The Serapeum of Alexandria was an ancient Greek temple built by Ptolemy III Euergetes and dedicated to the Greco-Egyptian syncretic god Serapis, who was believed to be the protector of Alexandria, Egypt. It was built during the 3rd century BCE, primarily between 246 and 222 BCE. It housed the daughter library of Alexandria. The Serapeum was closed in 392 CE. Subsequently, the Monastery of Metanoia was established by Christians, and a church was built for St. John the Baptist, known as Angelium or Evangelium. However, the church fell to ruins around 600 AD, restored by Pope Isaac of Alexandria and finally destroyed in the 10th century. In the 20th century, a Muslim cemetery, Bāb Sidra, was located at the site.
History
The Serapeum was built during the 3rd century BCE, primarily constructed between 246 and 222 BCE under the reign of the Greek pharaoh Ptolemy III Euergete. It was dedicated to the Greco-Egyptian syncretic god Serapis, who was believed to be the protector of Alexandria, Egypt.
Located on a rocky plateau, it would have overlooked surrounding land, sea to the north and Lake Mareotis to the south. By all detailed accounts, the Serapeum was the largest and most magnificent of all temples in the Greek quarter of Alexandria. Besides the image of the god, the temple precinct housed an offshoot collection of the Library of Alexandria which 1st century BCE geographer Strabo said stood in the west of the city.
Prominent today is the enormous so-called Pompey's Pillar, a Roman triumphal column erected between 298–302 AD in honour of the Roman emperor Diocletian. According to Rowe and Rees 1956 accounts of the Serapeum, Aphthonius, the Greek rhetorician of Antioch, "who visited it about A.D. 315", said the Pillar marks the "Acropolis" of "the upper part of the great Serapeum area". Also notable today, in front of and to the side of the pillar, are two large statues of sphinxes on large plinths.
Archaeology
Architecture has been traced to an early Ptolemaic and a second Roman period. Excavations in 1944 at the site of the column of Diocletian yielded the foundation deposits of a Temple of Serapis which Row and Rees suggest might have preceded the larger Serapeum. Two sets of ten plaques, one each of gold, silver, bronze, Egyptian faience, sun-dried Nile mud, and five of opaque glass have been described. The inscription that Ptolemy III Euergetes built the Serapeion, in Greek and Egyptian, marks all plaques. Evidence suggests that Parmeniskos (Parmenion) was assigned as architect.
Subterranean galleries beneath the temple were most probably the site of the mysteries of Serapis. Granite columns suggest a Roman rebuilding and widening of the Alexandrine Serapeum in AD 181–217. Excavations recovered 58 bronze coins, and 3 silver coins, with dates up to 211. The torso of a marble statue of Mithras was found in 1905/06.
The foundation deposits of a temple dedicated to Harpocrates from the reign of Ptolemy IV Philopator were also found within the enclosure walls. It has also been suggested that there was worship of the Egyptian god Isis, the goddess of health, marriage, and wisdom.
Statues
According to fragments, there were statues of the twelve gods. In the 19th century, Mimaut mentioned nine standing statues holding rolls, which would coincident with the nine goddesses of the arts, reportedly present at the Library of Alexandria. Eleven statues were found at Saqqara. A review of Les statues ptolémaïques du Sarapieion de Memphis noted they were probably sculpted in the 3rd century with limestone and stucco, some standing others sitting. Rowe and Rees 1956 suggested that both scenes in the Serapeum of Alexandria and Saqqara share a similar theme, such as with Plato's Academy mosaic, with Saqqara figures attributed to: "(1) Pindar, (2) Demetrius of Phalerum, (3) x (?), (4) Orpheus (?) with the birds, (5) Hesiod, (6) Homer, (7) x (?), (8) Protagoras, (9) Thales, (10) Heraclitus, (11) Plato, (12) Aristotle (?)."
Serapeum, quod licet minuatur exilitate verborum, atriis tamen columnariis amplissimis et spirantibus signorum figmentis et reliqua operum multitudine ita est exornatum, ut post Capitolium, quo se venerabilis Roma in aeternum attollit, nihil orbis terrarum ambitiosius cernat.
