Who destroyed the Library of Alexandria, the largest in antiquity, and what did it contain?

There library of Alexandria was probably one of the greatest cultural centers of the ancient world. The building was built in Alexandria, Egypt in the course 3rd century B.Cduring the reign of Ptolemy II (284-246 BC), second pharaoh of the Ptolemaic dynasty, i.e. the dynasty of Macedonian origin who took control of Egypt after the death of Alexander the Great. The intention to build a library that could contain all the knowledge of the world had already been expressed by Ptolemy II’s father, Ptolemy I, one of Alexander’s generals. This was part of a broader cultural complex known as MuseumGreek term meaning “the place of the muses“, and which gave rise to our “museum“. It is not possible to establish the quantity of volumes kept inside, but what is certain is that the Museum of Alexandria and the library were one of the major research centers of antiquity which housed a large number of works ranging from philosophy to science. To date it is not clear to establish when the building was definitively destroyed, also because it is probable that over the centuries has been rebuilt several times. There are among the suspects Julius Caesarthe Roman emperors Aurelian or Theodosius and the Arab general Amr ibn al-Ascommander of the troops that invaded Egypt.

Who destroyed the library of Alexandria in Egypt and why?

According to ancient authors, the first destruction of the library should be dated to 48 BCin the context of the arrival in Egypt of Julius Caesar (100-44 BC) to pursue his enemy Pompey the Great (106-48 BC). It should be noted that at the time of Caesar’s arrival the institution of the library was in crisis for some time now. In fact, at the time of Pharaoh Ptolemy VIII (182/181-116 BC), a dispute with the scholars of the library forced many intellectuals to leave Egypt. Caesar’s destruction of the library was contained: the fire broke out not intentionally, but due to the fighting which occurred in the city between Roman and Egyptian soldiers. In any case it seems that the destruction was quite limited.

The second suspect for the destruction of the Alexandrian library is the emperor Aurelian (214/215-275 AD). In the 272 AD Alexandria was controlled by the kingdom of Palmyra (ancient city of Syria), a state secessionist born in the East during a period of crisis in the Roman Empire. In the context of the war against the Palmyrene separatists Aureliano besieged Alexandriaand over the fighting the library neighborhood came razed to the ground by flames. We don’t know if the library was actually destroyed during this great fire, but it is highly likely.

Another theory sees the destruction of the library in 391 ADfollowing a decision by the emperor Theodosius (347-395 AD), who imposed the Christianity as the state religion and which therefore promoted the closure of the centers of knowledge of the old traditional religion. In reality it seems that the sources that support this date confuse the Museum’s library with that of Serapeumanother library in Alexandria, certainly closed by Theodosius.

The last suspect is the Arab general Amr ibn al-As (573-663/664 AD), who conquered Egypt by driving out the Byzantine forces. According to some Arab historians of the 13th century, in 642 AD the general fire the library by order of Caliph Omar (585-644 AD), second successor of Muhammad. The reason was that all the knowledge contained in the library was useless compared to the teachings of Koran. This version is actually the most unlikely: the first mentions of these stories date back to the 13th century, therefore a good 600 years after the facts.

The library of Alexandria today

Today there is a “spiritual” heir to the ancient library. There Bibliotheca Alexandrina he is a modern one cultural center born in 2002 in Alexandria, Egypt, inspired to the famous library of antiquity. The building was designed by the Norwegian architectural firm Snøhetta. It is a place where books, technology and art meet: it houses millions of volumes, museums, a planetarium and spaces for cultural events of all kinds, and is one of the buildings of its kind largest in the world.