Library Of Alexandria Declined Gradually

The popular story that a single fire destroyed the Library of Alexandria is largely a myth. Julius Caesar's fire in 48 BC may have damaged part of the collection, but the institution survived or was rebuilt and continued operating afterward. The Library declined over the following centuries as funding, prestige, and scholarly membership disappeared, with the last known memberships dating to the 260s AD. Most of its material may have survived through copies held elsewhere, and historians cannot confirm whether the Serapeum still contained a library when Christians demolished it in 391 AD.

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