last it consisted of seven hundred thousand volumes.

"This library was formed by the following
method: 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.

"As the Museum was at first in that quarter of
the city which was called Bruchion, and near the
royal palace, the library was founded in the same
place, and it soon drew vast numbers thither; but
when it was so much augmented, as to contain four
hundred thousand volumes, they began to deposit
the additional books in the Serapion. This last
library was a supplement to the former, for which
reason it received the appellation of its Daughter,
and in process of time had in it three hundred thousand
volumes.

"In Caesar's war with the inhabitants of Alexandria,
a fire, occasioned by those hostilities, consumed
the library of Bruchion, with its four hundred
thousand volumes. Seneca seems to me to be
out of humour, when, speaking of the conflagration,
he bestows his censures both on the library itself,
and the eulogium made on it by Livy, who styles
it an illustrious monument of the opulence of the