Summary
The fate of the Serapeum and especially of its library is still a hotly-debated topic. The present paper aims to provide a consistent reading of the extant source evidence. Christian authors, such as Tertullian, Epiphanius of Salamis, and John Chrysostom, acknowledge that the Septuagint bible translation was moved from the original royal library to the Serapeum by the end of the second century A.D. This could be because the Serapeum had become Alexandria’s main library after the temple was rebuilt following a fire in 181 A.D. Writing in the early fifth century, Orosius is our most important witness that the Christian mob destroyed not only the temple building, but also the library and that this library was the successor of the original Ptolemaic library. There are several other possible allusions to the destruction of the library, for example, in sermons delivered by John Chrysostom in the 390s. This article also argues that Ammianus Marcellinus, Aphthonius, and Epiphanius of Salamis were aware of the destruction of the library when they wrote their descriptions of the Serapeum probably not before 391. Taken together, these sources illuminate the ways in which events of such magnitude broke very quickly in various parts of the Roman empire. Nevertheless, some authors, especially the pagan ones, were hesitant to refer to the destruction other than in allusive and muted ways, probably because of the heated religious atmosphere in the immediate aftermath.
Acknowledgements
This paper derives in part from my ‘Antrittsvorlesung’, given at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin on 15 May 2018 and from a talk given at the Bergische Universität Wuppertal on 14 April 2019. I have since been able to study the subject further, aided by a generous Gerda Henkel research grant.
Funder Name
Gerda Henkel Foundation, Funder Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001653, Grant Number: AZ 18/F/20
Bibliography
Ast 2014: R. Ast, Review: K. W. Wilkinson, New Epigrams of Palladas, BMCRev 2014.02.23 (https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2014/2014.02.23/, accessed 4 May 2021).Search in Google Scholar
Bagnall 2002: R. S. Bagnall, Library of Dreams, PAPhS 146, 2002, 348–362.Search in Google Scholar
Baldini 1985: A. Baldini, Problemi della tradizione sulla ‘distruzione’ del Serapeo di Alessandria, RSA 15, 1985, 97–152.Search in Google Scholar
Barnes 1993: T. D. Barnes, Ammianus Marcellinus and His World, CPh 88, 1993, 55–70.10.1086/367339Search in Google Scholar
Bauer – Strzygowski 1905: A. Bauer – J. Strzygowski, Eine alexandrinische Weltchronik. Text und Miniaturen des griechischen Papyrus der Sammlung W. Goleniščev, Wien 1905.Search in Google Scholar
Baumeister 1972: T. Baumeister, Martyr invictus, Münster 1972.Search in Google Scholar
Baur 1959: C. Baur, Chrysostom and His Time I, Westminster, MD 1959.Search in Google Scholar
Benelli 2016: L. Benelli, The Age of Palladas, Mnemosyne 69, 2016, 978–1007.10.1163/1568525X-12341898Search in Google Scholar
Bowra 1959: C. M. Bowra, Palladas and Christianity, PBA 45, 1959, 255–267.Search in Google Scholar
Budge 1914: E. Budge (ed.), Coptic Martyrdoms in the Dialect of Upper Egypt, London 1914.Search in Google Scholar
Burgress – Dijkstra 2013: R. W. Burgess – J.H.F. Dijkstra, The “Alexandrian World Chronicle”, its Consularia and the Date of the Destruction of the Serapeum (with an Appendix on the Praefecti Augustales), Millennium 10, 2013, 39–113.10.1515/mjb.2013.10.1.39Search in Google Scholar
Cameron 1965: A. Cameron, Palladas and Christian Polemic, JRS 55, 1965, 17–30.10.2307/297427Search in Google Scholar
Cameron 2012: A. Cameron, Nicomachus Flavianus and the Date of Ammianus’s Last Books, Athenaeum 100, 2012, 337–358.Search in Google Scholar
