In

and a god was found whom both Greeks and Egyptians could worship with one accord. Ptolemy II appointed first Zenodotus of Ephesus to be Kepeer of the Great Library, which is said to have contained at that time 400,000, or according to some 700,000 volumes, and afterwards Callimachus the poet, who arranged and labelled the papyri. Ptolemy III added largely to the Great Library, and procured for it the original MSS. of the works of Eschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles; the keepers in his reign were Aristophanes of Byzantium and Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy after Ptolemy added to the public buildings of Alexandria, and, thanks to the energy and enterprise of both Greeks and Jews, the city became one of the wealthiest in the world, and its inhabitants were renowned for their learning and enlightenment. 48 B.C. Julius Cæsar succeeded in entering the city, but unfortunately, if the tradition be true, the Library and Museum were burnt to the ground. Antony, Cæsar's successor in the affections of Cleopatra, is said to have attempted to make good this loss by presenting to her the Pergamenian Library, which was founded by Eumenes II, King of Pergamus 197 B.C., and was supposed to contain 200,000 MSS. During the Roman Period Alexandria was frequently the scene of terrible bloodshed and murder, and fighting between the Romans and Jews, and the Emperor Caracalla (A.D. 211–217) massacred large numbers of Alexandrians, because some of the more ribald of them dared to mock at his appearance and sacred person.

Tradition asserts that St. Mark began to preach Christianity in Alexandria about A.D. 69, and the Coptic Church regards him as the first Patriarch of Alexandria; whether this be so or not matters relatively little, for there is no doubt that there were many Christians in that city at the beginning of the second century. As their numbers grew they became the objects of intense hate both of Romans and Jews, but their presence was tolerated, and a century later they possessed a church and schools, and learned men directed their lives and religion. Under Decius, Valerianus, Diocletian, Julian the Apostate, and other Emperors the Christians suffered severe persecution, and neither peace nor security was to be enjoyed in the city for about 100 years, i.e., from about A.D. 250 to 360. Trade began to decline in the third century, and when the Emperor Constantine founded Constantinople, and made it take the place of Alexandria as the chief eastern seaport of his empire,

the decay of the city was assured. In the reign of Theodosius I the Christians attacked the pagans, and destroyed their statues, and either burned their temples or turned them into churches; at the instigation of Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria, the temple and statue of Serapis were burnt in this reign. The iniquitous behaviour of the Alexandrian Christians is well illustrated by the murder of Hypatia, the daughter of Theon, a modest, beautiful, and learned lady of Alexandria. She was charged with having withdrawn the friendship of the prefect Orestes from Cyril the Archbishop, and Peter the Reader and a number of monks dragged her from her chariot into a church, where they stripped her, scraped her flesh with metal combs, and then tore her limb from limb (A.D 415). The disputes which raged between Arius and Athanasius, George of Cappadocia and Athanasius, Cyril and Nestorius, and the Anthropomorphists did more to injure the city than a foreign army would have done.

In 619 Alexandria was captured by Khusrau (Chosroës), King of Persia, 10 years later Heraclius regained possession of it, but in 641 it fell into the hands of 'Amr ibn al-'Âși, the commander-in-chief of the Khalifah 'Omar. For about 1,150 years Alexandria possessed but little importance, but the bringing of the Mahmûdîyah Canal to the town by Muḥammad 'Ali in 1819 helped to restore a little of its former prosperity, and the docks built by Isma'îl Pâshâ have done a great deal more.

When Alexandria was founded at Rakoti, the Island of Pharos was separated from the mainland; Ptolemy I, or his son Ptolemy Philadelphus, built an embankment or causeway which joined the two, and because it was seven stades long, the name of Heptastadium was given to it. This embankment has in the course of centuries been widened to such an extent that the greater part of the modern city of Alexandria is built upon it. The Heptastadium divided the harbour into two; that on the east was called the Great Harbour, and that on the west Eunostos. It is the latter of these into which modern ships of large tonnage enter, and here are found the breakwater, which is 1 miles long, and the other harbour works which Isma'îl Pâshâ constructed at a cost of £2,500,000 sterling. The Great Harbour is very shallow, and can only be used by fishing boats or craft of light draught. The Pharos, or lighthouse of ancient Alexandria, was built on the island opposite the city in the reign of Ptolemy II by Sostratus, the

Cnidian. It was built of white marble, and cost 800 talents, a sum equal to, if the Alexandrian talent be referred to, about £330,000 in our money; if the Attic talent is to be understood the sum would be £165,000. It is said that Sostratus was allowed to add his name to the monument with that of his royal master, and that he did so, saying, "Sostratus, the Cnidian, the son of Dexiphanes, to the gods, the saviours, for the benefit of sailors." This done he covered over his own name with mortar, and in it cut the name of Ptolemy, intending, when the mortar was dried and cracked, and had fallen out, that his name should stand alone on the

monument.

