I watched a 30 minute video on YouTube yesterday, made with artificial intelligence (i.e., no real actors), showing what life was like in ancient Greek and Roman Alexandria. It started with Alexander the Great ordering a city to be built on the site of present day Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast in Egypt, with the chief architect drawing out a monumental grid pattern, and with the construction of three areas of the city, the Greek area, the Jewish area, and the Egyptian area. It eventually became a diverse, but segregated city of about 600,000 and thrived for a few hundred years under the Ptolemys, eventually threatening to take away from Rome the title of most important city of the world. It was not only a port and commercial center and a political center, but it became a center of learning, with a library designed to hold all of the world’s knowledge which in effect became the world’s first research institution, and the tallest light house in the world, known as one of the “seven wonders” of the ancient world.

When Cleopatra became Queen and allied herself with Caesar, all seemed well, but Caesar’s death ended that, and although Marc Anthony tried to keep the Roman-Alexandrian alliance alive, there were too many Romans who thought Alexandria was looting Rome’s prominence and determined to stop it, the result being a naval attack and virtual civil war.

Soon, Alexandria was a dependency of Rome, although its commercial activity, particularly in bringing grain to the Italian mainland from North Africa continued. But in the 4th century, tragedy struck, in the person of an underwater earthquake of enormous strength, followed by an equally strong tsunami, which destroyed the portion of the city nearest the sea (as well as all the port facilities), which included the library and the royal palaces. Alexandria was never the same.

But the city existed and prospered for over 300 years – that is 50 years longer than there has been a United States. And undoubtedly those living there assumed that its prosperity would go on and on and possibly last forever. But this was not the case. Politics changed things. The social construct (one of supposed unity) failed. And the earthquake and tsunami sealed its fate. It was never the same.

The film blamed the destruction of Alexandria as a result of the Roman occupation  and the sector of Alexandria hardest hit was its Jewish population, estimated at about 100,000, 9th largely wiped out in Roman inspired pogroms and riots. This was pretty much the same time that the relationship between Romans and Jews in Judea had deteriorated, the Second Temple destroyed, and Jerusalem made Jew-free as a result of Roman massacres there.

I had never seen these two events connected in this way, but – if true – it certainly means that well before Nazi Germany, there was a massive holocaust. Estimates of the total number of Jews killed by the Romans in Judea and North Africa? 1,500,000 to 1,750,000. Sheesh.

What I don’t know about this time is the relationship between the Jews in Judea and the Jews in Alexandria. I understand the troubles that the Romans were having with the Jews in Judea, who were opposed to many aspects of Roman hegemony, but how did this carry over to Alexandria? I doubt that it was Jew-hatred or antisemitism per se, although it could have been. But after all, Rome itself apparently had 50,000 to 75,000 Jews living there, and it was estimated that at one time (this time?), the Roman Empire was about 10% Jewish and had between 4,000,000 and 7,000,000 Jews living there. It seems (based on what little I know) that it was only the Jews of Judea (not even the Jews who lived in today’s north of Israel, such as the Galilee) who were attacked by the Romans.

So, perhaps, the Jews of Alexandria were identified as being close to the Jews in Judea, in Jerusalem. Or perhaps, as a result of the troubles in Jerusalem, the Jews of Alexandria, being 100,000 strong, rioted in protest to what was happening to their co-religionists “back home”. Or perhaps, in Alexandria things were just becoming unstable. The Greek population, for hundreds of years the elite, were losing their elite status to the Roman conquerors, and suddenly saw themselves in competition with the Jews for commercial and other rights as citizens of Alexandria. Or a combination of all of the above.

Whatever happened, it obviously was not good. Rather, it was one more example of a “civilization”, built up over centuries to a high degree of sophistication, being destroyed. We have examples of that not only 2000 years ago, but during the 20th century itself. And more is threatened during the 21st. Donald Trump threatens Iranian/Persian civilization. Muslim groups threaten Israel/Jewish civilization. Certainly Israel threatens Palestinian civilization.

Today, the world population is about 8,300,000,000. What would it be if there had not been major wars? I don’t know that, but I have seen estimates that the world Jewish population today of something over 15 million would be closer to something over 30 million had the Holocaust not occurred. Perhaps a world without wars would have, long ago, seen a population which by far had outstripped the ability of the earth to sustain it.

So, maybe we need wars? Maybe we need to wipe out entire cities, entire civilizations, and being anti-war is a way to make us feel good, but actually would lead to much more tragedy than wiping out a million or more people now and then? Maybe I should go back to bed?