IS QUMRAN A LIBRARY? Ian Werrett Saint Martin’s University To say that Pergamum and its rulers, the Attalids, lived in the shad- ow of their rivals the Ptolemies would be a massive understate- ment. In virtually every way possible, save the desire for greatness and prestige, the Attalids’ lagged far behind their Egyptian coun- terparts. At its zenith between the third and second century BCE, Alexandria, the capital city of the Ptolemaic dynasty, was an eco- nomic, artistic and intellectual juggernaut; boasting the wonder that was the Pharos of Alexandria, the largest library in the ancient world, and intellectual luminaries such as Euclid, Archimedes, and Eratosthenes. In the decades leading up to the turn of the millen- nium, the Ptolemies, through a series of aggressive acquisition tac- tics and financial enticements, succeeded in luring hundreds of scholars to Alexandria and securing over 500,000 scrolls for the city’s edification. So enormous were the city’s literary holdings that the Ptolemies were forced to open an annex or “daughter” library in a temple dedicated to Serapis, a syncretic god displaying Greek and Egyptian features that was created as a polemical tool by Ptolemy I (r. 323-283 BCE) to promote the successful blending of the Hellenistic and Egyptian cultures. When Eumenes II (r. 197-160 BCE), the Attalid ruler of Per- gamum, attempted to create a library that would rival that of Alex-