Both the Museum and Library of Alexandria were probably founded by Ptolemy I. The Museum is said to have occupied one quarter of the whole area of the city, and to have been close to the palace; in connection with it were several buildings which were devoted to the pursuit of learning, and spacious gardens. The earliest Library was in the Brucheion and seems to have been regarded as a part of the Museum; the greatest additions to it were made by Ptolemy II, and it is pretty certain that before the close of the rule of the Ptolemies its papyrus rolls were numbered by hundreds of thousands. In 48 B.C., when Julius Cæsar was besieging the Brucheion quarter, he set fire to the ships in the harbour, and, the flames spreading, the Library was destroyed, and all its books with it. Seneca says that 400,000 books were burned, and Ammianus Marcellinus puts the number at 700,000. According to Mr. A. J. Butler, the library of the kings of Pergamus, which Mark Antony sent as a present to Cleopatra, and which contained 200,000 rolls, was not lodged in the Museum buildings, but in the temple of the Cæsarion, which was begun by Cæsar and finished by Augustus; a part may have gone to the Serapeum. The Serapeum was built to hold the statue of Serapis, and stood to the east of Rakoti, near Pompey's Pillar; it is said to have been one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, and to have been filled with remarkable statues and works of art. That some of the Museum buildings remained for a considerable time after the destruction of the first Library is quite certain, and it is nearly as certain that another great Library was founded in the Serapeum, and we know from Epiphanius that it was called the Daughter Library. The Cæsarion Library probably perished in 366, and the Serapeum Library was, no doubt, destroyed by the Christians under Theophilus the Patriarch, when they destroyed the image

of Serapis, and razed his temple to the ground. Some believe that this Library was not destroyed then, and that it survived until the conquest of Egypt by the Arabs; this belief rests on the statement of Bar Hebræus, born A.D. 1226, died 1286. According to this writer, there was in Egypt at the time of the conquest a man called John the Grammarian, who possessed influence among the Arabs. By some means he was able to make himself known to 'Amr ibn al-'Âși, and after the capture of Alexandria, he ventured to beg for the books of wisdom which were among the Imperial treasures. 'Amr was, however, unable to grant the request without the Khalifah's orders, so he wrote to 'Omar, and received this answer: "As concerning the books which you mention, if what is written in them is consistent with the Book of God (i.e., the Kur'ân), they are not wanted; if they be opposed thereto, they are not wanted. Therefore destroy them." Thereupon, says Bar Hebræus, the books were sent to the bath furnaces in Alexandria, and it took six months to burn them as fuel. This story first appears in writing five and a half centuries after the capture of Alexandria, but it had been current in an unwritten form apparently for centuries; the Copts believe the story even to this day, though they reduce the 180 days of book-burning to 70. Mr. Butler brings forward many commonsense objections to the story, the chief being that John the Grammarian must have been dead several years before the Arabs captured Alexandria. On the other hand, ancient traditions usually have a kernel of truth in them, however small, and there is no reason why this tradition should form an exception. In the face, however, of tradition and facts, and at this distance of time from the event, we can only say, with the Arabs themselves, "God knoweth the truth."

Other important buildings in Alexandria were :- -The Theatre, which faced the little island of Antirrhodus in the Great Harbour; the Sôma, or Mausoleum, which contained the bodies of Alexander the Great and the Ptolemies; the Gymnasium and Paneum, which stood a little to the south-east of the Museum; the Cæsarion, or Palace of Cæsar, which stood a little to the north-east of the Library; a temple of Artemis, in the Lochias quarter, and a temple of Isis on the island of Pharos. The Jews lived in the eastern half of the city, beyond which were the Hippodrome and the cemetery; in Christian times the Catacombs were on the west of the city. The eastern entrance of Alexandria

was called the Canopic Gate, or the Sun-gate. The most interesting remains to be seen now are :

1. Pompey's Pillar, a striking monument made of granite. The shaft is about 70 feet high, and is fluted, and the capital is ornamented with palm leaves; the whole monument, including its pedestal, is nearly 90 feet high. The circumference of the pillar at the base is nearly 28 feet. About the history of this pillar there have been many disputes, and for a long time it was supposed that it was set up in honour of Pompey the Great. It has, however, now been shown that it belongs to the reign of Diocletian, and that it was erected in 302 by the Prefect of Egypt, who appears to have been called Pompey. According to one view, the pillar was the outcome of the gratitude of the Alexandrians to Diocletian, who decreed that a portion of the tribute of corn which was sent from Egypt to Rome should be applied to the relief of the wants of the Alexandrians. On the top of the pillar a statue of the Emperor Diocletian is said to have stood. Some authorities think that the pillar once stood in the Temple of Serapis, and yet others believe that it was set up by Theodosius in 391, to commemorate the destruction of the Serapeum. But no one really knows which view is correct.

2. The Catacombs lie on the west of the city, and contain many tombs of interest; they are built on the site of the old Ptolemaïc Necropolis, and range in date from the first to the fourth century A.D.

3. In the year 1900 a magnificent tomb of the Roman period - was discovered at Kôm ash-Shukâfah, near Pompey's Pillar, in the quarry at this place, by some workmen, and thanks to the exertions of Dr. Botti, the Director of the Museum at Alexandria, this extremely interesting monument has been preserved in the state in which it was found. The tomb is divided into three stages, which descend into the living rock. It is entered by means of a circular staircase (A), which has been more or less restored, and when the visitor has passed through a narrow way with a semicircular recess (B) on each side, he arrives at a large rotunda (c) with a circular gallery (DDDD), out of which open a series of chambers (EEEE) which appear to have been dedicated to the worship of the dead. On the right the two chambers contain niches and sarcophagi; on the left is a large rectangular chamber, the roof of which is supported by four pillars, and it contains three tables hewn out of the solid rock, which were used for festival purposes by