Alexandria.
DURING the middle of the third century before Christ, the centre of
literary activity was transferred from Athens to Alexandria, which
became, under Ptolemy Philadelphus, and for more than three centuries
remained, the great book-producing mart of the world. The literature
of Alexandria was not, like that of Athens, and later that of Rome,
something of slow growth and gradual development; the literary ambition
and the resources of the second Ptolemy proved sufficient to bring
together in a few years’ time a great body of writers and students and
to place at their disposal the largest collection of books known to
antiquity.
The most important step in the undertaking of securing for the royal
young city of the Nile the literary leadership of the world was the
establishment of the great Museum, which appears to have comprised in
one organization a great lending and reference library, a series of
art collections, a group of colleges endowed for research (of the type
of “All Souls” at Oxford), a university of instruction, and an academy
with functions like those of the Paris Academy, assuming authority to
fix a standard of language and of literary expression, and possibly
even to decide concerning the relative rank of writers. The Museum
(whose name is of course evidence of its Greek origin and character) is
said to date from the year 290 B.C., in which case the founding of it
must be credited to Ptolemy Soter, the father of Philadelphus, but its
full organization and effective work certainly belonged to the reign of
the latter.
Schools of instruction and courses of lectures had, as we have seen,
existed at Athens for a century or more, and Athens had also possessed
as early as 300 B.C., at least one public library. Alexandria, however,
presents the first example of a university established on a state
foundation, and offering to literary and scientific workers an assured
income through salaried positions. Mahaffy finds in these positions a
fair parallel to the institution of fellowships existing in the British
universities. He says: “The fellows of the Alexandrian University,
brought together into a society by the second Ptolemy, developed
that critical spirit which sifted the wheat from the chaff of Greek
literature, and preserved for us the great masterpieces in carefully
edited texts.”[115]
A peculiarity of the literature of the Alexandrian school was that
it had no connection with the country in which it was produced. No
inspiration was derived by the Alexandrian writers from Egypt. The
traditions and the accumulated learning of the civilization of the Nile
(possibly the oldest civilization the world has known), appear to have
been contemptuously ignored by the immigrant writers of the Museum,
whose interests and whose literary connections remained exclusively
Greek. The literature of Alexandria, as well during the reign of the
Ptolemies as after the absorption of Egypt into the empire of Rome,
remained a direct outgrowth of that of Greece (including, of course, in
the term, Magna Græcia as well as the Peninsula). It presented certain
distinctive characteristics of its own, but these seem to have been due
rather to the academic influence, and in the later period to the growth
of the theological spirit, than to the Egyptian environment or to the
relations of the city with imperial Rome.
Of the several divisions of the Museum, that most frequently referred
to in literature, and therefore the best known to later generations,
is the Library, but concerning this the accounts are in many respects
conflicting. John Tzetzes, a Greek scholar of the twelfth century,
writing in Constantinople, tells us on the authority of the Alexandrian
writer, Callimachus, that “the outer library” contained 42,000 rolls,
while in the inner were placed 490,000 rolls. Callimachus noted “from
an examination of the catalogue” that of the latter, 90,000, were
βίβλοι ἀμιγεῖς or “unmixed” rolls, that is, rolls containing each only
a single work, while 400,000 were βίβλοι συμμιγεῖς or “mixed” rolls,
containing each two or more distinct works.[116] Josephus quotes
Demetrius Phalerius as saying to Ptolemy Soter (the first Ptolemy)
that the library already contained 200,000 volumes, and would soon
include 500,000. In consideration of what is known of the extent of
the literature of the time in existence, these figures have been
considered by many authorities as too large to be credible. Birt
points out, however, that the wholesale purchases which Philadelphus
caused to be made throughout Greece and the Greek cities of Asia
Minor had unquestionably brought to Alexandria not only single copies
and duplicates of all the existing works, but supplies of them by
the dozens or hundreds. The unlimited prices offered from the King’s
treasury by the librarians of the Museum caused a steady flow of books
to set in towards Alexandria from all parts of the civilized world,
and in addition to the purchase of all the manuscripts that were
offered, the representatives of the King appear to have made a thorough
ransacking of all the public and private collections that could be
reached, and even to have taken by force volumes which the owners
did not wish to sell. Ptolemy is said to have refused food to the
Athenians during a famine except on condition that they would give him
certain authenticated copies of the tragedies of Æschylus, Sophocles,
and Euripides. It is fair to add that he paid for these tragedies, in
addition to the promised shipment of corn, the sum of fifteen talents
in silver, the equivalent of about $16,200.
