The time of the reign in the small first Macedonia, the son of King Philip - Alexander - was marked by great battles and military campaigns, as a result of which the territory of Macedonia greatly increased in size due to the occupied states. Among these states was Egypt. The Egyptians worshiped Alexander of Macedon as the son of the sun god. It was in the city of Alexandria, built in Egypt by the beloved Alexander, that the Museum was built, part of which was an amazing library. Until now, mankind has been wondering: "Who burned the Library of Alexandria?"
Alexandria Egypt
City of Alexander the Great Alexandria of Egypt was built on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. In its port there were always many merchant ships from different countries. They brought wood, silver, expensive wines, purple dyed wool here. The reference point to the sailors was the famous Faros lighthouse, known in the world as one of the seven wonders of the world.
From the berths of the port of Alexandria the ships of Egyptian merchants sailed, exporting fine linen fabrics, grain, reed-papyrus and products from it, ivory, silver items, etc. from Alexandria.
Near the port was the famous Ptolemaic palace, the luxurious interiors of which were decorated with different grades of marble, expensive sophisticated carved furniture, patterned carpets and rugs decorated with scenes from mythology.
The streets of Alexandria were straight. They intersected at an angle of 90 degrees. The length of the main highway reached 6 km. The street was so wide that several carts could go along it at the same time. Troops of Greek and Macedonian warriors marched through the streets throughout the day. There were so many people in the center that they couldn’t get crowded, and on the square crowds of onlookers were watching the performances of street actors and circus performers.
Museum in Alexandria
But the main attraction in the city of Alexander the Great was the true temple of science and art, which was called the Museum. The literal translation of this word sounds like “Temple of Muses” and is allegorically connected with the nine daughters of the supreme god Zeus - the patroness of art. Among them there are those whom we now classify not as arts, but as sciences: astronomy, history.
The Alexandria Museum was erected by the Ptolemaic dynasty. He occupied the whole district in the city. It consisted of a complex of buildings of various sizes and purposes. The area around was decorated with trees and flower beds.
Museum inhabitants and library visitors
Famous scholars and poets invited by the tsar from different countries came to the Alexandria Museum. Here they lived, participated in joint meals, conducted classes, conducted informative and fascinating conversations in numerous porticos, argued and shared their discoveries with each other. It was here that for the first time the scientist Aristarchus of Samos suggested that the Earth revolves around the Sun, and Eratosthenes predicted the possibility of world travel. It was based on the idea of the Earth as a ball. Euclid wrote an amazing book, The Beginnings, which revolutionized mathematics and gave rise to the science of geometry, becoming the first textbook on this subject.
It was here, in the Museum, that new social views of pundits were expressed. Eratosthenes expressed a point of view on the attitude towards people of different nationalities from the perspective of their level of intelligence and upbringing: he said that people should not be evaluated by nationality, because among Greeks there are people ill-educated and uneducated, so among non-Greeks there are very educated and educated people.
Insidious Ptolemy
The history of the Library of Alexandria is the history of the creation of its funds. It was one of the largest libraries in the world. It can be attributed to scientific, as the collection kept about seven hundred thousand scrolls of papyrus. Here were the manuscripts of Aeschylus and Sophocles, handed over to eternal storage by the Egyptian king Ptolemy III Evergerd. By the way, he got them not quite honestly.
Interesting facts about the Alexandria Library are known. For example, that Ptolemy III Evergerd, taking the scrolls on bail from the Athenians to create copies, chose to lose a lot of money, but keep the manuscripts at home. The tsar also treated the guests no less insidiously: he strictly checked which books they brought to Alexandria. If such a copy was not in the collection of the Library of Alexandria, the original was confiscated in favor of the city and the Egyptian state, and a copy of his book was presented to the guest.
Library in Alexandria
The word “library” was originally literally translated as “bookcase”. In the Alexandria Library, scrolls were stored in huge bookcases from floor to ceiling, thereby justifying the name of the institution. Its founder is Ptolemy II Philadelphus. He also created the Museum. And the time from the creation of the library and the Museum is the period from 309 to 246. BC e.
The library in Alexandria was kept at the expense of the kings of the ruling dynasty. Everyone could become a visitor to it, and absolutely free of charge.
Library Organization
The library was headed by the chief librarian. His duties included determining the quality and authenticity of manuscripts. Strict books were kept. A catalog of handwritten treasures was compiled. Books in collections and catalogs were classified by topics, languages and provided with special links. The special interests of readers in certain publications were also taken into account. Replenishment of funds was carried out through the acquisition of books in small libraries and private collections.
Special masters worked in the library, who were engaged in the restoration of books and ensuring their "readability." They double-checked the accuracy of the information presented, and questionable moments were marked with special icons so that any reader could understand what facts can be relied on and which information should be handled with care.
In the Nile Valley, modern scientists have found a large number of ancient papyri. These findings allowed them to conclude that the originals in the library corresponded. And since Alexandria was a major center including the book trade, it is possible that these copies from papyrus were a hot commodity exported by Alexandrian merchants to other countries and sold on the port market.
Historians also determined an approximate list of librarians of the Alexandria Library - up to the 2nd century. BC e.
Especially in the Alexandria Library they monitored the implementation of sanitary and hygienic standards and the standards for the storage of books, with the aim of their greatest safety. The rooms were well ventilated, protected from moisture. The scrolls were checked from time to time for damage, including from numerous insects, and were put in order in a timely manner.
During the reign of Ptolemy III Evergert at the Alexandria Serapeum (temple of the god Serapius), a branch of the institution was opened.
Who burned the library of Alexandria?
History tells us of several events that damaged the famous library.
The first date is 48 BC. e., when a large number of scrolls burned out along with part of the library during the war with the Roman emperor Julius Caesar. It was then that the famous fire occurred in the Library of Alexandria, which broke out as a result of a city fire that arose from the arson of the city walls by Roman troops.
At that time, the numerical composition of the collection was replenished. But qualitatively the composition of her treasures has changed. It happened in 41 BC. e. thanks to Mark Anthony. He removed 200 thousand scrolls from the Pergamum collection and presented them to his beloved - the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra. Later, the collection was re-plundered by the Romans. However, this does not give us an answer to the question of who destroyed the library of Alexandria.
During the period of Roman rule, when in the 4th century. Christianity was declared the main religion in the entire Roman Empire, the library in Alexandria was destroyed by order of the Egyptian bishop Theophilos, who fought with all his might against the "paganism" he hated. This happened during the reign of Emperor Theodosius. But this is not the final answer to the question of who burned the Library of Alexandria.
In the first half of the 7th century, Alexandria was twice captured by Arabs, and the final death of her library is often associated with these invasions.
So the question of who burned the Library of Alexandria to become famous is unlikely to ever be the exact answer.