Alexandria (ancient city)

in Egypt

When Alexander the Great seized Egypt from the Persians, he planned the foundation of the new city of Alexandria, the first known city to bear the name of its founder rather than that of a god or mythical hero. It was established, Strabo records, on the site of the fishing village of Rhacotis (the name of Alexandria remained Rakoti in Coptic); it needed remarkable foresight to imagine in this poor village the spectacular city of the future. Most of Alexander's colonies were located and planned with a military purpose, and no doubt he had in mind, when selecting the site of Alexandria, that existing harbors in the Delta could not accommodate a large fleet. However, the foundation was also, and primarily, prompted by commercial motives, so that it could take the place of Tyre in Phoenicia, which he had destroyed. Alexandria faced both ways, and was defensible from either side: it was linked to the interior of the country by Nile canals debouching in Lake Mareotis (Maryut), and to the north it had two fine harbors opening on to the Mediterranean.

On his departure from Egypt, Alexander appointed Cleomenes, a Greek from Naucratis (Kom Gieif), as financial administrator of Egypt, responsible for building and populating the new city. The latter aim was largely achieved by transferring the citizens of Canopus, northeast of Alexandria, to the site. On the death of Alexander in 323, Egypt was taken over by Ptolemy I Soter, the son of Lagus, who had the body of Alexander buried at Memphis (Mit Riheina) until a worthy tomb could be erected for him at Alexandria. Ptolemy I had Cleomenes assassinated, and was crowned King of Egypt in 304, founding the Lagid dynasty, which lasted two hundred and seventy-four years. During his reign Alexandria was largely constructed and adorned with many of its most famous buildings. They employed as their symbol and guide the Pharos lighthouse (now Kait Bey fort), planned by Sostratus of Cnidus during this period, and completed under Ptolemy I's son and successor Ptolemy II Philadelphus to become one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The city's harbors were able—unlike any others in the Delta—to accommodate the large ships of the epoch.

Ptolemy I moved his capital from Memphis to Alexandria, where he began the construction of royal palaces, comprising a cluster of Greek pavilions, halls and living rooms arranged around elegant parks. He also developed a new cult of Serapis (derived from Osor-hapi, already worshipped at Rhacotis), in order to give the Greek community its own patron god, and began the construction of a huge temple in his honor upon an eminence overlooking Alexandria. Moreover, it was Ptolemy I who, acting on the advice of Aristotle's pupil Demetrius of Phaleron, established the Museum. This foundation, including a large dining room, a crescent-shaped portico and a colonnaded, tree-lined garden, was designed to house a group of scholars, and rapidly developed into an increasingly impressive center of state-subsidized learning, the most important of all centers of Greek culture.

Nearby, but more or less separate, was the Library, which later equalled and then eclipsed the Museum in fame. Also initiated by Ptolemy I, but more particularly developed by his son, the Library contained by far the greatest quantity of books that had ever been collected, perhaps numbering as many as half a million volumes. The Chief Librarians, like the Directors of the Museum, were a succession of eminent scholars appointed by the king; the second of them was also a famous poet, Apollonius Rhodius (c 295–c 215 BC), and his assistant was another, Callimachus of Cyrene (c 310–c 240 BC). The literary atmosphere stimulated in Alexandria by these cultural institutions also attracted Theocritus of Syracuse (c 310–c 250 BC), pioneer of bucolic poetry. It was understandable that the whole poetic movement of Hellenistic Greece should be described as Alexandrian.

With remarkable speed Alexandria became the largest of all Greek cities. Centered on a principal avenue wider than any in the world, it extended over a rectangular area four miles long and three-quarters of a mile wide, and comprised, before 200 BC, approximately 500,000 inhabitants. These included the descendants of the Greek and Macedonian settlers; the city was careful to preserve its Greek traditions, and for a long time maintained links with the city-states of the homeland. The Greeks of Alexandria, although not represented by their own assembly or a council (or if they possessed the latter they soon lost it), enjoyed their own privileged organization (politeuma). The extensive Jewish community also maintained an autonomous organization, which was directed by presbyteroi or elders (according to the Letter of Aristeas) under a president. But over and above these civic units, Alexandria was also the home of many thousands of Egyptians, and people of countless other races. It was a place of uniquely cosmopolitan character, a center that invited people of all races and beliefs to share in its endlessly varied and vigorous activities.