One result of this absorption of the book supplies into Alexandria
was that the Greek world was now, and for a considerable time to come
remained, dependent upon Alexandria for copies of all of the old
writers. The measures of the King had succeeded not only in making it
necessary for students and scholars to come to Alexandria for their
reading, but in compelling book-buyers to come to Alexandrian dealers
for their books. The publishers of Alexandria secured at once a
monopoly for their editions, and through their enterprise in training
numbers of skilled scribes (including now not only educated slaves but
many of the impecunious scholars of the university) and by means of
the distributing facilities afforded by the commercial connections of
their capital, these publishers retained in their hands for about three
centuries the control of the greater part of the book production of the
world. The publishers of Athens disappeared, and the publishers who
in the last century B.C. and the first century A.D. were carrying on
book business in Rome, were obliged to have done in Alexandria the work
of transcribing such of their issues as were in the Greek language,
forming until the time of Trajan a very large, if not the larger,
portion of their total production. The writers who formed what is known
as the earlier Alexandrian school, comprised a considerable group of
poets, of whom the most noteworthy were Theocritus, Callimachus, Timon,
and Lycophron, and some original workers in original science, of whom
the most important were Euclid, the father of geometry, Nicomachus,
the first scientific arithmetician, Apollonius, whose work on conic
sections still exists, and Aratus, the astronomer. If the first named
of these scientists could have discounted some small portion even of
the compensation due to him from the many generations of students who
have utilized his problems in geometry, he would have been one of the
nabobs of literature.
The writers who were perhaps the most characteristic of the academic
circle of Alexandria, were, however, the so-called “grammarians,”
who rendered to their own generation and to posterity the invaluable
service of preparing authoritative editions of the great writers of
the past. It is to these Alexandrian editions that we are indebted for
the larger portion of the works of the Greek writers which have been
preserved, while the fact of the existence of many works of which the
texts have been lost is known only through the references to their
titles made by Alexandrian commentators. One of these grammarians was
Zenodotus, the Ephesian, who is credited with having established the
first grammar school in Alexandria (about 250 B.C.). Among others
whose names have been preserved are Eratosthenes, Crates, Apollonius,
Aristophanes, Aristarchus, and Zoilus. The term “grammarian” was
evidently used to designate philologists and _literati_, whose work
was by no means limited to the explanation of words, but corresponded
more nearly to that done by the French cyclopædists. By this group of
scholars was produced what is known as the _Alexandrian Canon_, a list
of Greek authors whose writings were thought worthy of preservation
as classics. This list included, according to Schöll,[117] five epic
poets, five iambic poets, nine lyric poets, fourteen tragic poets,
thirteen comic poets, seven poets of the group known as the Pleiades,
eight historians, ten orators, and five philosophers, or in all
seventy-nine authors, of whom fifty-six were poets. The academic or
official character thus given to the authors named in the _Canon_
was of undoubted service to the world’s literature in giving the
needed incentive for the preservation of their writings through the
multiplication of well edited copies. Moore suggests, however, that
this service may in some measure have been offset by the injury caused
to literature through the comparative neglect into which were sure
to fall a vast number of writers who had failed to be honored with
the stamp of the _Canon_, and the consequent loss of their works for
posterity.[118]
Theocritus was a native of Syracuse, and appears to have divided
his time between that city and Alexandria. In like manner Aratus,
who belonged in Macedonia, did his literary work partly under the
patronage of King Antigonus, and partly under that of Philadelphus.
It appears to have been difficult for Greek authors, in whatever city
they belonged, to escape the centripetal influence of the Alexandrian
Academy, and the attractions presented by so powerful a patron of
literature as Philadelphus, while it is also probable that the
inducements offered by the Alexandrian publishers had some part in
making it desirable for authors of note to make frequent visits to
the city. Mahaffy points out that the literature of Alexandria under
the Ptolemies possessed little popular character, and was in the main
the work of court writers and of scholastic pedants rather than of
authors in sympathetic touch with the people. As one evidence of the
accuracy of this description, he mentions the omission of any reference
in the writings of contemporary Alexandrian writers to the great
Galatian invasion which in the early part of the third century B.C.
desolated a large part of Asia Minor. While speaking appreciatively
of the service rendered to literature by the liberal patronage of
Philadelphus, Mahaffy is of opinion that the Museum fellowships came to
be utilized (as has been the case in later times with other literary
circles supported by royal bounty) by a number of lazy incompetents.
