What Happened to the Ancient Library of Alexandria?
Eds. Mostafa El-Abbadi and Omnia M. Fathallah. Leiden: Brill, 2008. 260p. $129, cloth (ISBN 9789004165458). LC 2008-4209. The Library of Alexandria is, for many, iconic: a realization of scholarly and library ideals. Yet little is known about the Library. Scholars have debated the Library’s size, location, and its fate for hundreds of years. The most widely accepted account of the Library’s fate is that it was destroyed in a firestorm started when Caesar burned the Egyptian fleet during the Alexandrian War in 48 B.C. At least part of the Library survived the fire—the so-called Daughter Library, a “branch” library located in Alexandria’s Serapeum. The Serapeum and the Daughter Library were subsequently destroyed after Theodosius issued an edict against pagan cults in the late fourth century. Other theories exist regarding the destruction of the Library. Some scholars date it to the recapture of Alexandria by Aurelian during the revolt of Queen Zenobia of Palmyra in 269 A.D. Another stor
