Alexandria: A History and a GuideForster, E. M. (Edward Morgan)
History
Alexandria: A History and a Guide
Forster, E. M. (Edward Morgan)
Alexandria (Egypt) -- Guidebooks; Alexandria (Egypt) -- History
Apollonius; I have paid these four gentlemen, and therefore I have paid
you.”
(C) ART.
Unimportant. Alexandria had her special industries—_e.g._ glass, terra
cotta, “Egyptian Queen” pottery, and woven stuffs, and her mint was
famous; but for creative artists the Ptolemies looked over seas. Greek
and Egyptian motives did not blend in Art as they did in Religion;
attempts occur, but they are not notable and on the whole the city
follows the general Hellenistic tendencies of the time. These tendencies
led as we have seen away from the ideal and the abstract, and towards
portraiture and the dainty and the picturesque. Men had lost for the
time many illusions, both religious and political, and were trying to
beautify their private lives, and the tombs of those whom they had
loved.
GLASS AND “EGYPTIAN QUEEN” POTTERY: Museum, Room 17.
TERRA COTTAS: Museum, Room 18.
PTOLEMAIC COINS: Museum, Room 3.
BLEND OF GREEK AND EGYPTIAN MOTIVES: Museum Rooms 11 and 15; also
Kom es Chogafa Catacombs, (p. 148).
TOMB ORNAMENTS: Museum, Rooms 17-22.
(D) PHILOSOPHY.
Unimportant. The Ptolemies imported some second-rate disciples of
Aristotle to give tone to the Mouseion, but took no interest in the
subject, and were indeed averse to it, since it might lead to freedom of
thought. It was not until their dynasty was extinct that the great
school of Alexandrian Philosophy arose. (See p. 60, under heading “The
Spiritual City.”)
(E) SCIENCE.
The Ptolemies were more successful over Science than over Literature.
They preferred it, for it could not criticise their divine right. Its
endowment was the greatest achievement of the dynasty and makes
Alexandria famous until the end of time. Science had been studied in
Ancient Greece, but sporadically: there had been no co-ordination, no
laboratories, and though important truths might be discovered or
surmised, they were in danger of oblivion because they could not be
popularised. The foundation of the Mouseion changed all this. Working
under royal patronage and with every facility, science leapt to new
heights, and gave valuable gifts to mankind. The third century B.C. is
(from this point of view) the greatest period that civilisation has ever
known—greater even than the nineteenth century A.D. It did not bring
happiness or wisdom: science never does. But it explored the physical
universe and harnessed many powers for our use. Mathematics, Geography,
Astronomy, Medicine, all grew to maturity in the little space of the
land between the present Rue Rosette and the sea, and if we had any
sense of the fitting, some memorial to them would arise on the spot
to-day.
(i). MATHEMATICS.
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