not a simple storage room for old books but a lively area for new research.

A. Facilities

The Great Library was located in the royal quarter (Brucheion). It contained beautiful marble columns, beautiful gardens, lecture rooms, dining pavillions for communal eating and huge rooms for storage of scrolls. At its peak they had between four hundred thousand to seven hundred thousand scrolls. These covered a wide range of topics including literature, philosophy, mathematics, medicine and astronomy.

B. Scholars of the Mouseion

Scholars were invited to work within the Mouseion. They would be paid by the Kings and therefore didn’t have to pay tax. They would also be given accommodation and food to ensure they could focus solely on their research. This created the first real academic society in the world. Some of the most famous scholars to study, teach and work here were:

Eratosthenes of Cyrene – A brilliant mathematician and geographer who calculated the circumference of earth with amazing accuracy.

Euclid – The father of geometry. His textbook, Elements, became the standard for maths for over two thousand years.

Archimedes – Famous engineer and physicist who studied in Alexandria.

Aristarchus of Samos – An pioneer in astronomy who first suggested the sun was the centre of the solar system.

3. Textual Criticism, Philology and the Homeric Texts

The librarians of Alexandria also created new academic fields.

A. Textual Criticism

There were thousands of different versions of classical Greek texts circulating the Mediterranean. Many copyists had made mistakes, fakes and additions. The leading librarians of Alexandria such as Zenodotus of Ephesus, Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus of Samothrace collected and compared the texts. They created standardised versions of the texts. New punctuation and accents were developed to help people when reading. They also created dictionaries and bibliography called ‘Pinakes’ created by the poet Callimachus.

B. Translations

Alexandria became centre for translations. The Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek during the ruling of the Ptolemies. This became famous as the Septuagint and allowed the Jewish texts to be known to the wider Hellenistic world. This combined Greek accuracy with the religious culture of the Near East and created important foundations for classical philosophy and early Christianity.

4. Destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria

The destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria is one of the most famous cultural tragedies in history. However there are many myths surrounding the destruction.

A. Multiple Fires

There wasn’t just one fire that destroyed the books. There were likely multiple incidents over the centuries.

The Alexandrian War (48 BCE) – During Julius Caesar’s interference in the civil war in Egypt, accidental fires from burning ships in the harbour caused fires to break out in the docks. It is said that books were lost from the stores but many historians say the main library wasn’t affected.

Aurelian and Diocletian – The civil wars and political issues of the third century caused the destruction of the royal quarter. This included the Mouseion.

Christianisation of the Empire – After the late fourth century decree by the Roman Emperor Theodosius to shut down pagan temples, the remaining academic buildings were mainly destroyed.

Islamic Conquest (642 CE) – Later myths say that the Arab General Amr ibn al-Aas burnt the remaining books to warm the public baths of the city on the order of the Caliph Omar. However modern historians believe this is a later myth. The Great Library had already been destroyed centuries before the Arab invasion.

Conclusion

The Great Library of Alexandria is an immortal symbol of mankinds quest for knowledge. Through collecting all the great literature, science and philosophy of the ancient world, the Ptolemaic Kings and the Alexandrian scholars changed the way we study our universe today. Although the scrolls were destroyed and the building was lost to the sands and modern roads, the essence of the Great Library lives on in every university, research institute and library in the world.