A quiz question · medium
True or false: Julius Caesar burned down the Library of Alexandria in 48 BC.
False. Caesar set fire to a shipyard in the Alexandria harbor during his 48 BC war against Ptolemy XIII. The fire spread along the docks and damaged some dockside warehouses (which may have contained scrolls). The main Library, several blocks inland in the royal quarter, was not affected — it is described as still functioning by Strabo, who visited the city 23 years later. The Library actually declined gradually over six centuries.
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The Library That Did Not Burn Caesar's fire, the Christian mob, the Caliph's order — every famous ending of the Library of Alexandria is wrong, or only partly true. It died slowly.