He founded also a library, which was considerably augmented by Ptolemy Philadelphus, and by the magnificence of his successors, was at length increased to 700,000 volumes. In Cæsar's time, part of this library,--that portion which was situated in the quarter of the city called the Bruchion,--was consumed by fire; a conflagration which caused the loss of not fewer than 400,000 volumes. This library, a short time after, received the increase of 200,000 volumes from Pergamus; Antony having given that library to Cleopatra. It was afterwards ransacked several times; but it was still a numerous and very celebrated library at the time in which it was destroyed by the Saracens, viz. A.D. 642; a history of which we shall soon have to relate. The manner in which this library was originally collected, may be judged of, in no small degree, by the following relation:--All the Greek and other books that were brought into Egypt were seized and sent to the Museum, where they were transcribed by persons employed for that purpose; the copies were then delivered to the proprietors, and the originals were deposited in the library. Ptolemy Evergetes, for instance, borrowed the works of Sophocles, Euripides, and Æschylus, of the Athenians, and only returned them the copies, which he had caused to be transcribed in as beautiful a manner as possible; and he likewise presented them with fifteen talents, equal to fifteen thousand crowns, for the originals, which he kept. On the death of Cleopatra, Egypt was reduced into a province of the Roman empire, and governed by a prefect sent from Rome. Alexander founded the city in 3629; and the reign of the Ptolemies, who succeeded him, lasted to the year of the world 3974. The city, in the time of Augustus, must have been very beautiful; for when that personage entered it, he told the natives, who had acted against him, that he pardoned them all; first, out of respect to the name of their founder; and, secondly, on account of the beauty of their city. This beauty and opulence, however, were not without their corresponding evils; for Quintilian informs us, that as Alexandria improved in commerce and in opulence, her inhabitants grew so effeminate and voluptuous, that the word Alexandrine became proverbial, to express softness, indelicacy, and immodest language. Egypt having become a province of Rome, some of the emperors endeavoured to revive in it a love of letters, and enriched it by various improvements. The emperor Caligula was inclined to favour the Alexandrians, because they manifested a readiness to confer divine honours upon him. He even conceived the horrid design of massacring the chief senators and knights of Rome (A.D. 40), and then of abandoning the city, and of settling at Alexandria; the prosperity and wealth of which in the time of Aurelian was so great, that, after the defeat of Zenobia, a single merchant of this city undertook to raise and pay an army out of the profits of his trade!