In his trenchant phrase, he refers to these deteriorated fellowships
as “literary hencoops filled with overfed and idle savants.” His
description recalls some at least of the features of the literary
circle brought together by Frederick the Great, but the Prussian
monarch was probably much more of a barbarian, even in his literary
methods, than the Ptolemies of Alexandria.
The most noteworthy literary undertaking emanating from Alexandria was
the Greek version of the Old Testament, known as the _Septuagint_,
which was begun by certain learned Jews (according to tradition
seventy Rabbis) about 285 B.C., and was completed in the course of
years by various hands. The work of the translators had, of course,
no connection with Greek literature other than as a recognition of
the necessity of putting into Greek any writings for which a general
distribution was planned. Eckhard says that the first use of the term
Γραμματεῖς, in the sense of copyists, was as applied to these Hebrew
scholars who were devoting themselves to the interpretation of the
Hebrew Scriptures. He adds that, in order to leave them undisturbed
in their scholarly undertaking, the king assigned to them a special
quarter of the city called Kiriath Sepher, or, in the _Septuagint_,
πόλις Γραμμάτων, the first literary quarter or Grub Street of which
history makes mention.[119]
Among the grammarians who rendered important service in the editing
of the older classics was Callimachus, whose name also appears in the
list of poets. This is the same Callimachus whose report concerning the
number of the books contained in the library is quoted by Tzetzes. Very
few of the other names of the Alexandrian editors have been preserved,
their editions having in most cases been modestly sent forth with the
names of the authors only.
The publishers of Alexandria must also have been modest, for not
a single firm has sent its name down to posterity. There are many
references in later literature to the existence in Alexandria of great
book-producing concerns, and, as Birt remarks, an active production
of literature must have necessitated an effective machinery for the
distribution of literature.
Strabo speaks of the excellent organization of the book scribes of
Alexandria, and states that Roman methods of bookmaking were derived
from Alexandria. The fact that for a number of centuries the entire
supply of the most important of the materials required was derived from
Egypt, gave an enormous advantage to the development of publishers
in Alexandria. Even after the perfection of the methods for the
preparation of parchment, papyrus retained its place in the preference
of writers, Greek and Roman, and until about the fourth century A.D.
the use of parchment continued very inconsiderable. But the papyrus was
produced only in Egypt. It was therefore a serious blow at the literary
undertakings of the kings of Pergamum when Philadelphus, in pursuance
of his policy of concentrating in Alexandria the production of
literature, prohibited for some years the export from Egypt of papyrus.
It was this embargo that gave a temporary stimulus in Pergamum to the
production of dressed skins, and the special interest taken by Pergamum
in this industry caused the most carefully finished of the skins (very
different in their appearance from the old time διφθέραι) to bear the
name of parchment, _pergamentum_. With the removal of the embargo,
however, the writers in Asia Minor appear in the main to have speedily
gone back to the use of the more convenient papyrus; the production of
parchment languished, and when in the latter Empire, parchment again
came into vogue, as its manufacture could as well be carried on in many
other places, it did not remain an important product of Pergamum.
Not only in Pergamum but also in Antioch was the attempt made, through
the founding of museums (_i. e._, libraries with schools attached) to
create literary centres, but these efforts met with no considerable
or lasting success. Mahaffy points out that these cities were, during
the larger portion of their existence as separate capitals, much more
frequently engaged in the excitement of campaigns than was the case
with Alexandria. The position of the latter, practically secure against
invasion and outside of the great struggles and contests which kept
Asia Minor in a state of agitation, was peculiarly advantageous for the
development of literary and scholastic interests.
Attractions were offered to literary men by the Court of Antioch, and
Syria became under Greek and Macedonian influence a home of Hellenism,
but no important literary undertaking took shape under the Seleucids
except the translation by Berosus, the Chaldean High Priest, of certain
cuneiform records, a work which was dedicated to Antiochus I.[120] The
only large example in literature of Syrian Greek is presented by the
_New Testament_, as the _Septuagint_ remained the most important record
of the Greek of Alexandria.[121] The library gathered at Antioch
appears after the Roman occupation to have been destroyed or dispersed.
