Dictionary of Greek and Roman

Geography (1854)
William
Smith,
LLD,
Ed.
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alexandreia-geo

ALEXANDREIA

ALEXANDREIA, ALEXANDRIA, or ALEXANDREA ( : Eth. , more

rarely , , , , ,
Alexandrinus; fem. : the modern El-Skanderish), the Hellenic capital of Egypt, was founded by
Alexander the Great in B.C. 332. It stood in lat. 31 N.; long. 47 E. (Arrian, 3.1, p. 156; Q. Curt. 4.8.2.) On
his voyage from Memphis to Canobus he was struck by the natural advantages of the little town of Rhactis,
on the north-eastern angle of the Lake Mareotis. The harbour of Rhactis, with the adjacent island of Pharos,
had been from very remote ages (Hom. Od. 4.355) the resort of Greek and Phoenician sea-rovers, and in the
former place the Pharaohs kept a permanent garrison, to prevent foreigners entering their dominions by any
other approach than the city of Naucratis and the Canobic branch of the Nile. At Rhactis Alexander
determined to construct the future capital of his western conquests. His architect Deinocrates was instructed
to surveythe harbour, and to draw out a plan of a military and commercial metropolis of the first rank. (Vitruv
ii. prooem.; Solin. 100.32; Amm. Marc. 22.40; V. Max. 1.4.1.) The ground-plan was traced by Alexander
himself; the building was commenced immediately, but the city was not completed until the reign of the
second monarch of the Lagid line, Ptolemy Philadelphus. It continued to receive embellishment and extension
from nearly every monarch of that dynasty. The plan of Deinocrates was carried out by another architect,
named Cleomenes, of Naucratis. (Just. 13.4.1.) Ancient writers (Strab. p. 791, seq.; Plut. Alex. 26; Plin. Nat.
5.10. s. 11) compare the general form of Alexandreia to the cloak (chlamys) worn by the Macedonian cavalry
It was of an oblong figure, rounded at the SE. and SW. extremities. Its length from E. to W. was nearly 4
miles; its breadth from S. to N. nearly a mile, and its circumference, according to Pliny (l.c.) was about 15

miles. The interior was laid out in parallelograms: the streets crossed one another at right angles, and were all
wide enough to admit of both wheel carriages and foot-passengers. Two grand thoroughfares nearly bisected
the city. They ran in straight lines to its four principal gates, and each was a plethrum, or about 200 feet wide.
The longest, 40 stadia in length, ran from the Canobic gate to that of the Necropolis (E.--W.): the shorter, 7-8
stadia in length, extended from the Gate of the Sun to the Gate of the Moon (S.--N.). On its northern side
Alexandreia was bounded by the sea, sometimes denominated the Egyptian Sea: on the south by the Lake of
Marea or Mareotis; to the west were the Necropolis and its numerous gardens; to the east the Eleusinian road
and the Great Hippodrome. The tongue of land upon which Alexandreia stood was singularly adapted to a
commercial city. The island of Pharos broke the force of the north wind, and of the occasional high floods of
the Mediterranean. The headland of Lochias sheltered its harbours to the east; the Lake Mareotis was both a
wet-dock and the general haven of the inland navigation of the Nile valley, whether direct from Syene, or by
the royal canal from Arsino on the Red Sea, while various other canals connected the lake with the Deltaic
branches of the river. The springs of Rhactis were few and brackish; but an aqueduct conveyed the Nile
water into the southern section of the city, and tanks, many of which are still in use, distributed fresh water to
both public and private edifices. (Hirtius, B. Alex. 100.5.) The soil, partly sandy and partly calcareous,
rendered drainage nearly superfluous. The fogs which periodically linger on the shores of Cyrene and Egypt
were dispersed by the north winds which, in the summer season, ventilate the Delta; while the salubrious [p.
1.96]atmosphere for which Alexandreia was celebrated was directly favoured by the Lake Mareotis, whose
bed was annually filled from the Nile, and the miasma incident to lagoons scattered by the regular influx of its
purifying floods. The inclination of the streets from east to west concurred with these causes to render
Alexandreia healthy; since it broke the force of the Etesian or northern breezes, and diffused an equable
temperature over the city. Nor were its military less striking than its commercial advantages. Its harbours
were sufficiently capacious to admit of large fleets, and sufficiently contracted at their entrance to be defended
by booms and chains. A number of small islands around the Pharos and the harbours were occupied with
forts, and the approach from the north was further secured by the difficulty of navigating among the limestone
reefs and mudbanks which front the debouchure of the Nile.
1. Acrolochias.
2. Lochias.
Plan of
3. Closed or Royal. Port.
Alexandreia.
4. Antirhodos.
5. Royal Dockyards.
6. Poseideion.
7. City Dockyards and Quays.
8. Gate of the Moon.
9. Kibotus, Basin of Eunostus.
10. Great Mole (Heptastadium).
11. Eunostus, Haven of Happy Return.
12. The Island Pharos.
13. The Tower Pharos (Diamond-Rock).
14. The Pirates' Bay.
15. Regio Judaeorum.
16. Theatre of the Museum.
17. Stadium.
18. Library and Museum.
19. Soma.
20. Dicasterium.
21. Panium.
22. Serapeion.
23. Rhactis.
24. Lake Mareotis.
25. Canal to Lake Mareotis.
26. Aqueduct from the Nile.
27. Necropolis.
28. Hippodrome.

