The Royal Library of Alexandria in the first century

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Inscription regarding Tiberius Claudius Babillus of Rome
confirming that the Library of Alexandria existed in the first century CE.
Forschungen in Ephesos, Vol. III, Vienna 1923, p.128.

The Royal Library of Alexandria was conceived and opened either during the reign of Ptolemy I Soter or during the reign of his son Ptolemy II, and was built in the Brucheion (Royal Quarter) in the style of Aristotle’s Lyceum, adjacent to and in service of the Musaeum (a Greek Temple or “House of Muses”).

The Ptolemaic dynasty sponsored scholars from across the Greco-Roman world to study in the library, with travel, lodging and stipends for their whole families.

The next translation was by Aquila of Sinope, whom Epiphanius (De Pond. et Mens. c. 15) preserves a tradition that he was a kinsman of the emperor Hadrian, who employed him in rebuilding Jerusalem (Aelia Capitolina), and that he was converted to Christianity, but, on being reproved for practising pagan astrology, converted to Judaism.

This version by Aquila has been dated to between 128 and 130 -- the same short period as for the New Testament.

The Bar Kokhba revolt was instigated by Hadrian, largely through his Aelia Capitolina project and man he placed in its charge is the same Aquila of Sinope.

The sequence of events -- some within a short space of time and perhaps even at the same time -- is provocative:

1. the Aquila Septuagint;
2. the canonical Gospels;
3. Aquila managing the Aelia Capitolina project; and
4. the third and final Jewish-Roman war.

This prompts an examination of the role of Aquila (and Priscilla) within the New Testament:

• Acts 18:2-3: There he (Paul) met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them.
• Acts 18:18: Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time. Then he left the brothers and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila.
• Acts 18:19: They arrived at Ephesus, where Paul left Priscilla and Aquila.
• Acts 18:26: He (Apollos) began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.
• Romans 16:3-4: Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus. They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them.
• 1 Corinthians 16:19: The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house.
• 2 Timothy 4:19: Greet Priscilla and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus.

Left: the world’s oldest-known image of Mary depicts her nursing the Infant Jesus. 2nd century, Catacomb of Priscilla, Rome.

In The Gordion Knot of Classical Antiquity, we noted:

In dating the earliest canonical texts of Christianity, we have been unable to go further back than Hadrian. We have therefore been examining in detail his relationships, especially those in Greece and the identities of those he employed, such as Aquila. How he may relate to the Priscilla and Aquila of the Pauline letters and how this Priscilla may relate to the second century catacombs bearing her name, could well shine light on this mysterious chapter of history.

In Chrestians and the lost history of Classical Antiquity, we noted:

A proper history for this period must therefore describe how pagans created in the second century both the theology for Jesus Christ – out of the christology of Philo – and, out of the existing pagan, state structures, the organisation of the Christian Churches.

This history should also describe how letters of Saul were used, along with the other Flavian sources listed here, to create Paul of Tarsus and Luke/Acts. In doing so, we should discover more of both Simon Magus and Marcion of Sinope.

In considering the Pauline canon, there is son of the episkopos of Sinope -- Marcion (ca. 85-160), in which regard Cliff Carrington commented (private correspondence): there is no historical Paul of Tarsus, as portrayed in Luke’s Acts of the Apostles. That much of the writing done in the Epistles was by differing hands is certainly reasonable and can be demonstrated.

But the first collector of the Pauline Epistles had been Marcion. No one else we know of would be a good candidate, certainly not the essentially fictive Luke, Timothy, and Onesimus. And Marcion, as Burkitt and Bauer show, fills the bill perfectly. Of the epistles themselves, he is probably the original author of Laodiceans, the Vorlage of Ephesians) and perhaps of Galatians, too.
-- The Evolution of the Pauline Canon by Robert M. Price

The political need for a Greek version of the Hebrew bible and the appearance of the Greek texts which are the canonical Gospels,  point to Alexandria.

