ALEXANDRIA, called ISKANDERIA by the Turks, an ancient city of Lower Egypt, and for a long time its capital. This city was built by Alexander the Great, soon after the overthrow of Tyre, about 333 years before Christ. It is situated on the Mediterranean, twelve miles west of that mouth of the Nile anciently called Canopicum, and lies in Long. 29. 54. E. Lat. 31. 10. N.
Alexander is said to have been induced to build this city on account of its affording a fine port, and being advantageously situated for trade. It realised his expectations; for it soon became the emporium, not only for merchandise, but also for all the arts and sciences of the Greeks. Alexandria, according to Strabo, was 30 stadia in length from east to west, and 7 or 8 stadia in breadth where narrowest. The circumference was about 70 stadia, or 9 miles; but Pliny, including no doubt the suburbs, reckons the circumference 15 miles. Lake Mareotis bathed its walls on the south, and the Mediterranean on the north. It was intersected lengthwise by straight parallel streets. This direction left a free passage to the northern wind, which alone conveys coolness and salubrity into Egypt. A street of 100 feet wide began at the gate of the sea, and terminated at the gate of Canopus. It was decorated with magnificent houses, temples, and public buildings. In its extensive range, the eye wandered with admiration over the marble, the porphyry, and the obelisks, which were destined at some future day to embellish Rome and Constantinople. The great street, the handsomest in the world, was intersected by another of the same breadth. From the middle of this place were to be seen at once vessels arriving under full sail from the north and from the south.
An artificial mole, called the Heptastadium, nearly a mile in length, stretched from the continent to the isle of Pharos, and divided the great harbour into two. That which is to the northward preserved its name. A dike drawn from the island to the rock on which the watch-tower was built, secured it from the westerly winds. The other was called Eunostos, or the Safe Return. The former is called at present the new, the latter the old harbour: they were connected with each other by two breaks in the mole, crossed by two bridges, which could be raised at pleasure. The palace, which advanced beyond the promontory of Lochias, extended as far as the dike, and occupied more than a quarter of the city. Each of the Ptolemies added to its magnificence. It contained within its inclosure, the museum, an asylum for learned men, groves, and buildings worthy of royal majesty, and a temple where the body of Alexander was deposited in a golden coffin. Ptolemy Soter II. violated this monument, carried off the golden coffin, and put a glass one in its place. In the great harbour was the little
island of Anti-Rhodes, where stood a theatre and a royal place of residence. Within the harbour of Eunostos was a smaller one called Kibotos, dug by the hand of man, which communicated with Lake Mareotis by a canal. Between this canal and the palace was the grand temple of Serapis, while that of Neptune stood near the great market place. Alexandria extended likewise along the northern banks of the lake. Its eastern part presented to view the gymnasium, with its porticoes of more than 600 feet long, supported by several rows of marble pillars. Without the gate of Canopus was a spacious circus for the chariot races. Beyond that the suburb of Nicopolis ran along the sea-shore, and seemed a second Alexandria. A superb amphitheatre was built there, with a race-ground, for the celebration of the quinquennalia.
Such is the description of Alexandria left us by the ancients, and above all by Strabo.
The architect employed by Alexander in this undertaking was the celebrated Dinocrates, who had acquired so much reputation by rebuilding the temple of Diana at Ephesus. The city was first rendered populous by Ptolemy Soter, the son of Lagus, one of Alexander's captains, who, after the death of the Macedonian monarch, being appointed governor of Egypt, soon assumed the title of king, and took up his residence at Alexandria, about 304 years before Christ.
In the 30th year of Ptolemy's reign he took his son Ptolemy Philadelphus as his partner in the empire; and by this prince the city of Alexandria was much embellished. In the first year of his reign the famous watch-tower of Pharos was finished. It had been begun several years before by his father; and, when finished, was looked upon as one of the wonders of the world. The same year, the islet of Pharos itself, originally seven furlongs distant from the peninsula, was joined to it by a causeway. This was the work of Dexiphanes, who completed it at the same time that his son put the last hand to the tower. The tower was a large square structure of white marble, on the top of which fires were kept constantly burning for the direction of sailors. The building cost 800 talents; which, if Attic, amounted to L.155,000; if Alexandrian, to L.248,000. This is reckoning the Attic talent at 60, and the Alexandrian at 96 minæ, and each mina equal to L.3. 4s. 7d.
