Issue 9: Burning History & the Ashing of Science

42 | ORIGINS
The famous Library of Alexandria (located in Alexandria,
Egypt) has captured the interest of people
for hundreds of years across the world. The Library
was said to be home to thousands of scrolls
and books; a center of learning unlike any other
in the world. It was thought to be a library filled
with knowledge from various Old World cultures
which were translated over time to Greek. Unfortunately
the library faced destruction hundreds
of years after it was built. The Library and the
knowledge within were burned, leaving only ashes
as a distant memory. How did such a great library
meet this catastrophic fate?
I n Agora
Hollywood, of course, has tried to answer this
question for us. According to the movie Agora
(2009; Alejandro Amenábar), the Library was
sacked and burned down by a mob of Christians.
In the movie, a group of Christians gathered within
the agora to mock the Pagans’ gods. In order
to answer this insult, a group of pagans marched
into the agora and killed any Christian found.
Bloodshed ensued, but the pagans were soon
outnumbered and driven back to the Library of
Alexandria, where they barred the gates to wait
for the Roman troops to come and restore order.
Emperor Theodosius was a Christian, and under
his decree the pagans would be forgiven as
long as they turned the Library over to the Christians
at their will. The pagans were to be banned
henceforth from entering the Library. As the pagans
fled out the back gate of the Library with
whatever they could carry, the Christians began
flooding into the library and destroying whatever
was left in their path. Once the mob settled
down, almost all the scrolls within the library had
been burned and the statues vandalized. In order
to make use of the now empty library, the
Christians set up a place of worship and stored
livestock within the now vacant rooms. Although
this makes for a very entertaining movie, is this
truly what happened to the Library of Alexandria?
I n Histo r y
Truthfully, Hollywood could possibly be right on
this one. Unfortunately, no one really knows. Historically,
there are multiple accounts of the series
of events that lead up to burning of the Library of
Alexandria. To make matters even more confusing,
there are actually two libraries of Alexandria.
The first library was built sometime between 300-
290 BCE by Ptolemy I and was referred to as the
“Mother.” Later, sometime before 200 BCE, another
library was built in Alexandria and was referred
to as the “Daughter” library. Modern literature
rarely distinguishes the two.
If that is not already an indication as to how convoluted
the history is...these multiple accounts do
not even have a defined time frame. Not only
is it unclear when the Library burned down, but
which library, the location of the library, and who
did the burning are mysteries (if a library called
Alexandria ever burned down at all). Due to a series
of earthquakes and floods in the North East
section of the city of Alexandria, the Library may
also have been
destroyed by nature, obscuring any possible
archaeology. This makes it difficult for researchers
and archaeologists to discover new information,
and limits what evidence can be compared to
the various historic accounts. Three hypotheses
on who burned down the Library of Alexandria
include Julius Caesar, Theodosius, and Caliph
Omar.
We know that Julius Caesar visited the city in 48
BCE while at war. The area managed to separate
his fleet of ships and in order to win a battle, Julius
had to burn down the Egyptian fleet which was
blocking him from continuing. The fire managed
to win Julius the battle, but it had unexpectedly
spread, burning down parts of the city (including,
possibly, the Library).
In another story, Theophilus the Great was in the
process of converting all of the Roman Empire
to Christianity. In 391 CE, he burned down and
sacked the Library of Alexandria. Knowing that the
Library contained works from cultures and religions
which would oppose his faith, he had the Pagan
temple within the Daughter Library converted
into a Christian Church. According to different
accounts, Theophilus, who was the patriarch of
the city of Alexandria, appealed to the Emperor
Theodosius to lend his support in driving out the
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