The Library of Alexandria grew while the Ptolemaic Egypt was strong. Under her philologists and poets wrote. It survived as a center of knowledge until the end of the 4th century AD. e.
Museion of Alexandria: foundation
Although the Library of Alexandria died, it allowed the formation of ancient culture in the form in which we know it. The poets of the Hellenistic era wrote at the library, whose works have survived to this day and are included in the golden fund of world literature. Among them are the author of the hymns Callimachus, the author of the idylls Theocritus, as well as Apollonius of Rhodes, the creator of the epic poem "Argonautica". Through the efforts of the Alexandrian philologists, the poem of Homer was finally codified and divided into songs. Finally, in Alexandria, work was carried out to translate the books of the Torah and other works that were eventually included in the Old Testament into Greek.
The founders of the library are considered to be two people from the beginning of the Hellenistic era - Ptolemy I and the philosopher Demetrius of Phaler. Demetrius ended up in Egypt in 297 BC. e. after the death of his Greek patron Kassandra. There he took the place of the king's trusted advisor and proposed to him the idea of creating a library. Some later authors attribute the founding of the library to Demetrius and Ptolemy II Philadelphus. In any case, Ptolemy II did a lot to expand the library, therefore, along with his father, he can be considered its founder.
The institution received the name - Museion, that is, the community of philosophers, where the Muses are worshiped. It was part of the Brujeion palace complex. The complex included a walking area, an exedra, and a building that housed a dining room. The Exedra was the audience for the debate and training sessions. In the peripathos (alley with trees) learned conversations took place. The second building of the library, Serapeion, was located in the Egyptian part of the city at the temple of Serapis. Copies of the main library books were kept there.
The basis of the library was the personal collection of Aristotle's books, which was bought by Ptolemy II. The kings of Egypt were working on collecting books, which they brought not only from Greece, but from distant regions like Sicily. A reward was provided for the brought books. Naturally, there were forgeries, and the task of the Alexandrian scholars was to find out whether the work was genuine before them.
If books were found on ships that stopped in the harbor of the city, they were confiscated in favor of the library. Owners could be given on-site copies. Ptolemy III took state copies of the tragedies of their greatest playwrights on bail in Athens and returned only copies.
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According to the authors of scholias to Roman comedies, 42 thousand scrolls were kept in the Serapeion library, and 400 thousand "mixed" and 40 thousand "simple" scrolls were kept in the palace library. There is an argument about the mysterious meanings of the characteristics "mixed" and "simple". Perhaps the scrolls were mixed, where several works of one or different authors were placed.
Library of Alexandria.
Formally, Museion was a fias (religious community) led by a priest (priest). In other sources, the head of Museion was also called a bishop or epistat. The priest was appointed by the king from the Ptolemaic dynasty, and later by the Roman emperor. Also, the ruler of Egypt made a decision to include this or that scientist in the fias. Members of the Museion received state support and salaries. They were also exempted from taxes and public duties.
There are no statistics on the salaries of library workers. It is only known that who lived in the III century BC. e. Panaret received 12 talents a year. The number of permanent members of the fias is unknown. During the heyday of the community, it could reach hundreds of scientists.
The main leisure of the members of the Museion was scholarly pursuits. In addition, they gave lectures and discussed. The kings from the Ptolemaic dynasty became participants in the discussions. Later in the imperial era, Emperor Hadrian, who traveled throughout the empire, took part in the discussions.
The heyday of Museion was the 3rd century BC. e. It was then that the grammarians, poets, astronomers and philosophers who made the glory of Alexandria lived and worked.
The scholars who worked in the library became mentors to the kings of Egypt. The poet Filit Kosky was the mentor of Tsarevich Ptolemy, who later became Tsar Ptolemy II. The prince continued his philological education under the guidance of the grammar Zenodotus of Ephesus. To teach Ptolemy the natural sciences, Strato, nicknamed the Physicist, was invited to Alexandria from the Athenian Lyceum.
The poet Apollonius of Rhodes was the head of the library and the mentor of the future Ptolemy III. In turn, Ptolemy III invited the astronomer Eratosthenes of Cyrene to Alexandria, and Apollonius went back to Rhodes. Eratosthenes became the head of the library and, presumably, the mentor of the king's children - Ptolemy (future Ptolemy IV) and Arsinoe (future Arsinoe III).
The dependence of Alexandrian scholars on rulers was emphasized and ridiculed by contemporaries. The poet Timon Flentsky called Museion "the basket of the Muses", hinting that its inhabitants are like birds in cages.
Homeric epic: text codification
Homer's poems were first recorded in Athens in the 6th century BC. e. But the Athenian variant did not seem to have the status of a generally accepted one outside Attica. Work on bringing the text to the form in which it reached the scholars of the modern era continued in Alexandria. It was associated with the activities of Zenodotus of Ephesus, appointed by Ptolemy II as the chief librarian of the Alexandrian library.
Various versions of Homer's poems were received in Alexandria, and on the basis of their comparisons Zenodotus prepared his critical edition of the Iliad and the Odyssey. He placed a special sign "obelos" around lines that he considered questionable.
Zenodotus is also credited with dividing each poem into 24 cantos (books), according to the number of letters in the Ionian alphabet. Attempts to isolate separate semantic blocks from poems were made earlier. For example, Herodotus calls the episode from the 5th canto "Aristeia Diomedes" ("The exploits of Diomedes"). The author of the division of the poems into 24 songs could be Zenodotus or other scientists of the 3rd century BC. e. - Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus. Zenodotus wrote a treatise on the number of days that the Iliad takes, as well as a biography of Homer.
