Alexandria vs. Pergamon: The Ancient Battle of the Greatest Libraries

From Alexandria’s papyrus empire to Pergamon’s parchment-powered rival, the Hellenistic contention for cognition reshaped however the satellite preserved books. Credit: Greek Reporter archive

When we deliberation of the large libraries of antiquity, 1 sanction that astir decidedly comes to caput is that of Alexandria (rather than Pergamon). Egypt’s gem was a metropolis synonymous with intelligence grandeur, agelong regarded arsenic the undisputed queen of past learning. Yet, successful the shadiness of Alexandria’s planetary estimation arsenic the epicenter of past wisdom, different metropolis contested fiercely for the rubric of the world’s starring halfway of world power—a room whose past is awesome but inactive comparatively unknown.

This was the Library of Pergamon, a halfway of assistance successful Anatolia. While Alexandria is often remembered arsenic the sole keeper of past wisdom, the kings of Pergamon were determined to physique a scholarly rival that could situation Alexandria’s dominance and foster new, adjacent much advanced, schools of thought.

The rivalry betwixt Alexandria and Pergamon

The precise thought of the Library of Pergamon was beyond what astir could person imagined. Founded by Eumenes II betwixt 197 and 159 BC by the Attalid dynasty of the Greek authorities of Pergamon, it was built with a wide goal: to rival, and yet surpass, the legendary postulation of the Ptolemies successful Egypt. At its height, Pergamon was said to clasp an unthinkable 200,000 scrolls, a existent treasure of cognition that made Pergamon 1 of the astir precocious scholarly destinations of the past world.

Agents from some Pergamon and Alexandria traveled crossed the known world, hopeless to find and get uncommon texts, from mislaid Homeric verses to groundbreaking technological works by long-forgotten individuals. For these Hellenistic kingdoms, amassing arsenic galore world works arsenic imaginable was a wide signifier of brushed power—a mode to showcase their wealth, sophistication, and assertion arsenic the rightful heirs to Alexander the Great’s taste bequest successful the known world.

Artistic reconstruction of the world-renowned past Library of Alexandria. Credit: Greek Reporter Archive

This bitter rivalry adjacent led to a confrontation that would alteration the people of history. According to the Roman historiographer Pliny the Elder, the Ptolemies successful Egypt, successful a calculated determination to halt the advancement of Pergamon arsenic an intelligence hub, declared an embargo connected papyrus exports from Egypt. Their purpose was simple: to starve their rival of the worldly needed to nutrient books. Nonetheless, this enactment of economical warfare yet backfired spectacularly for the Hellenistic kingdoms of Egypt.

Without their superior penning material, the scholars of Pergamon perfected a singular caller alternative, ushering successful a large advancement for the world. They invented the celebrated pergamena charta, what we present telephone parchment. Crafted from treated carnal skins, parchment was stronger, much versatile, and much resilient than brittle papyrus.

This ingenious solution, calved of necessity, saved the Library of Pergamon, paving the mode for the codex and the modern book. It should beryllium noted, however, that parchment was not primitively invented there, arsenic humanities grounds shows it had been utilized earlier. However, Pergamon intensified its accumulation and refined its use, driving it further forward.

Ruins of the past metropolis of Pergamon. Credit: HALUK COMERTEL , Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0

Where was the Library of Pergamon?

Situated connected the city’s stunning acropolis beside the temple to Athena connected the occidental seashore of Anatolia, successful what contiguous is the Turkish metropolis of Bergama, the room stood astatine the bosom of a broader, vibrant probe center.

Prominent scholars from Alexandria, similar Aristarchus, favored a much literal, text-focused attack to criticism. On the different hand, the Pergamene School, led by Crates of Mallus, argued that a much allegorical speechmaking of lit was the mode guardant for the time’s academia. This intelligence disagreement deepened the captious survey of classical texts and enriched the full tract of philology, arsenic some sides of the Mediterranean pursued their ain approaches, yet importantly contributing to humanity’s corporate knowledge.

Over the years, Pergamon became a metropolis renowned arsenic a hub for the arts and sciences. The celebrated doc Galen, whose enactment would signifier Western medicine for much than a 1000 years, was calved and trained there. Its sculptors were good known crossed the Hellenistic satellite for their dramatic, emotionally charged benignant that captivated the masses.

The historiographer Plutarch claims that Mark Antony, successful a expansive motion of love, talented Pergamon’s full postulation of 200,000 scrolls to Cleopatra to restock Alexandria’s room aft a fire. Experts reason that determination is insufficient grounds to suggest this really occurred, but the fable itself demonstrates however immensely invaluable Pergamon’s postulation was considered. Regardless of however Pergamon and its room met their demise, its value lives connected successful the precise connection “parchment.”

It survives successful the foundations of captious thought cultivated wrong its walls and illustrates the value of intelligence rivalries successful past times, reflecting humanity’s pursuit to recognize the satellite and beforehand corporate knowledge.