388 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE and importance, near the temple of Serapis. They were projected by the first Ptolemy with the help of Deme- trius of Phalerum, actually organised by the second (Philadelphus) ; and they formed the centre of culture for the next centuries. Zenodotus, Callimachus, Eratos- thenes, Aristophanes of Byzantium, and Aristarchus were the first five librarians ; what institution has ever had such a row of giants at its head ? The most immediate work of these libraries was to collect and preserve books ; every ship visiting Alexandria was searched for them, and neither money nor intrigue was sp2ired in acquiring them. The next task was to form a catalogue raisonne — the work mainly of Callimachus, in 120 volumes;^ the next, to separate the genuine works from the spurious, and to explain the difficult and obsolete writers. The other kings of the time formed libraries too, that of the Attalids at Pergamus being the most famous. Pergamus was a greater centre of art than even Alexandria, but in literature proper it was at a disadvantage. It had started too late, when Alexandria had snapped up most of the unique books. It had no papyrus. The plant only grew in Egypt, and the Ptolemies forbade the export of it ; so that Pergamus was reduced to using the costly material which bears its name, 'parch- ment.' In criticism generally Pergamus was allied with the Stoic schools ; and devoted itself to inter- preting, often fancifully enough, the spirit rather than the letter of its ancient writers, and protesting against the dictatorship of Aristarchus and the worship of exact knowledge. One of the first fields for the spirit of research and
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