708 
ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY. 
Crimea. They are generally in good circumstances, are quiet and 
inolFensive, but high-spirited and independent. Their town is con- 
sidered as a neutral spot, where the neighbouring princes can depo- 
sit their treasures with safety. They elect twelve yearly magistrates, 
to whom they pay the most unlimited obedience, a,nd, as all the 
inhabitants are on a footing in perfect equality, each individual in 
his turn is sure to have a share in the government. 
Alexandian Library. 
This was a magnificent establishment, and repository of learning, 
founded in Alexandria about 804 years before Christ, by Ptolemy 
Soter, the father of the celebrated line of the Ptolemies. So early 
as the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, son of the founder, it possessed 
one hundred thousand volumes ; it was much increased by inany suc- 
ceeding mouarchs, and at length contained/rom seven to eight hun- 
dred thousand volumes. In this library were deposited the original 
works of Sophocles, Euripides, and ^schylus ; for Ptolemy Energetes 
having borrowed them of the Athenians, would only return copies of 
them to the Grecians, whom, however, he presented with fifteen talents, 
about three thousand pounds sterling, as a recompense for their loss. 
The entire library was at first contained in that part of the city 
called the Brnchion, but the number of its volumes became so great, 
that it was necessary to erect another building in the Serapeurn, 
called the Daughter Library, — a fortunate circumstance for the pre- 
servation of this latter portion of its treasures ; for when Julius Ceesar, 
on besieging the city, set fire to the fleet which he found in the port 
of Alexandria, the flames spread to that cpiarter which contained 
the larger portion of the hooks, but those in the Serapeurn remained 
safe. ITiis portion Cleopatra enyiched with the two hundred thou- 
sand volumes presented to her by Marc Antony, comprising the Per- 
ga miean library. It continued to be augmented from time to time 
by the Romans, and, notwithstanding some partial spoliations, was 
richer at the period of its destruction than when all its early buildings 
were standing. 
This disastrous event for all subsequent scholars took place a. j>. 
042, upon the taking of this city by the Saracens, With more zeal, 
perhaps, than judgment, John Philoponus, surnamed the Gram- 
marian, at that time resident at Alexandria, applied to Amrou, the 
Arabian general, for the inestimable gift of the library ; and the 
general wrote to the sultan Omar, to urge the request. His reply 
was worthy of the superstition propagated by his sword. “If,” said 
he, “ these writings of the Greeks agree with the Koran, they are 
useless, and need not be preserved ; if they disagree, they are per- 
nicious, and must he destroyed.” The decree w'as issued, and the 
four thousand baths of the city are said to have been heated during 
six months by the most valuable productions of antiquity. 
Adrian's Wall. 
This w'ovk, though called by the Roman historians mums, which 
signifies a wall of stone, was only composed of earth covered with 
