The Decline of the Library and Museum of Alexandria

[Raven]

Alexandrian Christianity and Mysticism

Christian thought was both refined and bizarrely altered during this turbulent era in Alexandria. Introduced by the Alexandrian St. Mark according to tradition, it was initially mistaken by the Emperor Hadrian as a troublesome offshoot of the cult of Serapis.[51] Indeed, the Eucharist, resurrection, and reverence to the Mother were developed in Alexandria during this period, and seem to have echoes in the cult of Serapis, with its Dionsian-style feasting and resurrection, and his consort Isis/Cybele/Demeter. And while the religion had previously been a popular movement of the masses, it was at Alexandria that learned intellectual debate discussed the more philosophical parts of the religion and paved the way for Medieval theological debates.[52] Branches of thought such as Arianism and Gnosticism were to be developed here, and, although later declared heretical, grew side by side with what later became Christian orthodoxy. Gnosticism continues to this day in Egypt; it held that the world was actually a mistake created by the Demiurge, son of the true God and Sophia, who was the Jehovah of the old Testament; God pitied humanity and sent Christ to help humanity reunite with Himself. Some held that Jesus had been a man, and the Christ His spirit after death. The Ophites, an offshoot of the Gnostics with Cretan influences, carried the religion a step further, worshipping snakes and the divine mother Sophia, who had actually sent the serpent of Eden to warn Eve and Adam that Jehovah was the Demiurge and that they should seek wisdom or knowledge to link with the true God.[53] And, lest these heresies seem too wild, it should be remembered that the first patron saint of Alexandria for the orthodox Christians of the 4th century was St. Anthony, "who thought bathing was sinful and was consequently carried across the canals of the delta by an angel".[54] The general tone of most Christian writings is encapsulated by E.M. Forster: "A feeling of joy inspired their interminable writings."[55]

[Raven]

Christians Retaliate

It may well be imagined how Alexandria continued to be shaken by social strife during such a period. After a mere twenty years since the abdication of Diocletian, Canstantine became Emperor and declared Christianity Rome's official religion. By 391, the Emperor Theodosius had reversed Diocletian's edict and commanded all paganism to be stamped out, signalling the end of the Museum.[56] For, throughout the fourth century the power of the church grew; an army of Gnostic monks became the main tool of the Patriarch of Alexandria and enforced his will. After the edict of Theodosius, the mob was led by the Patriarch Theophilus to demolish the Serapeum.[57] Perhaps the library at the Caesarium survived; while references to Alexandrian scholars persist a little while longer, no sources actually mention its destruction. In 412 Theophilus' nephew Cyril succeeded him. The Patriarch exercised ever more control of the city, and the conflict between secular and religious authority was decided in 415, when the Roman prefect Orestes, officially still in charge of the province, objected to Cyril's order that all Jews be expelled from the city. Cyril's army of monks murdered the prefect and were cannonized by him for this deed; marauding through the city they came across Hypatia, daughter of the Museum's last great mathematician Theon. She was a Neoplatonist philosopher and astronomer whose teachings are partially recorded by one of her admirers and pupils, the Christian Synesius, and she was also supposedly an advisor to Orestes and one of the last members of the Museum. Driving home from her own lectures without attendant, this independent woman and scholar epitomized the suspect nature of Paganism and its heretical scientific teachings. She was dragged from her chariot by the mob, stripped, flayed, and finally burned alive in the library of the Caesareum as a witch. Cyril was made a saint.[58] After her death Alexandria became steadily less stable, overrun by the monks who evolved into the Copts, who incorporated the old Alexandrian prejudices towards foreigners with the new prejudice towards any scientific or classical knowledge. Too turbulent even to bow to the Emperor, Alexandria eventually revolted against Constantinople, wound up with two factions contending between two Patriarchs, and eventually fell to Arab conquerers, who had the last of the Library burned as fuel in the bath-houses of the city in 686.[59]

[Raven]

Conclusion

Thus the Library of Alexandria and the Museum wended its way through the turbulent history of the Empire and outlived it by a short space of time, although paucity of sources makes it difficult to reconstruct an exact chronology of events. Its research probably reflected the foment of the times, and, while Neoplatonist in the main, also attracted other religious scholars, especially Jews, from Hellenistic times onward. Repeatedly rebuilt, modified, and burned, the few facts that can be determined about its long history justify its semi-legendary status. Haven for scholars of all kinds, its purpose as a center for learning was its eventual downfall. Enduring through Hellenistic civil strife, Dynastic war, the transition from kingdom to Roman province, and the abuses and good fortune it received through the sometimes capricious actions of successive emperors, it could not withstand the violent beginnings of Christianity which the city of Alexandria itself largely shaped.




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Raven]

Bibliography

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Canfora, Luciano. The Vanished Library. trans. Martin Ryle. University of California Press. Berkely: 1989.

Forster, E.M. Alexandria: a History and a Guide. Doubleday & Co., Inc. Garden City: 1961.

Fraser, P. M. Ptolemaic Alexandria. Volume I of III. Oxford University Press. Oxford: 1972.

Johnson, Emer D. History of Libraries in the Western World. Scarecrow Press, Inc. Metuchen: 1970.

Kamil, Jill. Upper Egypt: Historical Outline and Descriptive Guide to the Ancient Sites. Longman. New York: 1983.

Milne, J. Grafton. a History of Egypt Under Roman Rule. Methuen & Co., Ltd. London: 1924.

Parsons, Edward Alexander. The Alexandrian Library: Glory of the Hellenic Hellenic World. Elsevier Press. New York: 1952.

Westermann, William Linn. The Library of Ancient Alexandria. lecture given at University of Alexandria's reception hall. University of Alexandria Press. Alexandria: 1954.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ellen N. Brundige

ellen@medusa.perseus.tufts.edu

http://www.digital-brilliance.com/kab/alex.htm

[BlueHue]

The Rise of Christianity
Martyrs Mixed Up in Ethnic Strife

DIOCLETIAN, also ordered all the Museum's books on metallurgy to be burned, implying that at least part of the collection survived.[49] Egyptian Christianity memorializes this half-century of persecution by beginning its calandar with 254 A.D., the start of their "Era of the Martyrs".[50]

PLATO's Atlantis Dialogues was probably listed under Egyptian metallurgy because of the mentioing of Orikalkom/Auricalchum

the Atlantoi were metallurgists later known as CHABEIROI (= HEBREW.)

ANYWAY NO ATTIC GREEK ORIGINAL OF THE ATLANTIC DIALOGUES SURVIVED.

[BlueHue]

RAVEN
is also the real name of a director of the dutch-archaeology section of the allard pierson museum of egyptology in amsterdam