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This is the only ancient account that explicitly states what happened to the library. Some historians dismiss this version of events as motivated by bias against Caesar. Whatever motivated Plutarch, the account establishes that the library no longer existed by AD 100, when he was writing.<ref>Plutarch visited Alexandria, so he would certainly have known if the library still existed in his time.</ref> [[Edward Gibbon]] wrote that the library was destroyed by Christian rioters in AD 391. This claim has been repeated in numerous accounts by anti-Christian writers, but it is not supported by any source older than Gibbon.

This account was written around AD 100. Plutarch is the only ancient source that explicitly states what happened to the library. As Plutarch visited Alexandria, he would have noticed if the institution still existed in his time. Strabo visited Alexandria in 20 BC and wrote a detailed description of the palace and the the Museum, but he does not mention the library at all.<ref>[http://www.bede.org.uk/library.htm The Mysterious Fate of the Great Library of Alexandria]", ''Bede's Library''</ref>

 

upon [Cleopatra] the libraries from Pergamum, in which there were 200,000 volumes." Some historians have interpreted this line to suggest that Cleopatra rebuilt the library using these volumes as the basis of a new collection. Others dismiss the entire speech as wartime propaganda. [[Edward Gibbon]] wrote that the library was destroyed by Christian rioters in AD 391. This claim has been repeated in numerous accounts by anti-Christian writers, but it is not supported by any source older than Gibbon.

The loss of the Library, which contained the original (and sometimes ''only'') copies of most of the ancient world's greatest works of literature, resulted in the decimation of ancient literature, and accounts for the modern paucity of ancient materials. Scholars estimate that historians now have only 1/10th of 1 percent of the ancient world's original source material to rely upon, as an almost exclusive result of the library's destruction.  As an example, among the material lost in the library was a first-hand account of the life of [[Alexander the Great]], written by his general and boyhood friend, [[Ptolemy]]. Historians know of the book's existence by a citation to it in secondary sources.

The loss of the Library, which contained the original (and sometimes ''only'') copies of most of the ancient world's greatest works of literature, resulted in the decimation of ancient literature, and accounts for the modern paucity of ancient materials. Scholars estimate that historians now have only 1/10th of 1 percent of the ancient world's original source material to rely upon, as an almost exclusive result of the library's destruction.  As an example, among the material lost in the library was a first-hand account of the life of [[Alexander the Great]], written by his general and boyhood friend, [[Ptolemy]]. Historians know of the book's existence by a citation to it in secondary sources.