29. Gate of the Sun.

30. Amphitheatre.
31. Emporium or Royal Exchange.
32. Arsinoeum.
We shall first describe the harbour-line, and next the interior of the city.

The harbour-line commenced from the east with the peninsular strip Lochias, which terminated seaward in a
fort called Acro-Lochias, the modern Pharillon. The ruins of a pier on the eastern side of it mark an ancient
landing-place, probably belonging to the Palace which, with its groves and gardens, occupied this Peninsula.
Like all the principal buildings of Alexandreia, it commanded a view of the bay and the Pharos. The Lochias
formed, with the islet of Antirhodus, the Closed or Royal Port, which was kept exclusively for the king's
gallies, and around the head of which were the Royal Dockyards. West of the Closed Port was the Poseideion
or Temple of Neptune, where embarking and returning mariners registered their vows. The northern point of
this temple was called the Timonium, whither the defeated triumvir M. Antonius retired after his flight from
Actium in B.C. 31. (Plat. Anton. 69.) Between Lochias and the Great Mole (Heptastadium) was the Greater
Harbour, and on the western side of the Mole was the Haven of Happy Return (), connected by the
basin (, chest) with the canal that led, by one arm, to the Lake Mareotis, and by the other to the
Canobic arm of the Nile. The haven of Happy Return fronted the quarter of the city called Rhactis. It was
less difficult of access than the Greater Harbour. as the reefs and shoals lie principally NE. of the Pharos. Its
modern name is the Old Port. From the Poseideion to the Mole the shore was lined with dockyards and
warehouses, upon whose broad granite quays ships discharged their lading without the intervention of boats.
On the western horn of the Eunostus were public granaries.

Fronting the city, and sheltering both its harbours, lay the long narrow island of Pharos. It was a dazzling
white calcareous rock, about a mile from Alexandreia, and, according to Strabo, 150 stadia [p. 1.97]from the
Canobic mouth of the Nile. At its eastern point stood the far-famed lighthouse, the work of Sostrates of
Cnidus, and, nearer the Heptastadium, was a temple of Phtah or Hephaestus. The Pharos was begun by
Ptolemy Soter, but completed by his successor, and dedicated by him to .the gods Soteres, or Soter and
Berenice, his parents. (Strab. p. 792.) It consisted of several stories, and is said to have been four hundred fee
in height. The old light-house of Alexandreia still occupies the site of its ancient predecessor. A deep bay on
the northern side of the island was called the, Pirates' Haven, from its having been an early place of refuge
for Carian and Samian mariners. The islets which stud the northern coast of Pharos became, in the 4th and 5th
centuries A. D., the resort of Christian anchorites. The island is said by Strabo to have been nearly desolated
by Julius Caesar when he was besieged by the Alexandrians in B.C. 46. (Hirt. B. Alex. 17.)

The Pharos was connected with the mainland by an artificial mound or causeway, called, from its length (7
stadia, 4270 English feet, or 3/4 of a mile), the Heptastadium. There were two breaks in the Mole to let the
water flow through, and prevent the accumulation of silth; over these passages bridges were laid, which could
be raised up at need. The temple of Hephaestus on Pharos stood at one extremity of the Mole, and the Gate of
the Moon on the mainland at the other. The form of the Heptastadium can no longer be distinguished, since
modern Alexandreia is principally erected upon it, and upon the earth which has accumulated about its piers.
It probably lay in a direct line between fort Caffarelli and the island.

Interior of the City.

Interior of the City. Alexandreia was divided into three regions. (1) The Regio Judaeorum. (2) The Brucheium
or Pyrucheium, the Royal or Greek Quarter. (3) The Rhactis or Egyptian Quarter. This division corresponded
to the three original constituents of the Alexandrian population ( , Plb. 34.14; Strab. p. 797, seq.)
After B.C. 31 the Romans added a fourth element, but this was principally military and financial (the
garrison, the government, and its official staff, and the negotiatores), and confined to the Region Brucheium.