The architect employed in this famous structure is said to have fallen upon the following contrivance to usurp the whole glory to himself. Being ordered to engrave upon it the following inscription,—"King PTOLEMY to the Gods the Saviours, for the benefit of Sailors,"—instead of the king's name he substituted his own, and then filling up the hollow of the marble with mortar, wrote upon it the above-mentioned inscription. In process of time, the mortar being worn off, the following inscription appeared: "SOSTRATUS the CNIDIAN, the son of DEXIPHANES, to the Gods the Saviours, for the benefit of Sailors."
This year also was remarkable for the bringing of the image of Serapis from Pontus to Alexandria. It was set up in one of the suburbs of the city, called Rhacotis, where a temple was afterwards erected to his honour, suitable to the greatness of that stately metropolis, and called, from the god worshipped there, Serapeion. This structure, according to Ammianus Marcellinus, surpassed in beauty and magnificence all others in the world, except the Capitol at Rome. Within the verge of this temple was the famous Alexandrian library. It was founded by Ptolemy Soter, for the use of an academy he instituted in this city; and, by continual additions by his successors, became at last the finest library in the world, containing no fewer than 700,000 volumes. The method followed in collecting books for this library was to seize all those which were brought into Egypt by Greeks or other foreigners. The books were transcribed in the museum
by persons appointed for that purpose: the copies were then delivered to the proprietors, and the originals laid up in the library. Ptolemy Euergetes, having borrowed from the Athenians the works of Sophocles, Euripides, and Æschylus, returned them only the copies, which he caused to be transcribed in as beautiful a manner as possible; presenting them at the same time with fifteen talents (equal to L.2906, 5s., reckoning by the smaller talent) for the exchange.
As the museum was at first in that quarter of the city called Brucheion, near the royal palace, the library was placed there likewise; but when it came to contain 400,000 volumes, another library, within the Serapeion, was erected by way of supplement to it, and on that account called the daughter of the former. In this second library 300,000 volumes in process of time were deposited; making in all 700,000. In the war carried on by Julius Cæsar against the inhabitants of this city, the library in the Brucheion, with all its contents, was reduced to ashes. The library in the Serapeion, however, still remained; and here Cleopatra deposited 200,000 volumes of the Pergamenean library, which Mark Antony presented to her. These, and others added from time to time, rendered the new library at Alexandria more numerous and considerable than the former; but when the temple of Serapis was demolished under the archiepiscopate of Theophilus A.D. 389, the valuable library was pillaged or destroyed, and twenty years afterwards the empty shelves excited the regret and indignation of every intelligent spectator. Afterwards the church and seat of the patriarchs may have been enriched with considerable collections of books, consisting chiefly of theological controversy, but the library no longer contained the 400,000 or 700,000 volumes collected by the curiosity and magnificence of the Ptolemies. For 293 years Alexandria was the capital of the kingdom of the Ptolemies.
This city, as we have already observed, soon became extremely populous, and was embellished both by its own princes and the Romans; but, like most other noted cities of antiquity, it has been the seat of terrible massacres. About 141 years before Christ it was almost totally depopulated by Ptolemy Physcon. That barbarous monster, without the least provocation, gave free liberty to his guards to plunder his metropolis, and murder the inhabitants at their pleasure. The cruelties practised on this occasion cannot be expressed, and the few who escaped were so terrified that they fled into other countries. Upon this, Physcon, that he might not reign over empty houses, invited strangers from the neighbouring countries; by whom the city was repopulated, and soon recovered its former splendour. On this occasion many learned men, having been obliged to fly, proved the means of reviving learning in Greece, Asia Minor, and the islands of the Archipelago, and other places where it was almost totally lost.
The new inhabitants were not treated with much more kindness by Physcon than the old ones had been; for, on their complaining of his tyrannical behaviour, he resolved on a general massacre of the young men. Accordingly, when they were one day assembled in the gymnasium, or place of public exercise, he ordered it to be set on fire; so that they all perished, either in the flames, or by the swords of the tyrant's mercenaries, whom he had posted at all the avenues.
Though Julius Cæsar was obliged to carry on a war for some time against this city, it seems not to have suffered much damage, except the burning of the library already mentioned. Before Cæsar left Alexandria, in acknowledgment of the assistance he had received from the Jews he confirmed all their privileges there, and even engraved his decree on a pillar of brass. This, however, did not prevent the massacre of 50,000 of them in this city, about the year of Christ 67.
The city of Alexandria seems to have fallen into decay
soon after this, and to have forfeited many of its ancient privileges, though for what offence is not known; but when Hadrian visited Egypt, about the year 122, it was almost totally ruined. He repaired both the public and private buildings, not only restoring the inhabitants to their ancient privileges, but heaping new favours upon them; for which they returned him their solemn thanks, and conferred upon him what honours they could while he was present; though as soon as he was gone they published the most bitter laments against him.