The larger collection at Pergamum was, according to Plutarch, given by
Antony to Cleopatra, and was absorbed into the Museum of Alexandria.
It is probable that in Alexandria not only the publishers but also
the authors secured returns from the profits of book-production. It
is difficult to explain in any other way the gathering of authors
in Alexandria from all parts of the Greek world and their frequent
references to their business arrangements for the production of their
books. A definite piece of evidence is also afforded by the statement
of Strabo, previously referred to, that the publishing methods of
Rome were derived from those existing in Alexandria; and in Rome, as
we shall see in a later chapter, a system of compensation to authors
certainly came into practice. It is, however, unfortunately, the case,
that no trustworthy data have been found from which can be gathered the
details of the business relations of the Alexandrian authors with their
publishers. Birt points out that the government itself went into the
publishing business on a considerable scale, and its competition may
easily have caused perplexities to the publishers. We have already seen
that the Museum had, under the directions of the King, taken pains to
purchase the most authoritative texts known of the classic authors,
while in certain cases they secured the entire supplies of the copies
known to be in existence. Staffs of copyists were gathered in the
Museum, and under the editorial supervision of the salaried Fellows,
editions in more satisfactory form than had heretofore been known were
produced for the public. It is not shown whether these copies were
offered for sale directly at the Museum, or whether arrangements were
entered into with the leading booksellers for their distribution in
Alexandria and throughout the reading world. It is probable, however,
that the latter course must have been adopted, for it is not likely
that the Museum undertook to establish connections for the sale of
its editions in foreign countries, while it is certain that for their
university editions a wide and continual sale was secured.
One of the changes introduced in book-making methods under Philadelphus
was the substitution of papyrus rolls of small and convenient size for
the enormous scrolls heretofore in use. According to Birt, the average
length of these larger rolls had not exceeded five hundred inches, or
about forty-one feet, but instances are cited, in the earlier Egyptian
literature, of rolls (principally Hieratic) reaching a length of one
hundred and fifty feet. In the fifth century there was burned in
Byzantium a Homeric roll one hundred and twenty feet in length.[122] It
is possible that the writer of the Apocalypse may have had one of these
enormous scrolls in his vision when he beheld the record of the sins of
Babylon reaching to the heavens.
Callimachus, the grammarian, who seemed to have had as much
responsibility as any man of his group in shaping the literary work
of the Academy of Philadelphus, gave utterance to the dictum, “A big
book is a big nuisance,” τὸ μέγα βιβλίον ἴσον ἔλεγεν εἶναι τῷ μεγάλῳ
κακῷ,[123] and from his time the cumbersome scrolls began to disappear,
and as well for the new editions of the classics as for the literature
of the day, the small rolls came into use. These smaller rolls would
contain in poetry from 350 to 750 lines each, so that for the _Iliad_
and _Odyssey_, for instance, thirty-six rolls were required. For works
in prose each roll would usually contain from 700 to 1500 lines, while
specimens have been found with as few as 150 lines.[124] Such rolls
would comprise from ten to at the most two hundred pages.[125]
Birt is of opinion that this question of the extent of the sheets
available for the writer and the nature of the divisions in the
subject suggested by the division in the material, had a very marked
influence upon the style, proportioning, and subdivisions of works of
literature. He goes so far as to ascribe to this cause the evolution of
epigrammatic literature, _vers de société_, and light and superficial
court poetry of the Alexandrian school, which formed so sharp a
contrast to the massive tragedies of the great poets of Attica. I can
but think, however, that Birt has got the causation reversed, as it
seems more probable that a certain style of writing should have brought
about a change in the method of dividing writing paper than that the
paper-makers should have been in a position, simply by changing the
form of their rolls, to evolve a new style of literature, or even to
play any important part in such evolution.
This increasing use of small rolls must, of course, be taken into
account in calculating the number of works contained in all the
post-Alexandrian libraries as well as in the great collection of the
Museum of Philadelphus.