1. Regio Judaeorum, or Jews' Quarter, occupied the NE. angle of the city, and was encompassed

by the sea, the city walls, and the Brucheium. Like the Jewry of modern European cities, it had
walls and gates of its own, which were at times highly necessary for its security, since between
the Alexandrian Greeks and Jews frequent hostilities raged, inflamed both by political jealousy
and religious hatred. The Jews were governed by their own Ethnarch, or Arabarches (J. AJ
14.7.2, 10.1, 18.6.3, 19.5.2, B. J. 2.18.7), by a sanhedrim or senate, and their own national a laws
Augustus Caesar, in B.C. 31, granted to the Alexandrian Jews equal privileges with their Greek
fellow citizens, and recorded his grant by a public inscription. (Id. Antiq. 12.3, c. Apion. 2.) Philo
Judaeus (Legat. in Caium) gives a full account of the immunities of the Regio Judaeorum. They
were frequently confirmed or annulled by successive Roman emperors. (Sharpe, Hist. of Egypt,
p. 347, seq. 2nd edit.)
2. Brucheium, or Pyrucheium (, , Salmasius, ad Spartian. Hadrian.
100.20), the Royal or Greek Quarter, was bounded to the S. and E. by the city walls, N. by the
Greater Harbour, and W. by the region Rhactis and the main street which connected the Gate of
the Sun with that of the Moon and the Heptastadium. It was also surrounded by its own walls,
and was the quarter in which Caesar defended himself against the Alexandrians. (Hirtius, B.
Alex. 1.) The Brucheium was bisected by the High Street, which ran from the Canobic Gate to
the Necropolis, and was supplied with water from the Nile by a tunnel or aqueduct, which
entered the city on the south, and passed a little to the west of the Gymnasium. This was the
quarter of the Alexandrians proper, or Hellenic citizens, the Royal Residence, and the district in
which were contained the most conspicuous of the public buildings. It was so much adorned and
extended by the later Ptolemies that it eventually occupied one-fifth of the entire city. (Plin. Nat.
5.10. s. 11.) It contained the following remarkable edifices: On the Lochias, the Palace of the
Ptolemies, with the smaller palaces appropriated to their children and the adjacent gardens and
groves. The far-famed Library and Museum, with its Theatre for lectures and public assemblies,
connected with one another and with the palaces by long colonnades of the most costly marble
from the Egyptian quarries, and adorned with obelisks and sphinxes taken from the Pharaonic
cities. The Library contained, according to one account, 700,000 volumes, according to another
400,000 (J. AJ 12.2; Athen. 1.3); part, however, of this unrivalled collection was lodged in the
temple of Serapis, in the quarter Rhactis. Here were deposited the 200,000 volumes collected by
the kings of Pergamus, and presented by M. Antonius to Cleopatra. The library of the Museum
was destroyed during the blockade of Julius Caesar in the Brucheium; that of the Serapeion was
frequently injured by the civil broils of Alexandreia, and especially when that temple was
destroyed by the Christian fanatics in the 4th century A.D. It was finally destroyed by the orders
of the khalif Omar, A.D. 640. The collection was begun by Ptolemy Soter, augmented by his
successors, for the worst of the Lagidae were patrons of literature,--and respected, if not
increased, by the Caesars, who, like their predecessors, appointed and salaried the librarians and
the professors of the Museum. The Macedonian kings replenished the shelves of the Library
zealously but unscrupulously, since they laid an embargo on all books, whether public or private
property, which were brought to Alexandreia, retained the originals, and gave copies of them to
their proper owners. In this way Ptolemy Euergetes (B.C. 246--221) is said to have got
possession of authentic copies of the works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and to have
returned transcripts of them to the Athenians, with an accompanying compensation of fifteen
talents. The Museum succeeded the once renowned college of Heliopolis as the University of
Egypt. It contained a great hall or banqueting room ( ), where the professors dined
in common; an exterior peristyle, or corridor (), for exercise and ambulatory
lectures; a theatre where public disputations and scholastic festivals were held; chambers for the
different professors; and possessed a botanical garden which Ptolemy Philadelphus enriched with
tropical flora (Philostrat. Vit. Apollon. 6.24), and a menagerie (Athen. 14.654). It was divided
into four principal sections,--poetry, mathematics, astronomy, and medicine, and enrolled among
its professors or pupils the illustrious names of Euclid, Ctesibius, Callimachus, Aratus, [p.
1.98]Aristophanes and Aristarchus, the critics and grammarians, the two Heros, Ammonius
Saccas, Polemo, Clemens, Origen, Athanasius, Theon and his celebrated daughter Hypatia, with
many others. Amid the turbulent factions and frequent calamities of Alexandreia, the Museum
maintained its reputation, until the Saracen invasion in A.D. 640. The emperors, like their

predecessors the Ptolemies, kept in their own hands the nomination of the President of the
Museum, who was considered one of the four chief magistrates of the city. For the Alexandrian
Library and Museum the following works may be consulted:--Strab. pp. 609, 791, seq.; Vitruv.
vii. prooem.; J. AJ 12.2, c. Apion. 2.7; Clem. Alex. Strom. 1.22; Cyrill. Hieros. Catechet. 4.34;
Epiphan. Mens. et Pond. 100.9; Augustin. Civ. D. 18.42; Lipsius, de Biblioth. ii.; Bonamy,
Mm. de l'Acad. des Inscr. 9.10; Matter, l'Ecole d'Alexandrie, vol. i. p. 47; Fabric. Bibl. Graec.
vol. iii. p. 500. In the Brucheium also stood the Caesarium, or Temple of the Caesars, where
divine honours were paid to the emperors, deceased or living. Its site is still marked by the two
granite obelisks called Cleopatra's Needles, near which is a tower perhaps not inappropriately
named the Tower of the Romans. Proceeding westward, we come to the public granaries
(Caesar, B. Civ. 3.112) and the Mausoleum of the Ptolemies, which, from its containing the body
of Alexander the Great, was denominated Soma (, or , Strab. p. 794). The remains
of the Macedonian hero were originally inclosed in a coffin of gold, which, about B.C. 118, was
stolen by Ptolemy Soter II., and replaced by one of glass, in which the corpse was viewed by
Augustus in B.C. 30. (Sueton. Octav. 18.) A building to which tradition assigns the name of the
Tomb of Alexander is found among the ruins of the old city, but its site does not correspond
with that of the Soma. It is much reverenced by the Moslems. In form it resembles an ordinary
sheikh's tomb, and it stands to the west of the road leading from the Frank Quarter to the
Pompey's--Pillar Gate. In the Soma were also deposited the remains of M. Antonius, the only
alien admitted into the Mausoleum (Plut. Ant. 82). In this quarter also were the High Court of
Justice (Dicasterium), in which, under the Ptolemies, the senate assembled and discharged such
magisterial duties as a nearly despotic government allowed to them, and where afterwards the
Roman Juridicus held his court. A stadium, a gymnasium, a palestra, and an amphitheatre,
provided exercise and amusement for the spectacle-loving Alexandrians. The Arsinoeum, on the
western side of the Brucheium, was a monument raised by Ptolemy Philadelphus to the memory
of his favourite sister Arsinoe; and the Panium was a stone mound, or cone, with a spiral ascent
on the outside, from whose summit was visible every quarter of the city. The purpose of this
structure is, however, not ascertained. The edifices of the Brucheium had been so arranged by
Deinocrates as to command a prospect of the Great Harbour and the Pharos. In its centre was a
spacious square, surrounded by cloisters and flanked to the north by the quays--the Emporium, or
Alexandrian Exchange. Hither, for nearly eight centuries, every nation of the civilized world sent
its representatives. Alexandreia had inherited the commerce of both Tyre and Carthage, and
collected in this area the traffic and speculation of three continents. The Romans admitted
Alexandreia to be the second city of the world; but the quays of the Tiber presented no such
spectacle as the Emporium. In the seventh century, when the Arabs entered Alexandreia, the
Brucheium was in ruins and almost deserted.

