Serapeum

The Serapeum of Alexandria in Ancient Egypt was built by Ptolemy III and dedicated to Serapis, the syncretic Hellenistic-Egyptian god who was made the protector of Alexandria. By all accounts it 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. Strabo tells that this stood in the west of the city.

Destruction of the Serapeum

Bishop Theophilus I 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 (389), forbade public sacrifices, closed temples, and colluded in frequent acts of local violence by Christians against major cult sites. The decree that went out in 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 the sacred sites with Christian churches.

In Alexandria, Bishop Theophilus obtained legal authority over such an abandoned temple, to turn it into a church. He stripped the pagan images and arcana and publicly displayed them in his new church in such an offensive manner that a mob of pagan Alexandrians 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 it.

A letter was sent by Theodosius that Theophilus should grant the offending pagans pardon — but destroy the temple. 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.

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.