362 HISTORICAL TALES,

revised editions of their works. Here a new school of
poetry arose,—mechanical versification the bulk of
it, though the brilliant idyllic poets of Sicily found
in Alexandria an appreciative home. Here philoso-
phy was ardently pursued, Plato and his great rivals ~
were earnestly studied, and, in a later age, the inno-
vation of Neoplatonism was abundantly debated and
taught.

We have not space to name the many steps of
progress in science, literature, and philosophy made
in the Museum of Alexandria nor the names of the
men who made that Museum famous. It will suffice
to say that learning flourished there for centuries,
and then went down in ruin before the deluge of
ignorance and fanaticism which followed the adoption
of Christianity as the state religion of Rome. With
all that Christianity has done for the later world, its
first period of prevalence was fatal to the learning
of the past. In the conflict that arose between
paganism and Christianity the civilization of the
world for a time disappeared, and barbarism reigned
in its stead.

Of the two great libraries of Alexandria, the
largest was burned during the siege of that city
by Julius Cesar. Mare Antony brought another
library from Pergamus to take its place. But this,
and the older library in the Serapion, disappeared
when that ancient building was pillaged and de-
stroyed by order of the Archbishop Theophilus.
Thus forever vanished much of the noble literature
of Greece.

Other ancient edifices were destroyed. Cyril, the