3. The Rhactis, or Egyptian Quarter, occupied the site of the ancient Rhactis. Its principal
buildings were granaries along the western arm of the cibotus or basin, a stadium, and the Templ
of Serapis. The Serapeion was erected by the first or second of the Ptolemies. The image of the
god, which was of wood, was according to Clemens (Clemens Alex. Protrept. 4.48), inclosed or
plated over with layers of every kind of metal and precious stones: it seems also, either from the
smoke of incense or from varnish, to have been of a black colour. Its origin and import are
doubtful. Serapis is sometimes defined to be Osiri-Apis; and sometimes the Sinopite Zeus, which
may imply either that he was brought from the hill Sinopeion near Memphis, or from Sinope in
Pontus, whence Ptolemy Soter or Philadelphus is said to have imported it to adorn his new
capital. That the idol was a pantheistic emblem may be inferred, both from the materials of which
it was composed, and from its being adopted by a dynasty of sovereigns who sought to blend in
one mass the creeds of Hellas and Egypt. The Serapeion was destroyed in A.D. 390 by
Theophilus, patriarch of Alexandreia, in obedience to the rescript of the emperor Theodosius,
which abolished paganism (Codex Theodos. 16.1, 2).1 The Coptic population of this quarter were
not properly Alexandrian citizens, but enjoyed a franchise inferior to that of the Greeks. (Plin.
Ep. 10.5. 22, 23; Joseph. c. Apion. 2.6.) The Alexandreia which the Arabs besieged was nearly
identical with the Rhactis. It had suffered many calamities both from civil feud and from foreign

war. Its Serapeion was twice consumed by fire, once in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, and again
in that of Commodus. But this district survived both the Regio Judaeorum and the Brucheium.

Of the remarkable beauty of Alexandreia ( , Athen. 1.3), we have the testimony of

numerous writers who saw it in its prime. Ammianus (22.16) calls it vertex omnium civitatum; Strabo (xvii
p.832) describes it as ; Theocritus (Idyll. xvii.), Philo (ad Flacc.
ii. p. 541), Eustathius (II. B.), Gregory of Nyssa (Vit. Gregor. Thaumaturg.), and many others, write in the
same strain. (Comp. Diod. 17.52; Paus. 8.33.) .Perhaps, however, one of the most striking descriptions of its
effect upon a stranger is that of Achilles Tatius in his romance of Cleitophon and Leucippe (5.1). Its
dilapidation was not the effect of time, but of the hand of man. Its dry atmosphere preserved, for centuries
after their erection, the sharp outline and gay colours of its buildings; and when in A.D. 120 the emperor
Hadrian surveyed Alexandreia, he beheld almost the virgin city of the Ptolemies. (Spartian. [p. 1.99]Hadrian.
100.12.) It suffered much from the intestine feuds of the Jews and Greeks, and the Brucheium was nearly
rebuilt by the emperor Gallienus, A.D. 260-8. But the zeal of its Christian population was more destructive;
and the Saracens only completed their previous work of demolition.

Population of Alexandreia.

