Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/476

 454 THE DECLINE AND FALL conflagration would have speedily expired in the deficiency of materials. I shall not recapitulate the disasters of the Alex- andrian library, the involuntary flame that Avas kindled by Caesar in his own defence/-^^ or the mischievous bigotry of the Christians who studied to destroy the monuments of idolatry-^^** But, if we gradually descend from the age of the Antonines to that of Theodosius, we shall learn from a chain of contemporary witnesses that the royal palace and the temple of Serapis no longer contained the four, or the seven, hundred thousand volumes which had been assembled by the curiosity and magnificence of the Ptolemies. 1*1 Perhaps the church and seat of the patriarchs might be enriched with a repository of books ; but, if the pon- derous mass of Arian and Monophysite controversy were indeed consumed in the public baths, i*- a philosopher may allow, with ^39 Consult the collections of Frensheim [Freinshemius] (Supplement. Livian. c. 12, 43) and Usher (.Annal. p. 469). Livy himself had styled the Alexandrian library, elegantias regum curasque egregium opus : a liberal encomium, for which he is pertly criticized by the narrow stoicism of Seneca (De Tranquillitate Animi c. 9), whose wisdom, on this occasion, deviates into nonsense. i-*" See this History, vol. iii. p. 201. 1-*^ Aulus Gellius (Noctes Atticae, vi. 17), Ammianus Marcellinus (xxii. 16), and Orosius (1. vi. c. 15). They all speak in the /a5/ tense, and the words of Ammianus are remarkably strong ; fuerunt Bibliothecaj innumerabiles [/eg. inaestimabiles] ; et loquitur monumentorum veterum concinens fides, &c. [Cp. also the ex- pression of John Philoponus (in his commentary on Aristotle's Prior Analytics, p. iv. a, ed. Venice, 1536) as to 40 books of Analytics found " in the old libraries " ; and there is a similar remark in Ammonias. The silence of the early authorities, both Greek and Arabic, is the main argument for Gibbon's scepticism as to the burning of the Alexandrian "library" by Omar's orders. The silence of the chronicles of Theophanes and Nicephorus does not count for much, as they are capricious and unaccountable in their selection of facts. The silence of Tabari and Ibn Abd al Hakam is more important, but not de- cisive. Of far greater weight is the silence of the contemporary John of Nikiu, who gives a very full account of the conquest of Egypt. Weil sup- ports Gibbon, while St. Martin, among others, has defended the statement of Abulfaragius. For the two libraries at Alexandria, and the evidence of Orosius, see above, vol. iii. Appendix. 11. It should be noticed perhaps that the expression of Abulfaragius is not "library" but " libri philosophic! qui in gazophylaciis regiis reperiuntur " (tr. Pocock, p. 114). But Abd al Latif (ed. Silvestre de Sacy, p. 183) speaks of " the library which Amr burned with Omar's permission." — The origin of the story is perhaps to be sought in the actual destruction of religious books in Persia. Ibn Khaldun, as quoted by Hajji Khalifa (apud de Sacy, op. cit. p. 241), states that Omar authorised some Persian books to be thrown into the water, basing his decision on the same dilemma, which, according to Abulfaragius, he enunciated to Amr. It is quite credible that books of the Fire-worshippers were destroyed by Omar's orders ; and this incident might have originated legends of the destruction of books elsewhere.] 1^2 Renaudot answers for versions of the Bible, Hexapla Catenae Patru7n, Com- mentaries, &c. (p. 170). Our Alexandrian Ms., if it came from Egypt, and not from Constantinople or mount Athos (Westein, Prolegom. ad N. T. p. 8, &c.), might possibly be among them,