Birt ascribes to the limitation presented by the size of the rolls the
division of narratives into “books,” but it is certainly the case
that there are examples of such division in the works of writers of a
much earlier date, when large rolls were still customary. Xenophon’s
_Anabasis_, for instance, is so divided.[126] The books in this are
also peculiar, as before mentioned, in being preceded by summaries
of the preceding books. The length of a dramatic poem was naturally
determined by the time that could be allotted for the performance. They
contained from 1300 to 1700 lines, and each drama constituted a “book,”
although several books might, even under the new fashion of smaller
rolls, still be included in one roll.
As fresh supplies of the classic writings came to be distributed
through the civilized world, more particularly, of course, among the
Greek cities, the monopoly established by the policy of the Ptolemies
for the Alexandrian editions gradually came to an end, and the
production of books took a fresh start in other centres. The monopoly
of the paper-makers, however, continued, for nowhere but in the valley
of the Nile could the papyrus be made to grow, and during the first two
or three centuries of the Roman Empire the extent of the book-making
markets supplied by the paper industries must have been so enormous
that it is difficult to understand how the growth of the papyrus,
in the limited district suitable for it, could have been sufficient
to meet the requirements. To modern Egypt, according to Wilkinson
and other authorities, the plant is unknown, for it has entirely
disappeared from its ancient habitat on the banks of the Nile. It would
seem, therefore, that, like flax and the cotton plant, it required for
its existence certain special conditions which could be insured only
through careful cultivation. The words of the Hebrew prophet have thus
been realized: “The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the
brooks, ... shall wither, be driven away, and be no more.”[127] It is
probable that the cultivation was finally brought to a close in the
seventh century, when the Saracens took possession of Egypt.
The importance of Alexandria as one of the chief sources of
book-production endured for three centuries or more after its
conquest by the Romans in the year 30 B.C. As long as the language
and literature of the Greeks continued to be the fashion among the
cultivated circles in the Roman Empire, the supplies of books prepared
by the Greek copyists continued to be largely drawn from Alexandria.
By the close of the first century, however, the centre of literary
activity had been transferred to Rome, and it was no longer to
Alexandria but to Rome as the literary as well as the official capital
of the world, that men of letters now journeyed from all parts of the
empire.
The Alexandrian Academy of letters was succeeded by the Alexandrian
school of theology, and to the city of the Ptolemies is probably to be
credited the evolution of the _odium theologicum_, and the beginning of
the long series of fierce and bitter theological contests which have
unfortunately played so large a part in the history of the Christian
Church, and have had so marked an influence on the history of the
world. The names of Philo, Ammonius, and later of Plotinus, Iamblichus,
Clemens, Origen, and Porphyry are the best known of the Alexandrian
lecturers and writers of the first two centuries after Christ, whose
teachings in philosophy and theology exercised influence on the thought
of their time and on the metaphysical and theological conception of
generations to come. In the fourth century came the more noteworthy
Athanasius, and in the fifth Cyril, of whom such a vivid picture is
given in Kingsley’s _Hypatia_. That curious combination of Oriental
mysticism with the Hebrew and Christian creeds known as Gnosticism,
if it did not originate in Alexandria, was largely taught there
during the first two centuries A.D., among the earlier teachers being
Basilides, Valentinus, Heracleon, and Theodotus.
From the various schools of metaphysics and theology was poured out
during the first three centuries after Christ a great body of writings,
which found their way into the remotest corners of the Christian world,
and the persisting influence of which can be traced in not a few of
the creeds even of to-day. It is probable, however, that important
in other ways as this literature was, it presented few examples of
literary property in the shape of returns to its author. The writers
on metaphysical, theological, and religious subjects were, in fact, so
keenly interested in extending the knowledge of their special views and
tenets, and in furthering the influence of the creeds and systems of
belief with which they had identified themselves, that they were very
ready to facilitate by every possible means the distribution of their
works, and to give to all who desired the fullest possible freedom for
the multiplication of copies. The booksellers may have profited to some
extent by the activity of the public interest in the rivalries of the
various schools, but it appears as if the compensation of the authors
must, like that of the Athenian philosophers of five or six hundred
years earlier, have been limited to such payments as were made by the
attendants on their lectures.
Our consideration of the relations of authors with their readers,
and concerning the nature and extent of the remuneration secured for
literary undertakings, must now be transferred to imperial Rome, the
city from which what is known as classical literature derives its
largest heritage, a heritage second in importance only to that to be
credited to Athens.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]