Population of Alexandreia. Diodorus Siculus, who visited Alexandreia about B.C. 58, estimates (17.52) its
free citizens at 300,000, to which sum at least an equal number must be added for slaves and casual residents.
Besides Jews, Greeks, and Egyptians, the population consisted, according to Dion Chrysostom, who saw the
city in A.D. 69 (Orat. xxxii.), of Italians, Syrians, Libyans, Cilicians, Aethiopians, Arabians, Bactrians,
Persians, Scythians, and Indians ; and Polybius (39.14) and Strabo (p. 797) confirm his statement. Ancient
writers generally give the Alexandrians an ill name, as a double-tongued (Hirtius, B. Alex. 24), factious
(Trebell. Poll. Trig. Tyran. 100.22), irascible (Phil. adv. Flacc. ii. p. 519), blood-thirsty, yet cowardly set (Dio
Cass. i. p. 621). Athenaeus speaks of them as a jovial, boisterous race (x. p. 420), and mentions their passion
for music and the number and strange appellations of their musical instruments (id. 4.176, xiv. p. 654). Dion
Chrysostom (Orat. xxxii.) upbraids them with their levity, their insane love of spectacles, horse races,
gambling, and dissipation. They were, however, singularly industrious. Besides their export trade, the city
was full of manufactories of paper, linen, glass, and muslin (Vopisc. Saturn. 8). Even the lame and blind had
their occupations. For their rulers, Greek or Roman, they invented nicknames. The better Ptolemies and
Caesars smiled at these affronts, while Physcon and Caracalla repaid them by a general massacre. For more
particular information respecting Alexandreia we refer to Matter, l'Ecole d'Alexandrie, 2 vols.; the article
Alexandrinische Schule in Pauly's Real Encyclopaedie; and to Mr. Sharpe's History of Egypt, 2nd ed.

The Government of Alexandreia.

The Government of Alexandreia. Under the Ptolemies the Alexandrians possessed at least the semblance of a
constitution. Its Greek inhabitants enjoyed the privileges of bearing arms, of meeting in the Gymnasium to
discuss their general interests, and to petition for redress of grievances; and they were addressed in royal
proclamations as Men of Macedon. But they had no political constitution able to resist the grasp of
despotism; and, after the reigns of the first three kings of the Lagid house, were deprived of even the shadow
of freedom. To this end the division of the city into three nations directly contributed; for the Greeks were
ever ready to take up arms against the Jews, and the Egyptians feared and contemned them both. A
connubium, indeed, existed between the latter and the Greeks. (Letronne, Inscr. i. p. 99.) Of the government
of the Jews by an Ethnarch and a Sanhedrim we have already spoken: how the quarter Rhactis was
administered we do not know; it was probably under a priesthood of its own: but we find in inscriptions and
in other scattered notices that the Greek population was divided into tribes () and into wards ().
The tribes were nine in number (, , , , , ,
, , ). (Meineke, Analecta Alexandrina, p. 346, seq. Berl. 1843.) There was,
indeed, some variation in the appellations of the tribes, since Apollonius of Rhodes, the author of the
Argonautica, belonged to a tribe called . (Vit. Apoll. Rhod. ed. Brunk.) The senate was elected

from the principal members of the wards (). Its functions were chiefly judicial. In inscriptions we
meet with the titles , , , ,
, &c. (Letronne, Recueil des Inscr. Gr. et Lat. de l'Egypte, vol. 1.1842, Paris; id. Recherches
pour servir l'Histoire de l'Egypte, &c. Paris, 1823-8.) From the reign of Augustus, B.C. 31, to that of
Septimius Severus, A.D. 194, the functions of the senate were suspended, and their place supplied by the
Roman Juridicus, or Chief Justice, whose authority was inferior only to that of the Praefectus Augustalis.
(Winkler, de Jurid. Alex. Lips. 1827-8.) The latter emperor restored the jus buleutarum. (Spartian. Severus,
100.17.)

The Roman government of Alexandreia was altogether peculiar. The country was assigned neither to the
senatorian nor the imperial provinces, but was made dependent on the Caesar alone. For this regulation there
were valid reasons. The Nilevalley was not easy of access; might be easily defended by an ambitious prefect;
was opulent and populous; and was one of the principal granaries of Rome. Hence Augustus interdicted the
senatorian order, and even the more illustrious equites (Tac. Ann. 2.59) from visiting Egypt without special
licence. The prefect he selected, and his successors observed the rule, either from his personal adherents, or
from equites who looked to him alone for promotion. Under the prefect, but nominated by the emperor, was
the Juridicus (), who presided over a numerous staff of inferior magistrates, and whose
decisions could be annulled by the prefect, or perhaps the emperor alone. The Caesar appointed also the
keeper of the public records (), the chief of the police ( ),
the Interpreter of Egyptian law ( ), the praefectus annonae or warden of the
markets ( ), and the President of the Museum. All these officers,
as Caesarian nominees, wore a scarlet-bordered robe. (Strab. p. 797, seq.) In other respects the domination of
Rome was highly conducive to the welfare of Alexandreia. Trade, which had declined under the later
Ptolemies, revived and attained a prosperity hitherto unexampled: the army, instead of being a horde of
lawless and oppressive mercenaries, was restrained under strict discipline: the privileges and national custom
of the three constituents of its population were respected: the luxury of Rome gave new vigour to commerce
with the East; the corn-supply to Italy promoted the cultivation of the Delta and the business of the
Emporium; and the frequent inscription of the imperial names upon the temples attested that Alexandreia at
least had benefited by exchanging the Ptolemies for the Caesars.