The city also became enormously rich, developing a highly controlled command economy that made vast fortunes by exporting the surpluses of Egypt, and trading throughout the near and middle east, of which it became the principal port. This maritime commerce came naturally to Alexandria, because, despite its contacts with the interior of Egypt by way of the Nile, it never quite belonged to the country. The city was not so much its center as its superstructure. People spoke of traveling from Alexandria `to Egypt.’ It was also the capital of an empire. For the Ptolemies were not kings `of Egypt,’ but rulers, in undefined terms, over territories that at one time extended along the coast of Asia Minor. Southern Syria and Lebanon (Coele Syria) were fought over with the Seleucids no less than five times, until the region was finally lost to them in 200. Thereafter the powers of the Ptolemaic kingdom gradually shrank, as it became first overshadowed by Rome and then virtually its client, until its last monarch Cleopatra VII made a final bid to revive its fortunes by political and amorous alliances first with Julius Caesar and then with Antony (Marcus Antonius.) But the bid failed, and in 30 BC, after Antony and Cleopatra had committed suicide in Alexandria, their conqueror Octavian, the future Augustus, annexed Egypt as a very special and personally controlled province of the Roman empire. Alexandria, enlarged by a new suburb named Nicopolis (Victory City), remained the capital of the new province (even if often described as Alexandria `ad Aegyptum’), and although its political independence had gone it still witnessed important events. Under Gaius (AD 37–41) and his successor Claudius, for example, there were serious riots between Greeks and Jews; and it was in Alexandria that Vespasian had himself proclaimed emperor in 69. Caracalla, when mocked by the inhabitants, massacred a considerable number of young people (215); Aurelian, to avenge an attempt at independence made by the city after his defeat of Zenobia, queen of Palmyra—one of a number of usurpers represented on the city's abundant provincial coinage—destroyed the royal quarter (272), and Diocletian inflicted even more violent destruction after a further revolt (294/5).

Meanwhile, however, Alexandria, although now only the capital of the small province of Aegyptus Jovia, had entered a period of new and extraordinary activity as a center of Christian theological debate. Tradition had it that St. Mark had come there in person and converted Alexandrians to Christianity. In the third century the Alexandrian School of Christian learning produced the outstanding figures of Clement and Origen. It was at Alexandria that the dissident beliefs of Arianism were formulated, and it was there that the towering, combative Athanasius the Great (328–76) served as bishop. In 415 the learned Hypatia, influential as teacher of the pagan Neoplatonist philosophy, was lynched at Alexandria by a crowd of angry Christians, at the instigation of their bishop Cyril, subsequently sainted.

Ancient Alexandria is difficult to reconstruct, since nearly all the buildings have been destroyed and debris has covered the old levels. According to reports that have not yet been fully confirmed, remains of the Ptolemaic palaces have been discovered in the eastern section of the harbor area. The exact locations of the Museum and Library within the royal quarter are still not known, however, nor are the sites of the tombs of Alexander and the Ptolemies (though the former has been tentatively identified at Bab-el-Charki). Excavations have revealed other tombs, often interestingly decorated and elaborately cut out of the rock, in various parts of the city and its neighborhood, notably at Anfushy (second to first centuries BC), Wardian, Shatby, Moustafa Pasha, Kom-el-Shugafa (Hill of Tiles; late first or second century AD), and Hadra (now destroyed). A theater constructed of marble has been found beside the railroad station. The so-called `Pompey's pillar’ is a column erected by Diocletian; excavations around its base have revealed the foundation deposits of the Temple of Serapis (Serapeum), dating from the time of Ptolemy III Euergetes (246–221 BC), who restored or completed the building. Late Roman houses have been discovered at Kom-el-Dikkeh, and at Qusur al-Rubaiyyat archaeologists have uncovered the Monastery of Kellia, dating back to the fourth century AD.