Of all the great structures of ancient Egypt, it’s the Greek one we can no longer visit which arguably might have had the biggest historical impact. The destruction of the Library of Alexandria created an unmeasurable gap in our understanding of the ancient world that haunts scholars to this day. What knowledge was lost? How would the world be different today if it had been preserved?
Following the death of Alexander the Great, for whom the capital city was named, Egypt was ruled by the Greek pharaohs of the Ptolemaic dynasty from 305 to 30 BC. Ptolemy I had an insatiable love of learning, likely in part due to his childhood teacher, Aristotle. Under the direction of his advisor, Demetrius, plans were made for a great library, which would be part of a larger complex called the Museum, or Institute of the Muses (the goddesses of literature, sciences and the arts). The Museum was probably completed during the reign of Ptolemy II, and quickly became the center of knowledge of the ancient world. All ships entering the port of Alexandria had their scrolls commandeered in order to be copied by the library scribes.
The Library of Alexandria grew to house hundreds of thousands of books about all kinds of subjects, including literature, history, science, mathematics, poetry and philosophy. The larger Museum complex featured lecture halls, laboratories, observatories, botanical gardens, living and dining quarters, and even a zoo. It was also home to the world’s first medical school, and boasted the first Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. Naturally, Alexandria became home to many of the ancient world’s premier scholars, including Euclid, whose discoveries in geometry are still taught today, and Eratosthenis, who calculated the circumference of the Earth with startling accuracy using only a stick, the sun and his brain.
The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus wrote of the Museum: “Besides this there are many lofty temples, and especially one to Serapis, which, although no words can adequately describe it, we may yet say, from its splendid halls supported by pillars, and its beautiful statues and other embellishments, is so superbly decorated, that next to the Capitol, of which the ever-venerable Rome boasts, the whole world has nothing worthier of admiration. In it were libraries of inestimable value; and the concurrent testimony of ancient records affirm that 70,000 volumes, which had been collected by the anxious care of the Ptolemies, were burnt in the Alexandrian war when the city was sacked in the time of Caesar the Dictator. (…) Alexandria itself was not, like other cities, gradually embellished, but at its very outset it was adorned with spacious roads. But after having been long torn by violent seditions, at last, when Aurelian was emperor, and when the intestine quarrels of its citizens had proceeded to deadly strife, its walls were destroyed, and it lost the largest half of its territory, which was called Bruchion, and had long been the abode of eminent men.”
The famous fire Marcellinus referenced occurred in 48 BC during the Great Roman Civil War. Julius Caesar’s troops set fire to Egyptian ships in the harbor, and the fire spread to the library. Despite the damage, most of the library survived.
The library’s ultimate destruction would take place over a long time. There was a lack of enthusiasm and thus funding for academic research under Roman rule, and the library fell into disrepair. This period was followed by religious purges which put the final nail in the coffin.
Would history have unfolded differently if the Library of Alexandria had survived?
To use an Alexandrian analogy, I would argue the powers that be in the modern world have tied the various communities, cultures and nations of humanity into a proverbial Gordian Knot. It’s a living knot, however, and can’t be loosed with a sword. For example, how many doctors would be out of a job if the government releases the cure for cancer? What about employees at pharmaceutical firms? How much of the medical insurance industry would evaporate overnight? Could the economy survive such a blow? We’re being held hostage in such a way that we’re in a Mexican standoff with ourselves.
Now consider if research at the medical school in Alexandria had yielded breakthroughs in the field of Cymatics. If zapping cancer cells with sound had become a widespread practice by the time of the Renaissance, it may have been impossible for the Rockefellers to build their Big Pharma monopoly on cancer treatments.
This is obviously a hypothetical example, but we’ll never know how many paradigm-shifting diamonds in the rough were lost at Alexandria.