And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus.
This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John.
And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.
And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him: who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed through grace:
For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ.
And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him: who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed through grace:
For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ.
-- Acts 18

The context for the period to which the New Testament refers is the Messianic Judaism that so antagonised both the Herodian ruling dynasty and Roman dominion:

1. The revolt of Judas the Galilean ca. 6 CE,
2. the killing of James the Just in 62 CE, then
3. the first Jewish-Roman war (66–70 CE).

Philo (20 BCE – 50 CE), well-known for his use of allegory to fuse and harmonize Greek philosophy and Judaism, and his Lysimachus family in Alexandria have been noted here repeatedly.

Judas is mentioned in the New Testament Book of Acts of the Apostles. The author has Gamaliel, a member of the Sanhedrin, refer to him as an example of a failed Messianic leader. Josephus does not relate the death of Judas, although he does report that Judas’ sons James and Simon were executed by procurator Tiberius Julius Alexander in about 46. This Tiberius is the nephew of Philo and son of the Alabarch.

Eisenman depicts Pauline Christianity (plus its Hellenistic cousins Johannine, Markan, Lukan, etc., Christianities) as being root and branch a compromising, assimilating, Herodianizing apostasy from Judaism. Greek Christianity gives the Torah, and Jewish identity, the bum’s rush, just like those allegorizing antinomians Philo argued against, just like Josephus. The Pauline Christ, a spiritual redeemer with an invisible kingdom, is of a piece with the christening of Vespasian as the messiah by Josephus.
-- Robert Eiseman’s JAMES THE BROTHER OF JESUS: A Higher-Critical Evaluation by Robert M. Price, Drew University

Cliff Carrington identifies Philo as the author of the first christology:

A Pre-Christian Christology

The Word

To His Word [logw], His chief messenger, highest in age and honour, the Father of all has given the special prerogative, to stand on the border and separate the creature from the Creator. This same Word both pleads with the immortal as supplant for afflicted mortality and acts as ambassador of the ruler to the subject. He glories in this prerogative and proudly described it in these words ‘and I stood between the Lord and you.’ (Deut. V. 5), that is neither uncreated as God, nor created as you, but midway between the two extremes, a surety to both sides; to the parent pledging the creature that it should never altogether rebel against the rein and choose disorder rather than order; to the child, warranting his hopes that the merciful God will never forget His own work. For I am the harbinger of peace to creation from that God whose will is to bring wars to an end, who is ever the guardian of peace.”

(Philo Judaeus, Who is the Heir, 205-207, Loeb, pp. 385-387. In the translator’s introduction, p. 277, this is mentioned as “a passage which must surely have deeply impressed his Christian readers.” I am sure they would be ‘deeply impressed’! [C.N.C.])

The Son of God

“But they who live in the knowledge of the One are rightly called “Sons of God [uioi qeou],” as Moses also acknowledges when he says, “Ye are sons of the Lord God” (Deut. XIV 1)… But if there be any as yet unfit to be called a Son of God [uioV qeou], let him press to take his place under God’s First born, the Word, who holds the eldership among the angels, their ruler as it were. And many names are His, for he is called “the Beginning,” and the Name of God, and His Word, and the Man after His Image, and “he that sees,’ that is Israel.

“For if we have not yet become fit to be thought sons of God yet we may be sons of His invisible image, the most holy Word. For the Word is the eldest-born image of God.” (Philo, The Confusion of Tongues, 145-148)

The Rising One

“I have heard also an oracle from the lips of one of the disciples of Moses, which runs thus: “Behold a man whose name is the rising [anatolh],” (Zech. VI 12), strangest of titles, surely if you suppose that a being composed of soul and body is here described. But if you suppose that it is that Incorporeal one, who differs not a whit from the divine image, you will agree that the name of “rising” assigned to him quite truly describes him. For that man is the eldest son, whom the Father of all raised him up, and elsewhere calls him His first-born, and indeed the Son thus begotten followed in the ways of his Father.” (Philo, The Confusion of Tongues, 62-63)

Here we have, from Philo Judaeus, the foundations for a Christology. Perhaps ‘the’ foundation of the imagery which was later transferred to ‘Jesus as Christ’. We have the ‘Word’, the ‘Son of God’ and the ‘Rising’ One. What more do we need? Add a virgin birth, a few miracles, then a crucifixion with a ‘rising’ and we have it all.