The History of Alexandreia

The History of Alexandreia may be divided into three periods. (1) The Hellenic. (2) The Roman. (3) The
Christian. The details of the first of these may be read in the History of the Ptolemies (Dictionary of
Biography, pp. 565-599). Here it will suffice to remark, that the city prospered under the wisdom of Soter and
the genius of Philadelphus; lost somewhat of its Hellenic character under Euergetes, and began to decline
under Philopator, who was a mere Eastern despot, surrounded and governed by women, eunuchs, and
favourites. From Epiphanes downwards these evils [p. 1.100]were aggravated. The army was disorganised;
trade and agriculture declined; the Alexandrian people grew more servile and vicious: even the Museum
exhibited symptoms of decrepitude. Its professors continued, indeed, to cultivate science and criticism, but
invention and taste had expired. It depended upon Rome whether Alexandreia should become tributary to
Antioch, or receive a proconsul from the senate. The wars of Rome with Carthage, Macedon, and Syria alone
deferred the deposition of the Lagidae. The influence of Rome in the Ptolemaic kingdom commenced
properly in B.C. 204, when the guardians of Epiphanes placed their infant ward under the protection of the
senate, as his only refuge against the designs of the Macedonian and Syrian monarchs. (Just. 30.2.) M.
Aemilius Lepidus was appointed guardian to the young Ptolemy, and the legend Tutor Regis upon the
Aemilian coins commemorates this trust. (Eckhel, vol. v. p. 123.) In B.C. 163 the Romans adjudicated
between the brothers Ptolemy Philometor and Euergetes. The latter received Cyrene; the former retained
Alexandreia and Egypt. In B.C. 145, Scipio Africanus the younger was appointed to settle the distractions
which ensued upon the murder of Eupator. (Just. 38.8; Cic. Acad. Q. 4.2, Off. 3.2; Diod. Legat. 32; Gell. N.
A. 18.9.) An inscription, of about this date, recorded at Delos the existence of amity between Alexandreia and
Rome. (Letronne, Inscr. vol. i. p. 102.) In B.C. 97, Ptolemy Apion devised by will the province of Cyrene to
the Roman senate (Liv. lxx. Epit.), and his example was followed, in B.C. 80, by Ptolemy Alexander, who

bequeathed to them Alexandreia and his kingdom. The bequest, however, was not immediately enforced, as
the republic was occupied with civil convulsions at home. Twenty years later Ptolemy Auletes mortgaged his
revenues to a wealthy Roman senator, Rabirius Postumus (Cic. Fragm. xvii. Orelli, p. 458), and in B.C. 55
Alexandreia was drawn into the immediate vortex of the Roman revolution, and from this period, until its
submission to Augustus in B.C. 30, it followed the fortunes alternately of Pompey, Gabinius, Caesar, Cassius
the liberator, and M. Antonius.

The wealth of Alexandreia in the last century B.C. may be inferred from the fact, that, in 63, 6250 talents, or a
million sterling, were paid to the treasury as port dues alone. (Diod. 17.52; Strab. p. 832.) Under the
emperors, the history of Alexandreia exhibits little variety. It was, upon the whole, leniently governed, for it
was the interest of the Caesars to be generally popular in a city which commanded one of the granaries of
Rome. Augustus, indeed, marked his displeasure at the support given to M. Antonius, by building Nicopolis
about three miles to the east of the Canobic gate as its rival, and by depriving the Greeks of Alexandreia of
the only political distinction which the Ptolemies had left them--the judicial functions of the senate. The city,
however, shared in the general prosperity of Egypt under Roman rule. The portion of its population that came
most frequently in collision with the executive was that of the Jewish Quarter. Sometimes emperors, like
Caligula, demanded that the imperial effigies or military standards should be set up in their temple, at others
the Greeks ridiculed or outraged the Hebrew ceremonies. Both these causes were attended with sanguinary
results, and even with general pillage and burning of the city. Alexandreia was favoured by Claudius, who
added a wing to the Museum; was threatened with a visit from Nero, who coveted the skilful applause of its
claqueurs in the theatre (Sueton. Ner. 20); was the head-quarter, for some months, of Vespasian (Tac. Hist.
3.48, 4.82) during the civil wars which preceded his accession; was subjected to military lawlessness under
Domitian (Juv. Sat. xvi.); was governed mildly by Trajan, who even supplied the city, during a dearth, with
corn (Plin. Panegyr. 31.23); and was visited by Hadrian in A.D. 122, who has left a graphic picture of the
population. (Vopisc. Saturn. 8.) The first important change in their polity was that introduced by the emperor
Severus in A.D. 196. The Alexandrian Greeks were no longer formidable, and Severus accordingly restored
their senate and municipal government. He also ornamented the city with a temple of Rhea, and with a public
bath--Thermae Septimianae.

Alexandreia, however, suffered more from a single visit of Caracalla than from the tyranny or caprice of any
of his predecessors. That emperor had been ridiculed by its satirical populace for affecting to be the Achilles
and Alexander of his time. The rumours or caricatures which reached him in Italy were not forgotten on his
tour through the provinces; and although he was greeted with hecatombs on his arrival at Alexandreia in A.D
211 (Herodian. 4.9), he did not omit to repay the insult by a general massacre of the youth of military age. (D
C. 77.22; Spartian. Caracall. 6.) Caracalla also introduced some important changes in the civil relations of the
Alexandrians. To mark his displeasure with the Greeks, he admitted the chief men of the quarter Rhactis--i.
e. native Egyptians--into the Roman senate. (D. C. 51.17; Spartian. Caracall. 9); he patronised a temple of Isis
at Rome; and he punished the citizens of the Brucheium by retrenching their public games and their
allowance of corn. The Greek quarter was charged with the maintenance of an additional Roman garrison,
and its inner walls were repaired and lined with forts.