Cherf 2008: W. J. Cherf, Earth, Wind, and Fire, in: M. El-Abbadi – O. M. Fathallah (eds.), What Happened to the Ancient Library of Alexandria?, Leiden 2008, 55–73.Search in Google Scholar
Cribiore 2007: R. Cribiore, The School of Libanius in Late Antique Antioch, Princeton 2007.10.1515/9781400827671Search in Google Scholar
Dean 1935: J. E. Dean (ed.), Epiphanius’ Treatise on Weights and Measures. The Syriac Version, Chicago 1935.Search in Google Scholar
Delmaire 1997: R. Delmaire, Jean Chrysostome et ses “amis” d’après le nouveau classement de sa Correspondance, Studia Patristica 33, 1997, 302–313.Search in Google Scholar
den Boeft – Drijvers – den Hengst– Teitler 1995: J. den Boeft – J. W. Drijvers – D. den Hengst – H. C. Teitler, Philological and Historical Commentary on Ammianus Marcellinus XXII, Groningen 1995.Search in Google Scholar
den Hengst 1996: D. den Hengst, Hidden Polemics. Ammianus’ Digression on Egypt (Res Gestae 21.15–16), in: R. Risselada – J. R. de Jong – A. Machtelt Bolkestein (eds.), On Latin. Linguistic and Literary Studies in Honour of H. Pinkster, Amsterdam 1996, 45–56.Search in Google Scholar
Digeser 1998: E. DePalma Digeser, Lactantius, Porphyry, and the Debate over Religious Toleration, JRS 88, 1998, 129–146.10.2307/300808Search in Google Scholar
Dindorf 1862: W. Dindorf (ed.), Epiphanii episcopi Constantiae opera IV, Leipzig 1862.Search in Google Scholar
El-Abbadi 1992: M. El-Abbadi, The Life and Fate of the Ancient Library of Alexandria, Paris 1992.Search in Google Scholar
El-Abbadi 2008: M. El-Abbadi, Demise of the Daughter Library, in: M. El-Abbadi – O. M. Fathallah (eds.), What Happened to the Ancient Library of Alexandria?, Leiden 2008, 89–94.10.1163/ej.9789004165458.i-259.35Search in Google Scholar
Fear 2010: A. T. Fear (ed.), Orosius. Seven Books of History Against the Pagans, Liverpool 2010.10.3828/978-1-84631-473-5Search in Google Scholar
Foerster 1922: R. Foerster (ed.), Libanii opera XI, Leipzig 1922.Search in Google Scholar
Franchi de’ Chavalieri 1953: P. Franchi de’ Chavalieri, La “Passio” di S. Filippo Vescovio di Eraclea, Note Agiografiche 9 (Studi e Testi 175), Vatican City 1953, 55–136.Search in Google Scholar
Georges – Georges 1995: K. E. Georges – H. Georges (ed.), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch II, Hannover 1995.Search in Google Scholar
Goulet 2014: R. Goulet (ed.), Eunape de Sardes II, Paris 2014.Search in Google Scholar
Haas 1997: C. Haas, Alexandria in Late Antiquity, Baltimore 1997, 159–169.10.13182/FST97-A30818Search in Google Scholar
Hahn 2006: J. Hahn, Vetustus error extinctus est. Wann wurde das Sarapeion von Alexandreia zerstört?, Historia 55, 2006, 368–383.10.25162/historia-2006-0024Search in Google Scholar
Hahn 2008: J. Hahn, The Conversion of the Cult Statues. The Destruction of the Serapeum 392 A.D. and the Transformation of Alexandria into the “Christ-Loving” City, in: J. Hahn – S. Emmel – U. Gotter (eds.), From Temple to Church. Destruction and Renewal of Local Cultic Topography in Late Antiquity, Leiden 2008, 335–366.Search in Google Scholar
Handis 2013: M. Handis, Myth and History. Galen and the Library of Alexandria, in: G. Woolf – J. König – A. Oikonomopoulou (eds.), Ancient Libraries, Oxford 2013, 364–376.10.1017/CBO9780511998386.023Search in Google Scholar
Hanson 1999: C. L. Hanson (ed.), Iberian Fathers, III: Pacian of Barcelona, Orosius of Braga, Washington 1999.Search in Google Scholar
Hendrickson 2016: T. Hendrickson, The Serapeum. Dreams of the Daughter Library, CPh 111 2016, 453–464.10.1086/688717Search in Google Scholar
Holl 1910: K. Holl, Die handschriftliche Überlieferung des Epiphanius (Ancoratus und Panarion) (Texte und Untersuchungen 36.2), Leipzig 1910.Search in Google Scholar