Philo died shortly after 41 CE. These works were written considerably earlier, probably in the 20’s or 30’s of our era. These ideas were contemporary with Jesus and were studied by his followers trying to understand His message. That is if there was an ‘historical Jesus the Christ’ to consider at all.

And there is no ‘historical Jesus the Christ’ as we have demonstrated that he is a fabrication at the time of Hadrian.

Understanding the political (and underlying theological and financial) issues between Judaism and Rome comes from learning of the Lysimachus family in Alexandria and its relations with both the Herodian dynasty and Rome (Antonia Minor, Vespasian and his son Titus).

We noted in The mystery of early synagogues Lysimachus in inscriptions at the Delos synagogue.

We then saw a Lysimachus and Costobarus as agents for the Ptolemies, working against Herod the Great; then a Costobarus and his kinsman Saul working against Messianic Judaism and killing James the Just.

This Saul of Josephus and his New Testament persona of Paul are also described with Helen of Adiabene and obtaining with her money wheat from Alexandria.

This same Saul/Paul is the opponent of Eleazar in how Helen and Izates should become Jewish: the issue that is central to the formation -- the theological raison d’être - of Christianity; we discussed also Eleazar, Saul and a Deed of Gift at Qumran (for more on Eleazar, see also: Jesus son of Sapphias).

We see that Philo and Alexandria are central to the history for Christian origins and in this city, the institution, the fount of knowledge and home of philosophy, is the Library.

The cultural context is Neopythagoreanism, Greek magic and divination, from whence spring the divine men of Classical Antiquity:

- The Ptolemaic zodiac: from where the sun shines
- Archaeology of first-century wizards
- A virgin blood sacrifice
- Christ Magus
- Chrestians and the lost history of Classical Antiquity

Tiberius Claudius Balbillus (of the inscription at top), was a Greek astrologer and scholar, son of astrologer Tiberius Claudius Thrasyllus, he descended from King Antiochus I Theos of Commagene.

His sister was Eunia, whose husband is Naevius Sutorius Macro, appointed Praetorian prefect by Tiberius after the arrest of Sejanus. According to Suetonius, Macro gained further favor by turning a blind eye to his wife Eunia’s affair with Caligula around the year 34.

Balbillus and Eunia were most probably born and raised in her father’s house in Alexandria, Egypt. Their niece was Claudia Capitolina, who would marry back into the Kingdom of Commagene.

Capitolina would marry the Greek Prince from the Kingdom of Commagene called Gaius Julius Archelaus Antiochus Epiphanes, whom we noted in Chrestians and the lost history of Classical Antiquity was a child hostage of Antonia Minor.

Their father, Thrasyllus was an Alexandrian grammarian and editor of Plato and Democritus, and is most well-known as the astrologer of the Roman Emperor Tiberius.

Tiberius’ daughter-in-law Livilla consulted him during her affair with Tiberius’ chief minister Sejanus, and Thrasyllus persuaded the Tiberius to leave Rome for Capri:

In 31 CE, Antonia accused her daughter Livilla and Sejanus of plotting to remove the Emperor Tiberius, kill Caligula and to seize the throne for themselves. Sejanus was killed on Tiberius’s orders and Livilla was handed over to her mother.

There is no evidence to support the theory that Antonia and Sejanus were in any way allied before the events of 31.

Cassius Dio states that Antonia imprisoned Livilla in her room and allowed her to starve to death.
-- Chrestians and the lost history of Classical Antiquity

According to Tacitus, Macro was active in discrediting Sejanus and in directing the subsequent purge against his family and followers.