The fickle and satirical humour of the Alexandrians was highly offensive to Hadrian, though he visited it with no punishment. Caracalla, however, did not let it pass so easily. That tyrant, when he visited their city in the year 215, having become the subject of their foolish satires, ordered a general massacre by his numerous troops, who were dispersed all over the city. The inhuman order being given, all were murdered, without distinction of age or sex; so that in one night's time the whole city floated in blood, and every house was filled with carcasses. The monster who occasioned this had retired during the night to the temple of Serapis, to implore the protection of that deity; and, not yet satiated with slaughter, commanded the massacre to be continued all the next day; so that very few of the inhabitants remained. As if even this had not been sufficient, he stripped the city of all its ancient privileges; suppressed the academy; ordered all strangers who lived there to depart; and that the few who remained might not have the satisfaction of seeing one another, he cut off all communication of one street with another, by walls built for that purpose, and guarded by troops.
Notwithstanding this terrible disaster, Alexandria soon recovered its former splendour after the death of Caracalla. It was long esteemed the first city in the world, next to Rome; and we may judge of its magnificence, and the multitude of people contained in it, from the account of Diodorus Siculus, who relates that in his time (B.C. 44) Alexandria had on its rolls 300,000 free inhabitants. Mannert, a learned German writer, thinks the slaves must have been at least equally numerous; and thus the city, in its flourishing periods, had contained not less than 600,000 inhabitants. According to Eutychius, it was on the 22d December A.D. 640, that Amrou, Omar's general, took it by storm after a siege of 14 months, and with the loss of 23,000 men. Heraclius, then emperor of Constantinople, did not send a single ship to its assistance. This prince affords an example very rare in history: he had displayed some vigour in the beginning of his reign, and then suffered himself to be lulled into idleness and effeminacy. Awakened suddenly from his lethargy by the noise of the conquests of Chosroes, that scourge of the East, he put himself at the head of his armies, distinguished himself as a great captain from his very first campaign, laid waste Persia for seven years, and returned to his capital covered with laurels: he then became a theologian on the throne, lost all his energy, and amused himself the rest of his life with disputing upon monotheism, whilst the Arabs were robbing him of the finest provinces of the empire. Deaf to the cries of the unfortunate inhabitants of Alexandria, as he had been to those of the people of Jerusalem, who defended themselves for two years, he left them a sacrifice to the rising fortune of the indefatigable Amrou. All their intrepid youth perished with their arms in their hands.
The victor, astonished at his conquest, wrote to the caliph, "I have taken the city of the west. It is of an immense extent. I cannot describe to you how many wonders it contains. There are 4000 palaces, 4000 baths, 12,000 dealers in fresh oil, 12,000 gardeners, 40,000 Jews who pay tribute, 400 theatres or places of amusement."
Alexan- At this time, according to the Arabian historians, Alex-
dris. andria consisted of three cities, viz. Menna, or the port,
which includes Pharos and the neighbouring parts; Alex-
andria, properly so called, where the modern Alexandria
now stands; and Nekita, probably the Necropolis of Jo-
sephus and Strabo.
The following story relating to the destruction of the fa-
mous library is told by Abulharagius, whose account, how-
ever, is utterly irreconcilable with the silence of all historians
of the period.—See Gibbon, Decline and Fall, &c. c. 51.
At that time John, surnamed the Grammarian, a famous
Peripatetic philosopher, being in the city, and in high favour
with Amrou Ebn al Aas, the Saracen general, begged of
him the royal library. Amrou replied that it was not in his
power to grant such a request; but that he would write to
the caliph on that head, since, without knowing his pleasure,
he dared not to dispose of a single book. He accordingly
wrote to Omar, who was then caliph, acquainting him with
the request of his friend; to which he is said to have re-
plied, That if those books contained the same doctrine with
the Koran, they could be of no use, since the Koran con-
tained all necessary truths; but if they contained anything
contrary to that book, they ought not to be suffered; and,
therefore, whatever their contents were, he ordered them
to be destroyed. Pursuant to this order, they were distri-
buted among the public baths, where, for the space of six
months, they served to supply the fires of those places,
of which there was an incredible number in Alexandria. See
Amrou.
