Serapeum
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The Serapeum of Alexandria in Ptolemaic Egypt was a temple built by Ptolemy III (reigned 246–222 BC) and dedicated to Serapis, the syncretic Hellenistic-Egyptian god who was made the protector of Alexandria. By all of the detailed descriptions, 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 great Library of Alexandria. The geographer Strabo tells that this stood in the west of the city. Nothing now remains above ground.
Excavations at the site of the Column of Diocletian in 1944 yielded the foundation deposits of the Temple of Serapis. These are two sets of ten plaques, one plaque each of gold, of silver, of bronze, of faience, of sun-dried Nile mud, and five of opaque glass. They are all doubly inscribed in Greek and in Egyptian hieroglyphs, with the statement that Ptolemy III Euergetes built the Serapeion. The foundation deposits of a temple dedicated to Harpokrates from the reign of Ptolemy IV were also found within the enclosure walls. Parmaniskos was assigned as architect. Sub galleries beneath the temple were most probably the site of the mysteries of Serapis. In 1895 a black diorite statue representing Serapis in his Apis bull incarnation with the sun-disk between his horns was found at the site: an inscription dates it to the reign of Hadrian (117-38).
Destruction of the Serapeum
Bishop Theophilus of Alexandria was Nicene patriarch when the decrees of emperor Theodosius I forbade public observances of any but Christian rites. Theodosius I had progressively made the sacred feasts into workdays (AD 389), had forbidden public sacrifices, closed temples, and colluded in frequent acts of local violence by Christians against major cult sites. The decree that went out in AD 391, that "no one is to go to the sanctuaries, walk through the temples," resulted in many temples throughout the Empire that could be declared "abandoned" and the universal practice immediately began of occupying these sacred sites with Christian churches.
In Alexandria, Bishop Theophilus obtained legal authority over one abandoned temple of Dionysus. He wanted to turn it into a church. While renovating the temple secret caverns were found. Their exposure excited crowds of non-Christians who fell upon the Christians. The Christians retaliated, while Theophilus withdrew, and the pagans retreated into the Serapeum, still the most imposing of the city's remaining sanctuaries, and proceeded to barricade themselves inside. They had taken quite a number of Christian captives. Some they forced to sacrifice at the burning altars. Those who would not were tortured and killed. Others had their shins broken and were cast into caves that had been built for blood sacrifices. Then the Pagans, being trapped in the Serapeum, began to plunder it. (Rufinus & MacMullen 1984)
A letter was sent by Theodosius that Theophilus should grant the offending Pagans pardon — but destroy pagan images. These had caused all the trouble. First, the temple of Serapis, the Serapeum, was levelled by Roman soldiers and monks called in from the desert. Next they moved on to the sacred buildings of Canopus. Destruction spread rapidly throughout Egypt. A marginal illustration on papyrus from a world chronicle written in Alexandria in the early 5th century shows the triumphant Theophilus (illustration, left); the cult image of Serapis, crowned with the modius, is visible within the temple at the bottom.(MacMullen 1984)
There is a second version of the destruction of the Serapeum. This begins with Bishop Theophilus closing down a Mithraeum. It appears the remains are ridiculed and human skulls were exhumed by the Christian workers and there was a charge of human sacrifices. The non-Christians attack as before and the story unfolds similar to the first. There is also a third version of the incident, and more, from Eunapius, the Pagan historian of later Neoplatonism. Here, a Christian mob applied military tactics to destroy the Serapeum and steal whatever was not destroyed. Afterwards in sacred places monks, who live like pigs, rule with absolute power. Human skeletons of criminals and slaves, the Christians killed in the Serapeum, are placed in the temples of the Gods and are worshipped as martyrs. (Turcan, 1996)
The destruction of the Serapeum attested by the Christian writers Rufinus and Sozomen was only the most spectacular such occasion, according to Peter Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom (2003, p. 73-74). The destruction of the Serapeum was seen by many ancient and modern authors as representative of the triumph of Christianity over other religions and an instructive example of the attitude of the most educated Christian class to pagan learning.
Other temples to Serapis, each naturally termed a Serapeum, could be seen at Memphis and at Saqqara.
Excavation and Egyptian chronology
The Serapeum was discovered by Auguste Mariette, who excavated most of the complex. Unfortunately his notes of the excavation were lost, which has complicated the use of these burials in establishing Egyptian chronology. The problem with these series of sacred burials is that from the reign of Rameses XI through the 23rd year of Osorkon II – a period of about 250 years – only nine bulls are known: this number includes three burials not actually found, but assumed to exist by Mariette in a chamber he felt was too dangerous to excavate.
Egyptologists believe that there should be more burials, since the bulls usually had an average lifespan of 25-28 years, if they did not die sooner, but even after redating four burials, that Mariette had dated to the reign of Ramesses XI, and recalculating dates, there is still a gap of 130 years that needs accounting for. Some Egyptologists who favour changes to the standard Egyptian chronology, such as David Rohl, have seized on this discrepancy, and argued that the dating of the Twentieth dynasty should be redated some 300 years closer to the present in time; others assume that there must be more burials of these sacred bulls waiting to be discovered and excavated.
References and further reading
- Chuvin, Pierre, 1990 (B. A. Archer, translator). A Chronicle of the Last Pagans,(Harvard University Press). ISBN 0-674-12970-9 The incremental restrictions on "indigenous polytheism" of the governing class, chronicled from imperial edict to imperial edict.
- MacMullen, Ramsay, 1984.Christianizing the Roman Empire A.D. 100-400, (Yale University Press)
- Turcan, Robert, 1996.Cults of the Roman Empire (Blackwell) [Bryn Mawr Classical review]
See also
External links
- [http:/www29.homepage.villanova.edu/christopher.haas/destructioni%20of%20Serapeum.html] Rufinus – "The Destruction of the Serapeum A.D. 391"
- [link] Michael Routery, "The Serapeum of Alexandria" The author has omitted important material from his cited references sources. Read with caution. The reason for the conflict that led to the barricading in the Serapeum has been changed from that of his source. Here it is the finding of human skulls and the charge of human sacrifice (Turcan 1992,p.126) instead of a conspiracy and a ridiculing of art work. (Notice the author has cited the next facing page Turcan 1992,p.127, odd numbered pages are on the reader's RH side.The LH had to be visible.)
- [link] The Serapeum at Saqqara
- [Richard Stillwell, ed. Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, 1976:] "Alexandria, Egypt: Serapeion"
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