After Alexander the Great’s untimely death in 323 B.C, one of his greatest conquests, the Egyptian city named after him, was left without a ruler. Thus began the Ptolemaic Dynasty, beginning with Ptolemy I, who was a general under Alexander. He presented himself as the new ruler, and self-proclaimed Soter, meaning saviour. It was from this Dynasty that created and enriched the city of Alexandria into the culture marvel it was known for. Each Ptolemy of the dynasty was an intellect or scholar that helped continue the success and flourishing of the city as a culture centre. “Ptolemy I (305-282 B.C) was a historian, Ptolemy II (282-246) was an avid zoologist, Ptolemy III (246-222) a patron of literature, Ptolemy IV (222-205) a playwright.” (Casson 33)

Ptolemy I began the creation of this cultural centre with the founding of the Museum, which then spawned his idea for the library. Museums were up until then known for being religious temples to the Muses, but Ptolemy created this institute for what they symbolize instead, “deities of the humanities” (Freely 38). The building housed intellects who were paid, fed and untaxed to spend their time in the institute discussing and debating cultural and scholarly topics with the use of the Museum at their disposal. The city of Alexandria didn’t have to concern itself with financial worries as aside from the bounty attained through Alexander’s conquests, the city itself generated endless money. The soil along the Nile was extremely fertile which was great for harvesting grain, “and grain was to the Greek and Roman world what oil is to ours.” (Casson 32) Coincidentally, the soil was also excellent for the papyrus plant, which was also in high demand for its use of being written on.

In 295 B.C, Ptolemy I gave the task to Demetrius of Phalerum to oversee the creation and development of the library and was given strict instruction to acquire mass tons of books. The city of Alexandria was a relatively new and upcoming city; therefore there were not many places to purchase books. Demetrius sent out agents with tons of money to acquire any and every book they could throughout Greece. They were instructed to especially search for older books; “Older books were preferred on the grounds that having undergone less recopying, they were that much less likely to have errors in the text.” (Casson 34)

These agents were also instructed to purchase books of any and every topic, enriching the library in a broad amount of categories. Eventually the library was filled with hundreds of rolls of parchment which were filled with the great writings of antiquity, such as Homer and Aristophanes. In order to help readers easily find works, a scholar named Callimachus created an index of sorts, called the Pinakes or Tables, which was a detailed compilation of all Greek writings; “it filled no less than 120 books, five times as many as Homer’s Iliad” (Casson 39). The length of the index gives us insight into just how many literary works the library contained. The works divided both poetry and prose and was said to contain “all writings in Greek, literary, scientific, even functional, such as cookbooks” (Casson 40)

By the early second century B.C, there were two libraries, one in the palace that served the scholars and another “daughter’ library in the Serapeum in Alexandria” (Canfora 81), which was a short walk away from the palace.

There are different versions of how the library of Alexandria was destroyed, but most scholars agree it was destroyed by a fire, during a conflict with either Caesar, or the “emperor Aurelian” (Casson 47). The royal library is estimated to have been destroyed sometime in the first century B.C, followed by the “daughter” library during the Roman period, sometime in the second century A.D where all pagan temples were destroyed.

The Library of Alexandria served as a cultural and scholarly hub within the ancient Hellenistic Egypt. “Like an ancient version of Google, the library’s million volumes provided the world’s first comprehensive store of written knowledge.” (Morris 461). The library’s rich history only serves as a backdrop for the road it paved for new scholarly contributions and intellectuals.