After the city was taken, Amrou thought proper to pur-
sue the Greeks who had fled farther up the country; and
therefore marched out of Alexandria, leaving but a very
slender garrison in the place. The Greeks, who had before
fled on board their ships, being apprised of this, returned
on a sudden, surprised the town, and put all the Arabs they
met with to the sword; but Amrou, receiving advice of
what had happened, suddenly returned, and drove them out
of it with great slaughter; after which the Greeks were so
intimidated, that he had nothing further to fear from them.—
A few years after, however, Amrou being deprived of his
government by the caliph Othman, the Egyptians were so
much displeased with his dismissal that they showed a ten-
dency to revolt. Constantine, the Greek emperor, having
received intelligence of their disaffection, determined on
the reduction of Alexandria. For this purpose he sent the
eunuch Manuel, his general, with a powerful army, to retake
that place; which, by the assistance of the Greeks in the
city, who kept a secret correspondence with the imperial
forces while at sea, and joined them as soon as they had
made a descent, he effected with inconsiderable loss. The
caliph, now perceiving his mistake, immediately restored
Amrou to his former dignity. This step was very agreeable
to the natives, who, having had experience of the military
skill and bravery of this renowned general, and apprehend-
ing that they should be called to an account by the Greeks
for their former perfidious conduct, had petitioned Othman
to send him again into Egypt.—Upon Amrou's arrival, there-
fore, at Alexandria, the Copts or natives, with the traitor
Al-Mokawkas (who had formerly betrayed to Amrou the for-
tress of Mesr) at their head, not only joined him, but sup-
plied him with all kinds of provisions, exciting him to attack
the Greeks without delay. This he did; and after a most
obstinate struggle, which lasted several days, drove them into
the town, where, for some time, they defended themselves
with great bravery, and repelled the utmost efforts of the
besiegers. This so exasperated Amrou that he swore, if
God enabled him to conquer the Greeks, he would throw
down the walls of the city, and make it as easy of access as
the house of a prostitute. Nor did he fail to execute his
threat; for, having taken the town by storm, he quite dis-
mantled it, entirely demolishing the walls and fortifications.
The lives of the citizens, however, were spared, at least as
far as lay in the general's power; but many of them were
put to the sword by the soldiers on their first entrance. In
one quarter particularly, Amrou found them butchering the
Alexandrians with unrelenting barbarity; to which, how-
ever, by his seasonable interposition, he put a stop, and on
that spot erected a mosque, which he called the mosque of
mercy.
From this time Alexandria never recovered its former
splendour. It continued under the dominion of the caliphs
till the year 924, when it was taken by the Magrebians,
two years after its great church had been destroyed by fire.
This church was called by the Arabs Al Kaisaria or Ces-
area, and had formerly been a pagan temple, erected in
honour of Saturn by Cleopatra.
The city was soon after abandoned by the Magrebians;
but in 928 they again made themselves masters of it. Their
fleet being afterwards defeated by that of the caliph, Abul
Kâsem the Magrebian general retired from Alexandria,
leaving there only a garrison of 300 men; of which Tha-
mâal, the caliph's admiral, being apprised, he in a few days
appeared before the town, and carried off the remainder of
the inhabitants to an island of the Nile called Aboukir. This
was done to prevent Abul Kâsem from meeting with any
entertainment at Alexandria, in case he should think proper
to return. According to Eutychius, above 200,000 of the
miserable inhabitants perished this year.
What contributed to raise Alexandria to the extraordi-
nary height of splendour it enjoyed for a long time, was its
being the centre of commerce between the eastern and
western parts of the world. It was with the view of becom-
ing master of this lucrative trade that Alexander built this
city, after having extirpated the Tyrians, who formerly en-
grossed all the traffic of the East. Of the immense riches
which that trade afforded, we may form an idea from con-
sidering that the Romans accounted it a point of policy to
oppress the Egyptians, especially the Alexandrians. Ex-
travagant accounts have been given of the wealth of Alex-
andria; but according to Strabo, the revenue of all Egypt
under the last and most indolent of the Ptolemies, amounted
only to 12,500 talents, or about two millions and a half of
our money. This was afterwards considerably increased by
the more exact economy of the Romans, and the increase
of the trade of Ethiopia and India.
Though the revolutions which happened in the govern-
ment of Egypt after it fell into the hands of the Mahometans
frequently affected this city to a very great degree, yet
still the excellence of its port, and the innumerable con-
veniences resulting from the East India trade to the possessors
of Egypt, preserved it from total destruction, even when in
the hands of the most barbarous nations. Thus, in the 13th
century, when the European nations began to acquire a taste
for the elegancies of life, the old mart of Alexandria began
to revive; and the port, though far from recovering its for-
mer magnificence, grew once more famous by becoming the
centre of commerce: but having fallen under the dominion
of the Turks, and the passage round the Cape of Good Hope
being discovered by the Portuguese in 1497, a fatal blow
was given to the Alexandrian commerce, and the city thence-
forward rapidly declined.