Egyptian bas-relief from the ceiling of the portico of a chapel dedicated to Osiris in the Hathor temple at Dendera.
This chapel was begun in the late Ptolemaic period; the now-accepted date for the relief is 50 BCE.
On display at the Musée du Louvre, Paris. (See: The Ptolemaic zodiac: from where the sun shines.)

Appointed high priest at the Temple of Hermes in Alexandria and director of the Library, Balbillus split his time between there and Rome. He foretold an eclipse which fell on one of the emperor’s birthdays, and remained as advisor to Claudius even after the emperor had passed an edict expelling all astrologers from Rome.

We noted in Chrestians and the lost history of Classical Antiquity that Claudius -- born Tiberius Claudius Drusus -- is the son of Antonia Minor and Drusus, who likely appear in the above inscription, along with ‘Jucundus the Chrestian‘, probably the banker in Pompeii and associate of the Caecilii Metelli, one of the most important and wealthiest families in the Roman Republic.

Emperor Nero in 56 appointed Balbillus as Prefect of Egypt, where he stayed until 59.

Balbillus returned to Rome under Roman Emperor Vespasian, who we noted gained his position through the offices of the Lysimachus family in Alexandria.

The library seems to have been maintained and continued in existence until its contents were largely lost during the taking of the city by the Emperor Aurelian (270–275), who was suppressing a revolt by Queen Zenobia of Palmyra. Epiphanius (ca. 310–320 to 403) tells us that by his day the entire Bruchion quarter of Alexandria was laid waste.

Post scriptum

Zenobia had declared tolerance for all religions in her empire and befriended the episkopos of Antioch. She also minted coins at both Antioch and Alexandria, bearing the head of the newly crowned Emperor Aurelian -- a contradiction which has never been explained.

Left: Aurelian coin from the mint of Antioch -- Rev: ORBIS Woman standing left, presenting wreath to emperor who is standing right holding scepter.

In late 270-early 271, she and her son went to Alexandria and there declared that she was a descendent of Cleopatra and thus considered Alexandria and Egypt to be hers by right of bloodline.

The evidence of a descendant of Zenobia can reportedly be confirmed by an inscription found in Rome:

Lucius Septimia Patavinia Balbilla Tyria Nepotilla Odaenathiania

As well as containing the names of her first son Septimius Odaenathus, named probably in the honor of Zenobia’s first husband, note the Balbilla - clearly a familial relationship with Balbillus of the Library.

This line also appears to be of ‘Gallus’ and leads possibly to Gaius Cornelius Gallus (ca. 70–26 BCE), the Roman poet, orator and politician, made prefect of Egypt (Suetonius, Augustus, 66). (Incidentally, in 1978 a papyrus was found at Qasr Ibrim, in Egyptian Nubia, containing nine lines by him -- arguably the oldest surviving manuscript of Latin poetry.)

The Last Miracle and Death of St. Zenobius, by Botticelli

Another possible descendant of Zenobia is Saint Zenobius (337 – 417) venerated as the first episkopos of Florence. His deacons are venerated as St. Eugene and St. Crescentius.

Related posts:

1. The Lysimachus Dynasty
2. Eleazar, Saul and a Deed of Gift at Qumran
3. Chrestians and the lost history of Classical Antiquity
4. Josephus as a source: difficult and dangerous
5. The Gospels According to Hadrian (part one)
6. Resurrection in the second century
7. Archaeology of first-century wizards
8. Jesus son of Sapphias
9. Chrest Magus
10. Archaeology of the earliest canonical gospels
11. Hadrian’s parody
12. The Ptolemaic zodiac: from where the sun shines
13. The Gospels According to Hadrian, Part III: The Aelian Canon and the Main Hand of God
14. Lifting the Vaults of Heavenly and Earthly Peace
15. Mauretanian glassmakers in Roman Britain