IV · Purge and Fire · late 48 BCE

Caesar's fire in the harbour

Known · AttestedKnown · AttestedThe fireKnown · ProbableWhat burned

Besieged in the palace quarter, Caesar burns the Egyptian fleet and the fire spreads to the docks. Books burn somewhere along the quays; how many, and whose, the witnesses do not agree, and the nearest of them say nothing of books.

The evidence: A fire in the harbour burned books, probably in storage near the docks. Twenty years later Strabo describes the Mouseion at work, and Didymus's thousands of books presuppose a great library still at hand.

What the evidence supports: The fire did not end the Library. The numbers given for the loss grow with the witnesses' distance from it and survive in rival readings.

The witnesses

What burned in 48 BCE?The nearest witnesses say nothing of books, and the numbers grow with distance. Rival manuscript readings hang from dashed lines.
Witness	Written	Reference	What it says	Readings
The event: late 48 BCE
AnonymousSilent on it	c. 46–41 BCE	Alexandrian War 1–33	Tells the war in the city; says nothing of books burned.	none
CaesarSilent on it	c. 45 BCE	Civil War 3.111	Burns the Egyptian fleet; says nothing of books.	none
LivyLost; known through a later writer	c. 27 BCE–17 CE	History of Rome (lost book) lost Quoted by Seneca, On Tranquillity of Mind 9.5.	His account is lost; Seneca quotes its number.	none
StraboSilent on it	c. 20 BCE	Geography 17.1.8	Describes the Mouseion at work; says nothing of a fire.	none
SenecaGives a number	c. 50–62 CE	On Tranquillity of Mind 9.5	Forty thousand books burned at Alexandria, citing Livy.	40,000; often emended to 400,000
LucanSilent on it	c. 61–65 CE	Civil War 10.486–505	The fire takes buildings by the sea; says nothing of books.	none
PlutarchNames it, no number	c. 100 CE	Caesar 49.6	The fire spread from the dockyards and destroyed the great library.	none
Aulus GelliusGives a number	c. 170–179 CE	Attic Nights 7.17.3	Nearly 700,000 rolls burned, by chance, by auxiliary soldiers.	700,000; some manuscripts read 70,000
Cassius DioNames it, no number	c. 220–229 CE	Roman History 42.38.2	The fire burned the dockyards and storehouses of grain and of books.	none
Ammianus MarcellinusGives a number	c. 390 CE	History 22.16.13	700,000 rolls burned in the Alexandrian war under Caesar.	700,000
OrosiusGives a number	417 CE	Histories against the Pagans 6.15.31	400,000 books burned, stored by chance in buildings near the harbour.	400,000; some manuscripts read 40,000

Who and what

People: Gaius Julius Caesar; Cleopatra VII
Places: The Great Harbour; The book stores by the harbour; The royal palaces

Told stories

Legend

"Caesar burned the Library"

Plutarch writes that the fire Caesar set to the ships spread from the dockyards and destroyed the great library.

Told by Plutarch, c. 100–120 CE, some one hundred and fifty years after the fire

What the evidence supports

A fire in 48 BCE burned books, probably in storehouses near the docks. Caesar and the nearest witnesses say nothing of books, and twenty years later Strabo found the Mouseion at work.

Sources (4)

Plutarch, Caesar 49.6
Cassius Dio, Roman History 42.38.2
R. S. Bagnall, "Alexandria: Library of Dreams", Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 146.4 (2002) 348–362 357
M. Hatzimichali, "Ashes to Ashes? The Library of Alexandria after 48 BC", in J. König, K. Oikonomopoulou and G. Woolf (eds.), Ancient Libraries (Cambridge, 2013) 167–182

The Hall of Told Stories

Legend

700,000 rolls

Aulus Gellius writes that nearly 700,000 rolls were burned in the Alexandrian war, by chance, by auxiliary soldiers; Ammianus repeats the figure about 390.

Told by Aulus Gellius, c. 170–179 CE, some two hundred and twenty years after the fire

What the evidence supports

No ancient source gives a reliable figure, and the manuscripts disagree on this one: some read 70,000. A catalogue of 120 rolls could hardly have listed hundreds of thousands. A modern estimate is tens of thousands of rolls, perhaps more.

Sources (3)

Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights 7.17.3
Ammianus Marcellinus 22.16.13
R. S. Bagnall, "Alexandria: Library of Dreams", Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 146.4 (2002) 348–362 352–356

The Hall of Told Stories

In the show

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Sources (11)

Caesar, Civil War 3.111
Seneca, On Tranquillity of Mind 9.5
Lucan, Civil War 10.486–505
Plutarch, Caesar 49.6
Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights 7.17.3
Cassius Dio, Roman History 42.38.2
Ammianus Marcellinus 22.16.13
Orosius, Histories against the Pagans 6.15.31
L. Canfora, The Vanished Library: A Wonder of the Ancient World, trans. M. Ryle (Berkeley, 1989; Italian 1986)
R. S. Bagnall, "Alexandria: Library of Dreams", Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 146.4 (2002) 348–362 357
M. Hatzimichali, "Ashes to Ashes? The Library of Alexandria after 48 BC", in J. König, K. Oikonomopoulou and G. Woolf (eds.), Ancient Libraries (Cambridge, 2013) 167–182