From the works of Aretaeus (de Morb. Acut. i.) we learn that Alexandreia was visited by a pestilence in the
reign of Gallus, A.D. 253. In 265, the prefect Aemilianus was proclaimed Caesar by his soldiers. (Trebell.
Pol. Trig. Tyrann. 22, Gallien. 4.) In 270, the name of Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, appears on the Alexandrian
coinage; and the city had its full share of the evils consequent upon the frequent revolutions of the Roman
empire. (Vopisc. Aurelian. 32.) After this period, A.D. 271, Alexandreia lost much of its predominance in
Egypt, since the native population, hardened by repeated wars, and reinforced by Arabian immigrants, had
become a martial and turbulent race. In A.D. 297 (Eutrop. 9.22), Diocletian besieged and regained
Alexandreia, which had declared itself in favour of the usurper Achilleus. The emperor, however, made a
lenient use of his victory, and purchased the favour of the populace by an increased largess of corn. The
column, now well known as Pompey's Pillar, once supported a statue of this emperor, and still bears on its
base the inscription, To the most honoured emperor, the deliverer of Alexandreia, the invincible Diocletian.

Alexandreia had its full share of the persecutions of this reign. The Jewish rabbinism and Greek philosophy o
the city had paved the way for Christianity, and the serious temper of the Egyptian population sympathised

with the earnestness of the new faith. The Christian population of Alexandreia [p. 1.101]was accordingly
numerous when the imperial edicts were put in force. Nor were martyrs wanting. The city was already an
episcopal see; and its bishop Peter, with the presbyters Faustus, Dius, and Ammonius, were among the first
victims of Diocletian's rescript. The Christian annals of Alexandreia have so little that is peculiar to the city,
that it will suffice to refer the reader to the general history of the Church.

It is more interesting to turn from the Arian and Athanasian feuds, which sometimes deluged the streets of the
city with blood, and sometimes made necessary the intervention of the Prefect, to the aspect which
Alexandreia presented to the Arabs, in A.D. 640, after so many revolutions, civil and religious. The Pharos
and Heptastadium were still uninjured: the Sebaste or Caesarium, the Soma, and the Quarter Rhactis,
retained almost their original grandeur. But the Hippodrome at the Canobic Gate was a ruin, and a new
Museum had replaced in the Egyptian Region the more ample structure of the Ptolemies in the Brucheium.
The Greek quarter was indeed nearly deserted: the Regio Judaeorum was occupied by a few miserable
tenants, who purchased from the Alexandrian patriarch the right to follow their national law. The Serapeion
had been converted into a Cathedral; and some of the more conspicuous buildings of the Hellenic city had
become the Christian Churches of St. Mark, St. John, St. Mary, &c. Yet Amrou reported to his master the
Khalif Omar that Alexandreia was a city containing four thousand palaces, four thousand public baths, four
hundred theatres, forty thousand Jews who paid tribute, and twelve thousand persons who sold herbs.
(Eutych. Annal. A.D. 640.) The result of Arabian desolation was, that the city, which had dwindled into the
Egyptian Quarter, shrunk into the limits of the Heptastadium, and, after the year 1497, when the Portuguese,
by discovering the passage round the Cape of Good Hope, changed the whole current of Indian trade, it
degenerated still further into an obscure town, with a population of about 6000, inferior probably to that of th
original Rhactis.

Ruins of Alexandreia.
Ruins of Alexandreia. These may be divided into two classes: (1) indistinguishable mounds of masonry; and
(2) fragments of buildings which may, in some degree, be identified with ancient sites or structures.

The Old Town is surrounded by a double wall, with lofty towers, and five gates. The Rosetta Gate is the
eastern entrance into this circuit; but it does not correspond with the old Canobic Gate, which was half a mile
further to the east. The space inclosed is about 10,000 feet in length, and in its breadth varies from 3200 to
1600 feet. It contains generally shapeless masses of ruins, consisting of shattered columns and capitals,
cisterns choked with rubbish, and fragments of pottery and glass. Some of the mounds are covered by the
villas and gardens of the wealthier inhabitants of Alexandreia. Nearly in the centre of the inclosure, and
probably in the High Street between the Canobic and Necropolitan Gates, stood a few years since three
granite columns. They were nearly opposite the Mosque of St. Athanasius, and were perhaps the last
remnants of the colonnade which lined the High Street. (From this mosque was taken, in 1801, the
sarcophagus of green breccia which is now in the British Museum.) Until December, 1841, there was also on
the road leading to the Rosetta Gate the base of another similar column. But these, as well as other remnants
of the capital of the Ptolemies, have disappeared; although, twenty years ago, the intersection of its two main
streets was distinctly visible, at a point near the Frank Square, and not very far from the Catholic convent.
Excavations in the Old Town occasionally, indeed, bring to light parts of statues, large columns, and
fragments of masonry: but the ground-plan of Alexandreia is now probably lost irretrievably, as the ruins hav
been converted into building materials, without note being taken at the time of the site or character of the
remnants removed. Vestiges of baths and other buildings may be traced along the inner and outer bay; and
numerous tanks are still in use which formed part of the cisterns that supplied the city with Nile-water. They
were often of considerable size; were built under the houses; and, being arched and coated with a thick red
plaster, have in many cases remained perfect to this day. One set of these reservoirs runs parallel to the
eastern issue of the Mahmoodeh Canal, which nearly represents the old Canobic Canal; others are found in
the convents which occupy part of the site of the Old Town; and others again are met with below the mound
of Pompey's Pillar. The descent into these chambers is either by steps in the side or by an opening in the roof,
through which the water is drawn up by ropes and buckets.

