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The Then & Theory team

The library that faded

A reader stands between shelves of rolls and books. The most famous library of the ancient world was founded in Alexandria around 295 BC, under Egypt’s Greek kings, the Ptolemies. The popular story is that Julius Caesar’s fire destroyed it in 48 BC, yet later writers still mention the library. Most historians now think it declined slowly, as first royal and then Roman support fell away. The district it stood in was wrecked when the emperor Aurelian retook the city in AD 272, and again under Diocletian in 297.

Note. How the library ended is debated. Slow decline is the majority view; some historians give more weight to particular destructions.

Sources

1. World History Encyclopedia, “Library of Alexandria”
2. Britannica, “Library of Alexandria”