Alexandria map with Brujeion area.
Following Aristotle, Zenodotus was one of the first to separate the Iliad and Odyssey from the rest of the poems of the Trojan and Theban cycles. He recognized the authorship of Homer only for these two poems, and considered the rest of the poems belonging to other authors. Following the poems of Homer, Zenodotus prepared the text of Theogony of Hesiod, who was considered the second most important poet in Greek literature. Other members of the Museion worked on critical editions of the Athenian tragedians.
Zenodotus' edits did not suit everyone. His successor, as head of the library, Apollonius of Rhodes, wrote a treatise Against Zenodotus, in which he criticized his edition of Homeric poems.
Another library philologist, Aristarchus, also debated the critical edition of Zenodotus. Aristarchus developed his own way of criticizing poems - to explain Homer based only on Homer. Meeting a word that was not clear in meaning, he found it elsewhere in the poem, where his understanding was not questioned.
Ancient medicine: the school of empiricists
Since the Ptolemaic era, Alexandria has become one of the main medical centers in the Mediterranean. But we are always talking about specific doctors and their students. There is no direct evidence of their work in the library.
It is known that the Library of Alexandria had a large collection of books for medical practitioners and theorists. The legacy of the great physician Hippocrates was of particular interest. The Alexandrian doctors debated difficult passages and terms in the writings of Hippocrates.
In the III century BC. e. the physician Bakhy compiled the first lexicon of Hippocrates' terms. The copy of Hippocrates' Epidemics, which was kept in the library, contained numerous marginal notes, and Alexandrian scholars disputed about their authorship.
Filin, the founder of the medical direction of empiricism, began his work in Alexandria. The owl was a student of another famous physician, Herophilus, but he developed his teaching. The empiricists were critical of medical theory and considered practical experience to be the best mentor.
Ptolemy II.
Based on their observations and experience, they drew conclusions about the correct method of treatment. Experience teaches everything, the empiricists said. As an example, they turned to Homer's Odyssey: the dog recognized the returning owner - a miracle of empirical-style diagnostics. The selection of the correct treatment follows close observation of the phenomenon.
The outstanding physician of the Roman era, Galen, praised the empiricists for calling their direction according to the method of their work, and not hiding behind the authority of the founder of the school.
The empiricists have developed three ways of gaining experience, each of which gets its own name. The first method was called observation. It consisted of carefully observing how something affects people and identifying how it might help in treatment. The experience gained was applicable to the same situations.
The second method was based on the transfer of experience to similar situations. The doctor concluded that if a medicine works for one part of the body, then it may be beneficial for another part of the body with similar properties. The empiricists turned to the third method of gaining experience when they lacked practical observation, and dissection was impossible. It was a historical method of studying practical examples from medical books.
The Pentateuch of Moses: translation into Greek
In the III century BC. e. in Alexandria, the Greek translation of the Pentateuch of Moses was made. Later, by 132 BC. e., other books of the Old Testament were also translated - the later prophets (Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah) and the psalms.
Jean-Baptiste Champagne, Ptolemy II and 72 Jewish Wise Men.
From the surviving "Letter of Aristeus" we know that the translation of the Pentateuch was made during the reign of King Ptolemy II (282−246 BC). Based on the analysis of Jewish and Christian sources, the date of translation is attributed to the beginning of the reign of Ptolemy II - to about 281 BC. e. According to Christian authors, the translation work began on the orders of Ptolemy I. At his request, the Jews sent to Alexandria 70 or 72 of their learned men, well versed in the Scriptures and the Greek language. After the completion of the translation, the leaders of the Jewish community gathered on the island of Pharos, where the text of the translation was read to them by Demetrius of Phalersky.
The translation of the Scriptures was made at the initiative of the Greeks for the Library of Alexandria. He could not but cause discontent among a part of the Jewish priesthood. High Priest Eleazar was skeptical about the idea of translation, but acknowledged that the Jews would cooperate with the king in this matter. One of the conditions on which the leaders of the Alexandrian community of Jews agreed to translate the Pentateuch was the release of the Jewish slaves captured by Ptolemy's troops during the campaigns in the Levant.
Library of Alexandria: from the Ptolemies to the Caesars
The decline in the activities of the institution occurred during the reign of Ptolemy VIII (170-116 BC). He persecuted his brother's supporters, among whom were scholars. Many of them left Egypt, moving to other scientific centers - Athens, Pergamum or Rhodes.
During the battles in Alexandria in 48 BC. e., according to some ancient authors, thousands of books were burned. Caesar set fire to his ships, the fire from which spread to the city. Perhaps the library building was damaged, or perhaps the books prepared for transportation to Rome.
Excavation of Serapeion.
Plutarch wrote in his biography of Mark Antony that this Roman gave the Library of Alexandria 200,000 scrolls from the decaying library of Pergamon. Perhaps the scale of the gift was not so large, but it could compensate for the book losses in 48 BC. e.
When Egypt became part of the Roman Empire, the emperors became the patrons of Museion. The emperor Claudius annexed to Museion another one named after him - Claudia. The emperor also ordered that his historical works be read aloud in one of the museums on fixed days.
In 216 A. D. e. the institution suffered when Alexandria was plundered by the soldiers of the emperor Caracalla. In the 270s, during the civil war, Emperor Aurelian took Alexandria and destroyed the library building at Brucheion. Serapeion continued to work until the time of Theodosius I. In 391 he was defeated. From that time on, the Alexandria Museion ceased to function as a scientific and religious center.
Author: Nikita Razumov