Translation:
The Serapeum, splendid to a point that words would only diminish its beauty, has such spacious rooms flanked by columns, filled with such life-like statues and a multitude of other works of such art, that nothing, except the Capitolium, which attests to Rome's venerable eternity, can be considered as ambitious in the whole world.
Besides the two sphinxes front of Victory Pillar of Diocletian, several other statues of sphinxes are present and exhibited at the site.
Destruction
Signs point to a first destruction during the Kitos War in 116 AD. Proposals it was repaired or even rebuilt under Hadrian are supported by the 1895 find of a black diorite statue, representing Serapis in his Apis bull incarnation with the sun disk between his horns, with an inscription dating it to the reign of Hadrian (117–138).
As noted above, the enormous Roman triumphal column known as Pompey's Pillar was erected between 298–302 AD in honour of the Roman emperor Diocletian (242/245-311/212; r. 284-305).
The Serapeum was ultimately destroyed by Roman soldiers in 391 following the decree of the same year of emperor Theodosius I (379–395), a decree that declared that "no one is to go to the sanctuaries, [or] walk through the temples", which resulted in the abandonment of many temples throughout the Empire. This set the stage for riots in Alexandria in 391 (although the date is debated). According to Wace,
The Serapeum was the last stronghold of the pagans who fortified themselves in the temple and its enclosure. The sanctuary was stormed by the Christians. The pagans were driven out, the temple was sacked, and its contents were destroyed.
Several ancient, and modern authors have interpreted the destruction of the Serapeum in Alexandria as representative of the triumph of Christianity and an example of the attitude of the Christians towards pagans. While historian Peter Brown acknowledges the destruction of the Serapeum was the most spectacular of such conflicts, he also frames it against a long-term backdrop of frequent mob violence in Alexandria, where the Greek and Jewish quarters had fought for four hundred years, since the 1st century BC.
Eusebius mentions street-fighting in Alexandria between Christians and non-Christians, occurring as early as 249. There is evidence that non-Christians had taken part in citywide struggles both for and against Athanasius of Alexandria in 341 and 356. Similar accounts are found in the writings of Socrates of Constantinople. R. MacMullan further reports that, in 363 (almost 30 years prior to the destruction of the Alexandrian Serapeum), George of Cappadocia was killed for his repeated acts of pointed outrage, insult, and pillage of the most sacred treasures of the city.
The Serapeum of Alexandria was finally closed in July of 392 CE. Subsequently, the Monastery of Metanoia was established, and a church was built for St. John the Baptist, known as Angelium or Evangelium. However, the church fell to ruins around 600 AD, restored by Pope Isaac of Alexandria (681–684 AD), and finally destroyed in the 10th century. In the 20th century, a Muslim cemetery, Bāb Sidra, was located at the site.
Accounts of the events
There are several accounts of the context of the destruction of the Serapeum. According to church historians Sozomen and Rufinus of Aquileia, Bishop Theophilus of Alexandria obtained legal authority over one such temple of Dionysus, which he intended to convert into a church. During the renovations, the objects of pagan mystery still held within, especially the cultic phalli of Dionysus, were removed and exhibited in a procession of exposure, offense, and ridicule by the Patriarch: this is said to have incited crowds of 'pagans' to seek revenge. They killed and wounded many Christians before seizing the Serapeum, still the most imposing of the city's remaining sanctuaries, and barricading themselves inside, taking captured Christians with them. These sources report that the captives were forced to offer sacrifices and that those who refused were tortured (their shins broken) and ultimately cast into caves that had been built for blood sacrifices. The pagans also plundered the Serapeum.
A decree was issued by Theodosius offering the offending pagans pardon and calling for the destruction of all pagan images, suggesting that these were at the origin of the commotion. Consequently, the Serapeum was either destroyed, or (as per Sozomen) converted into a Christian temple, as were the buildings dedicated to the Egyptian god Canopus.
An alternative account of the incident is found in Lives of the Philosophers and Sophists by Eunapius, the pagan historian of later Neoplatonism. Here, an unprovoked Christian mob successfully used military-like tactics to destroy the Serapeum and steal anything that may have survived the attack. According to Eunapius, the remains of criminals and slaves, who had been occupying the Serapeum at the time of the attack, were appropriated by Christians, placed in (surviving) pagan temples, and venerated as martyrs.