One
of the reasons we have ancient Greek literature at all was the
competition between the kings of the Greek Empire. After Alexander the
Great expanded the Greek Empire to its apex, regional rulers wanted to
display their fitness to succeed him. A library full of classic texts
was one way to signal the world that your city was the most educated and
cultured. However, those charged with building the collections of their
libraries, particularly those of Alexandria and Pergamon, weren’t above
using force or shenanigans.
“The Ptolemies aimed to
make the collection a comprehensive repository of Greek writings as well
as a tool for research,” wrote former classics professor at New York
University, Lionel Casson in Libraries of the Ancient World. To obtain
this comprehensive collection, “the Ptolemies’ solution was money and
royal highhandedness.”
During the Ptolemaic hunt for
centuries-old books from Greece, it’s said that a new industry emerged
of forging ancient books to look more antique, thereby increasing the
rarity and value. While the evidence of such a forgery trade is
difficult to determine, Coqueugniot finds it probable since the kings
were so bent on having the most prestigious texts in their library.
To
us, those books are all ancient, forgery or not. Libraries also
competed for resident scholars, offering high salaries for those who
would come and imprisoning those who might leave. Read about
the Greek library wars at Atlas Obscura.
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