Hypatia III

Continued from Part II

The Mean Streets of Old Alexandria: Part III
The Deconstruction of the Serapeum

AD 392.  When Hypatia, at 37, is already a well-known philosopher, and Synesius has just begun his studies in Alexandria, the temple of Serapis was destroyed.  It begins thusly, according to Rufinus of Aquileia, a probable eye-witness to the riot,

“There was a certain basilica belonging to the public domain, very old and quite neglected.  The Emperor Constantius, it was said, had given it...