During the reigns of Ptolemy I Soter (323-282) and Ptolemy II Philadelphus (282-246), the famous library at Alexandria was founded. The latter Ptolemy in particular gained renown both as a patron of the arts (e. g., Theocritus, XVII 112-116) as well as for his own academic virtuosity (Athen. XI, p. 493), and large numbers of books were procured for the library in his days (Jos. Ant. XII 2,1 [11-12]). Alexandria rapidly became
A center not only for scholarship, but also for literature, for in the Hellenistic age the two went hand in hand.
The greatest of the Hellenistic poets, Philadelphus' contemporary Callimachus, was presumably head of the library in Alexandria and certainly compiled its first catalogue (Suid., s. v. Kallimachos). The learned, scholarly character of his poetry (his Aitia -"origins" - are practically pieces of research) comes as perhaps no surprise given his work in the library. Callimachus strongly preferred small poems and declared that "a big book was a big evil." His insistence on this principle led to a dispute with the most important of his pupils, one Apollonius, allegedly a successor of his at the library (POxy X 1241).
Apollonius, who was willing to attempt composition on a large scale, eventually left Alexandria for Rhodes (hence his surname "of Rhodes") where he published his masterpiece, a long epic poem on Jason and the Argonauts (Vita A). Although replete with adventure as the Argonauts sail in search of the Golden Fleece, it too drips with erudition and scholarship. For the Hellenistic world, not just the Ptolemies in Alexandria, valued learning even in its staler forms; and its greatest literary achievements accordingly arose amidst stacks of books. Nor was it just the Ptolemies who collected. The rulers of Pergamum allegedly built up a library of some 200,000 volumes (Plut. Ant. 58), and there were surely others across the Hellenistic world.
Where Callimachus and Apollonius had still composed original works, their successors in Alexandria gradually became pure scholars concerned especially with critical editions of the classical Greek poets. Aristophanes of Byzantium (late third, early second century bc) edited the texts of Homer, Hesiod, Alcaeus, Alcman, and Pindar. Other scholars such as Aristarchus concerned themselves with editions of tragedies and comedies also. This preoccupation with the literary heritage of classical Greece reinforced a sense of Greek identity in lands far from "home." Along with the foundation of Greek cities, it helped ground "Greekness" in Egypt and elsewhere, and it was not limited to scholars: the housewives in Theocritus' fifteenth idyll appreciate learning as well (XV 146) and use their own knowledge of Greek mythology to vindicate their "Greekness" (XV 90-92).
The library at Alexandria remained a center for learning long past its heyday in the third and second centuries bc. In the second century ad the impossibly learned Ath-enaeus worked there, and the countless quotations from obscure books in his sprawling work, the Deipnosophistae (roughly "professors at dinner"), give some indication of how many books the librarians had brought together from across the ancient world. The total number eventually rose to an alleged 700,000 (Ammianus Marcelli-nus, XXII 16,13).
The library's fate is unclear. Although some sources claim that Julius Caesar accidentally burnt it in 48 bc (Plut. Caes. 49; Amm. Marc. l. c.), the library was still standing for Strabo to see a few years later (Strab. XVII 1,8, pp. 793-794) and for Athenaeus to use. It was apparently no longer there, however, during the reign of the Roman emperor Julian the Apostate (ad 361-363) (Amm. Marc. l. c.).
World History