Horn 2008: C. B. Horn Jr. (ed.), John Rufus. The Lives of Peter the Iberian, Theodosius of Jerusalem, and the Monk Romanus (Writings from the Greco-Roman World 24), Atlanta 2008.Search in Google Scholar
Johnstone 2014: S. Johnstone, A New History of Libraries and Books in the Hellenistic Period, ClAnt 33, 2014, 347–393.10.1525/CA.2014.33.2.347Search in Google Scholar
Kaibel 1899: G. Kaibel (ed.), Comicorum Graecorum fragmenta I.1, Berlin 1899.Search in Google Scholar
Karwiese 1995: S. Karwiese, Groß ist die Artemis von Ephesos, Wien 1995.Search in Google Scholar
Koster 1975: W. Koster, Scholia in Aristophanem 1.1A, Groningen 1975.Search in Google Scholar
Lavan 2011: L. A. Lavan, The End of the Temples. Towards a New Narrative?, in: L. A. Lavan – M. Mulryan (eds.), The Archaeology of Late Antique “Paganism”, Leiden 2011.10.1163/ej.9789004192379.i-643Search in Google Scholar
Louis 2015: C. Louis, Les derniers temps du Sérapéum d’Alexandrie. Un nouveau témoin copte, Journal of Coptic Studies 17, 2015, 109–126.Search in Google Scholar
Luck 1957: G. Luck, Two Predictions of the End of Paganism, Euphrosyne 14, 1957, 153–156.10.1484/J.EUPHR.5.126708Search in Google Scholar
Malosse 2008: P.-L. Malosse, Jean Chrysostome a-t-il été l’élève de Libanios?, Phoenix 62, 2008, 273–280.Search in Google Scholar
Matthews 2007: J. Matthews, The Roman Empire of Ammianus, Ann Arbor 2007.Search in Google Scholar
Mayer 2005: W. Mayer, The Homilies of St John Chrysostom. Provenance, Reshaping the Foundations, Rome 2005.Search in Google Scholar
McKenzie – Gibson – Reyes 2004: J. S. McKenzie – S. Gibson – A. T. Reyes, Reconstructing the Serapeum in Alexandria from the Archaeological Evidence, JRS 94, 2004, 73–121.10.2307/4135011Search in Google Scholar
McKenzie 2007, J. McKenzie, The Architecture of Alexandria and Egypt, New Haven 2007.Search in Google Scholar
Moss 2010: C. Moss, The Other Christs. Imitating Jesus in Ancient Christian Ideologies of Martyrdom, New York 2010.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199739875.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Moutsoulas 1972: E. Moutsoulas, Τὸ ‘Περὶ μέτρων καὶ σταθμῶν’ ἔργον Ἐπιφανίου τοῦ Σαλαμῖνος, Θεολογία 43, 1972, 631–710.Search in Google Scholar
Moutsoulas 1973: E. Moutsoulas, Τὸ ‘Περὶ μέτρων καὶ σταθμῶν’ ἔργον Ἐπιφανίου τοῦ Σαλαμῖνος, Θεολογία 44, 1973, 157–198.Search in Google Scholar
Moutsoulas 1987: E. Moutsoulas, La tradition manuscrite de l’oeuvre d’Epiphane de Salamine De mensuris et ponderibus, in: J. Dummer – J. Irmscher (eds.), Texte und Textkritik. Eine Aufsatzsammlung, Berlin 1987, 429–440.Search in Google Scholar
Nock 1949: A. D. Nock, Two Notes, VChr 3, 1949, 48–56.10.1163/157007249X00032Search in Google Scholar
Papaconstantinou 2006: A. Papaconstantinou, History, Hagiography, and the Making of the Coptic “Church of the Martyrs”, in: Early Islamic Egypt, DOP 60, 2006, 65–86.Search in Google Scholar
Pinkster 2015: H. Pinkster, The Oxford Latin Syntax I, Oxford 2015.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199283613.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Pradels – Brändle – Heimgartner 2002: W. Pradels – R. Brändle – M. Heimgartner, The Sequence and Dating of the Series of John Chrysostom’s Eight Discourses Adversus Judaeos, ZAC 6, 2002, 90–116.10.1515/zach.2002.013Search in Google Scholar
Qassem 2008: Q. A. Qassem, The Arab Story of the Destruction of the Ancient Library of Alexandria, in: M. El-Abbadi – O. M. Fathallah (eds.), What Happened to the Ancient Library of Alexandria?, Leiden 2008, 207–211.10.1163/ej.9789004165458.i-259.49Search in Google Scholar
Quasten 1960: J. Quasten, Patrology III, Utrecht 1960.Search in Google Scholar
Rabe 1926: H. Rabe (ed.), Aphthonii progymnasmata (Rhetores Graeci 10), Leipzig 1926.Search in Google Scholar
