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2,300 years ago, the rulers of Alexandria set out to fulfill one of humanity's most audacious goals:
2300年前，亚历山大港的统治者意图实现人类最大胆的目标：
to collect all the knowledge in the world under one roof.
将世界上的所有知识汇集一处。
In its prime, the Library of Alexandria housed an unprecedented number of scrolls and attracted some of the Greek world's greatest minds.
在亚历山大港图书馆鼎盛时期，它馆藏的卷轴数量之多史无前例，并吸引了一些希腊最伟大的学者前来。
But by the end of the 5th century CE, the great library had vanished.
但到公元5世纪末，这座雄伟的图书馆消失了。
Many believed it was destroyed in a catastrophic fire. The truth of the library's rise and fall is much more complex.
许多人认为，它毁于一场大火。其实，图书馆崛起和衰落的真相更为复杂。
The idea for the library came from Alexander the Great.
图书馆这一构想来自于亚历山大大帝。
After establishing himself as a conqueror,
在他所向披靡、征服各处之后，
the former student of Aristotle turned his attention to building an empire of knowledge headquartered in his namesake city.
曾师从亚里士多德的他，将目标转向建造一座知识帝国，建在以他名字命名的城市。
He died before construction began, but his successor, Ptolemy I, executed Alexander's plans for a museum and library.
图书馆开建之前，他就去世了，但他的继任者托勒密一世继续执行亚历山大的计划，开始建造博物馆和图书馆。
Located in the royal district of the city, the Library of Alexandria may have been built with grand Hellenistic columns,
亚历山大港图书馆位于城市的皇家区域，人们推测其建筑包含高大的希腊圆柱，
native Egyptian influences, or a unique blend of the two -- there are no surviving accounts of its architecture.
且受到当地埃及人的影响，或是融合二者特点--现存资料中没有其建筑细节。
We do know it had lecture halls, classrooms, and, of course, shelves.
我们能够确定的是它拥有演讲厅、教室、书架。
As soon as the building was complete, Ptolemy I began to fill it with primarily Greek and Egyptian scrolls.
图书馆建成后，托勒密一世开始用以希腊和埃及为主的卷轴填充图书馆。
He invited scholars to live and study in Alexandria at his expense.
他出资邀请学者在亚历山大港居住和学习。
The library grew as they contributed their own manuscripts, but the rulers of Alexandria still wanted a copy of every book in the world.
这些学者贡献的手稿使得图书馆内文献不断增加，但亚历山大港的统治者仍希望获得世上所有书籍拷贝。
Luckily, Alexandria was a hub for ships traveling through the Mediterranean.
幸运的是，地中海地区的船只都会经过亚历山大港。
Ptolemy III instituted a policy requiring any ship that docked in Alexandria to turn over its books for copying.
托勒密三世制定政策，要求所有停靠亚历山大港的船只呈上书籍供图书馆誊抄。
Once the Library's scribes had duplicated the texts, they kept the originals and sent the copies back to the ships.
一旦复制完成后，书籍会保存在图书馆，而把复制版归还给船只。
Hired book hunters also scoured the Mediterranean in search of new texts,
一些搜书者接受雇佣，前去地中海地区找寻新书，
and the rulers of Alexandria attempted to quash rivals by ending all exports of the Egyptian papyrus used to make scrolls.
而亚历山大港的统治者停止出口埃及人制作卷轴的纸莎草纸，来试图打压竞争对手。
These efforts brought hundreds of thousands of books to Alexandria.
这些举措为亚历山大港带来了数十万的书籍。
As the library grew, it became possible to find information on more subjects than ever before,
随着图书馆规模扩大，人们虽能找到更多领域的信息，
but also much more difficult to find information on any specific subject.
但找寻某特定科目信息时却很困难。
Luckily, a scholar named Callimachus of Cyrene set to work on a solution,
幸运的是，学者卡利马科斯着手解决了这一问题，
creating the pinakes, a 120-volume catalog of the library's contents, the first of its kind.
他编纂了书册总录，多达120卷，这是史上第一本书册目录。
Using the pinakes, others were able to navigate the Library's swelling collection. They made some astounding discoveries.
利用书册目录，人们才能在日益增大的图书馆藏中定位书籍。他们有了一些惊人的发现。
1,600 years before Columbus set sail, Eratosthenes not only realized the earth was round,
在哥伦布出海航行的1600年前，埃拉托斯特尼不仅发现地球是圆的，
but calculated its circumference and diameter within a few miles of their actual size.
还算出了地球的周长和直径，计算结果与实际仅差几英里。
Heron of Alexandria created the world's first steam engine
亚历山大港的希罗造出了世界上第一台蒸汽发动机，
over a thousand years before it was finally reinvented during the Industrial Revolution.
这比工业革命时期再次发明的蒸汽机时间早了一千多年。
For about 300 years after its founding in 283 BCE, the library thrived.
自公元前283年建成后的300年间，图书馆繁荣发展。
But then, in 48 BCE, Julius Caesar laid siege to Alexandria and set the ships in the harbor on fire.
但是在公元前48年，尤里乌斯·凯撒包围了亚历山大港，并点火烧了港口停留的船只。
For years, scholars believed the library burned as the blaze spread into the city.
多年来，学者们一直认为大火蔓延至城区而烧毁了图书馆。
It's possible the fire destroyed part of the sprawling collection,
大火可能烧毁了部分馆藏书籍，
but we know from ancient writings that scholars continued to visit the library for centuries after the siege.
但从古代的文字记录中发现，在围困发生后的几个世纪里，学者们依然继续拜访图书馆。
Ultimately, the library slowly disappeared as the city changed from Greek, to Roman, Christian, and eventually Muslim hands.
最终，图书馆在统治者的更迭中慢慢消失了，从希腊人到罗马人、基督徒、到最终被穆斯林统治。
Each new set of rulers viewed its contents as a threat rather than a source of pride.
每届统治者都将馆藏视为威胁，而不是引以为傲的资源。
In 415 CE, the Christian rulers even had a mathematician named Hypatia murdered
在公元415年，基督教统治者甚至谋杀了数学家希帕提娅，
for studying the library's ancient Greek texts, which they viewed as blasphemous.
只因她研究了图书馆的古希腊的文字资料，这些资料被视为亵渎神灵。
Though the Library of Alexandria and its countless texts are long gone,
虽然亚历山大图书馆和其不计其数的资料已消失，
we're still grappling with the best ways to collect, access, and preserve our knowledge.
我们仍在努力找出最佳办法来收集、获取和保存我们的知识。
There's more information available today and more advanced technology to preserve it,
如今的信息数量更多，也有更先进的技术来保存它们，
though we can't know for sure that our digital archives will be more resistant to destruction than Alexandria's ink and paper scrolls.
但我们无法确定是否这些数字化资料比亚历山大图书馆的纸墨卷更能经受各种损害。
And even if our reservoirs of knowledge are physically secure,
即使我们的知识储备在物理上是安全的，
they will still have to resist the more insidious forces that tore the library apart:
但它们仍然要对抗其他摧毁图书馆的更可怕力量：
fear of knowledge, and the arrogant belief that the past is obsolete.
对知识的恐惧和认为过去的即过时的自大想法。
The difference is that, this time, we know what to prepare for.
不同的是，这一次，我们知道要应对什么。
