VI · The Serapeum · 272–273 CE

Aurelian's war ruins the palace quarter

Known · AttestedKnown · AttestedThe palace quarter ruinedConjecturedThe end of the palace library

In the war that recovers Egypt from Palmyra the city's walls fall and it loses most of the Brucheion, "long the dwelling place of distinguished men". If the palace library still existed, this is its likeliest end.

What the evidence supports: No ancient writer names the Library in connection with Aurelian's war.

Who and what

People: Aurelian
Places: The Brucheion (royal quarter); The Mouseion; The royal Library

In the show

The show has not yet spoken of this moment.

Sources (4)

Ammianus Marcellinus 22.16.15
Eusebius, Church History 7.32.7–11
L. Casson, Libraries in the Ancient World (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001)
R. S. Bagnall, "Alexandria: Library of Dreams", Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 146.4 (2002) 348–362 357–358