Rico 2017: C. Rico, The Destruction of the Library of Alexandria. A Reassessment, in: C. Rico – A. Dan (eds.), The Library of Alexandria. A Cultural Crossroads of the Ancient World, Jerusalem 2017, 293–330.Search in Google Scholar
Rohmann 2016: D. Rohmann, Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity. Studies in Text Transmission, Berlin 2016.10.1515/9783110486070Search in Google Scholar
Sabbah 1997: G. Sabbah, Ammien Marcellin, Libanius, Antioche et la date des derniers livres des Res Gestae, Cassiodorus 3, 1997, 89–116.Search in Google Scholar
Schroeder 1880: P. Schroeder, Bentleys Handexemplar des Ammianus Marcellinus, RhM 35, 1880, 336–349.Search in Google Scholar
Schwartz 1966: J. Schwartz, La fin du Serapeum d’Alexandrie, in: Essays in Honor of C. Bradford Welles (American Studies in Papyrology 1), New Haven 1966, 97–111.Search in Google Scholar
Seeck 1906: O. Seeck, Die Briefe des Libanius, Leipzig 1906.10.1515/9783112490709Search in Google Scholar
Seyfarth 1999: W. Seyfarth (ed.), Ammiani Marcellini Rervm gestarvm libri qvi svpersvnt I, Stuttgart 1999.Search in Google Scholar
Syme 1968: R. Syme, Ammianus and the Historia Augusta, Oxford 1968.Search in Google Scholar
Taxidis 2021: I. Taxidis, The Ekphraseis in the Byzantine Literature of the 12th Century, Alexandria 2021.Search in Google Scholar
Teitler 2013: H. C. Teitler, Ammianus, Libanius, Chrysostomus, and the Martyrs of Antioch, VChr 67, 2013, 263–288.10.1163/15700720-12341129Search in Google Scholar
Teitler 2017: H. C. Teitler, The Last Pagan Emperor. Julian the Apostate and the War against Christianity, Oxford 2017.Search in Google Scholar
Thelamon 1981: F. Thelamon, Païens et chrétiens au IVe siècle. L’apport de l’« Histoire ecclésiastique » de Rufin d’Aquilée, Paris 1981, 165–205.Search in Google Scholar
Thilo – Hagen 1881: G. Thilo – H. Hagen (ed.), In Vergilii carmina commentarii Servii Grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii carmina commentarii I, Leipzig 1881.Search in Google Scholar
van Nuffelen 2004: P. van Nuffelen, Un héritage de paix et de piété. Étude sur les Histoires ecclésiastiques de Socrate et de Sozomène, Leuven 2004.Search in Google Scholar
von Bonsdorff 1922: M. von Bonsdorff, Zur Predigttätigkeit des Johannes Chrysostomus, Biographisch-chronologische Studien über seine Homilienserien zu Neutestamentlichen Büchern, Helsingfors 1922.Search in Google Scholar
Wankel 1979: H. Wankel (ed.), Die Inschriften von Ephesos, Teil Ia, Bonn 1979.Search in Google Scholar
Watts 2010: E. J. Watts, Riot in Alexandria, Berkeley 2010.Search in Google Scholar
Watts 2017: E. J. Watts, Hypatia. The Life and Legend of an Ancient Philosopher, New York 2017.Search in Google Scholar
White 1800: J. White (ed.), Abdollatiphi historiae Aegypti compendium. Arabice et latine, Oxford 1800.Search in Google Scholar
Wilkinson 2009: K. W. Wilkinson, Palladas and the Age of Constantine, JRS 99, 2009, 36–60.10.3815/007543509789744918Search in Google Scholar
Wilkinson 2012: K. W. Wilkinson, New Epigrams of Palladas. A Fragmentary Papyrus Codex (P.CtYBR inv. 4000), Durham 2012.10.3998/mpub.9749804Search in Google Scholar
Wintjes 2005: J. Wintjes, Das Leben des Libanios, Rahden 2005.Search in Google Scholar
Wulff 1929/30: O. Wulff, Das Raumerlebnis des Naos im Spiegel der Ekphrasis, ByzZ 30, 1929/30, 531–539.10.1515/bz-1929-0190Search in Google Scholar
Zadorojnyi 2013: A. Zadorojnyi, Libraries and Paideia in the Second Sophistic. Plutarch and Galen, in: G. Woolf – J. König – A. Oikonomopoulou (eds.), Ancient Libraries, Oxford 2013, 377–400.10.1017/CBO9780511998386.024Search in Google Scholar
Zdiarsky 2011: A. Zdiarsky, Bibliothekarische Überlegungen zur Bibliothek von Alexandria, in: E. Blumenthal – W. Schmitz (eds.), Bibliotheken im Altertum, Wiesbaden 2011, 161–172.Search in Google Scholar
© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