The most striking remains of ancient Alexandreia are the Obelisks and Pompey's Pillar. The former are
universally known by the inappropriate name of Cleopatra's Needles. The fame of Cleopatra has preserved
her memory among the illiterate Arabs, who regard her as a kind of enchantress, and ascribe to her many of
the great works of her capital, the Pharos and Heptastadium included. Meselleh is, moreover, the Arabic word
for a packing Needle, and is given generally to obelisks. The. two columns, however, which bear this
appellation, are red granite obelisks which were brought by one of the Caesars from Heliopolis, and,
according to Pliny (36.9), were set up in front of the Sebaste or Caesarium. They are about 57 paces apart
from each other: one is still vertical, the other has been thrown down. They stood each on two steps of white
limestone. The vertical obelisk is 73 feet high, the diameter at its base is 7 feet and 7 inches; the fallen obelisk
has been mutilated, and, with the same diameter, is shorter. The latter was presented by Mohammed Ali to the
English government: and the propriety of its removal to England has been discussed during the present year.
Pliny (l.c.) ascribes them to an Egyptian king named Mesphres: nor is he altogether wrong. The Pharaoh
whose oval they exhibit was the. third Thothmes, and in Manethos list the first and second Thothmes (18th
Dynasty: Kenrick, vol. ii. p. 199) are written as Mesphra-Thothmosis. Rameses III. and Osirei II., his third
successor, have also their ovals upon these obelisks.

Pompey's Pillar, as it is erroneously termed, is denominated by the Arabs Amood sowari; sari or sowari
being applied by them to any lofty monument which suggests the image of a mast. It might more properly
be termed Diocletian's Pillar, since a statue of that emperor once occupied its summit, commemorating the
capture of Alexandreia in A.D. 297, after an obstinate siege of eight months. The total height of this column
is 98 feet 9 inches, the shaft is 73 feet, the circumference 29 feet 8 inches, and the diameter at the top of the
capital is 16 feet 6 [p. 1.102]inches. The shaft, capital, and pedestal are apparently of different ages; the latter
are of very inferior workmanship to the shaft. The substructions of the column are fragments of older
monuments, and the name of Psammetichus with a few hieroglyphics is inscribed upon them.

The origin of the name Pompey's Pillar is very doubtful. It has been derived from , conducting,
since the column served for a land-mark. In the inscription copied by Sir Gardner Wilkinson and Mr. Salt, it i
stated that Publius, the Eparch of Egypt, erected it in honour of Diocletian. For Publius it has been
proposed to read Pompeius. The Pillar originally stood in the centre of a paved area beneath the level of the
ground, like so many of the later Roman memorial columns. The pavement, however, has long been broken
up and carried away. If Arabian traditions may be trusted, this now solitary Pillar once stood in a Stoa with
400 others, and formed part of the peristyle of the ancient Serapeion.

Next in interest are the Catacombs or remains of the ancient Necropolis beyond the Western Gate. The
approach to this cemetery was through vineyards and gardens, which both Athenaeus and Strabo celebrate.
The extent of the Catacombs is remarkable: they are cut partly in a ridge of sandy calcareous stone, and partly
in the calcareous rock that faces the sea. They all communicate with the sea by narrow vaults, and the most
spacious of them is about 3830 yds. SW. of Pompey's Pillar. Their style of decoration is purely Greek, and in
one of the chambers are a Doric entablature and mouldings, which evince no decline in art at the period of
their erection. Several tombs in that direction, at the water's edge, and some even below its level, are entitled
Bagni di Cleopatra.

A more particular account of the Ruins of Alexandreia will be found in Sir Gardner Wilkinson's Topography
of Thebes, p. 380, seq., and;;his Hand-Book for Travellers in Egypt, pp. 71-100, Murray, 1847. Besides the
references already given for Alexandreia, its topography and history, the following writers may be consulted:
-Strab. p. 791, seq.; Ptol. 4.5.9, 7.5. 13, 14, &c. &c.; l)iod. 17.52; Paus. 5.21, 8.33; Arrian, Exp. Alex.
3.1.5, seq.; Q. Curtius, 4.8.2, 10.10.20; Plut. Alex. 26; Mela, 1.9.9; Plin. Nat. 5.10, 11; Amm. Marc. 22.16;
It. Anton. pp. 57, 70; Joseph. B. J. 2.28; Plb. 39.14; Caesar, B.C. 3.112.)
[W.B.D]
1 The following references will aid the reader in forming his own opinion respecting the much controverted
question of the origin and meaning of Serapis:--Tac. Hist. 4.84; Macr. 1.29; Vopiscus, Saturnin. 8; Amm.
Marc. 20.16; Plut. Is. et Osir. cc. 27, 28; Lactant. Inst. 1.21; Clem. Alex. Cohort. ad Gent. 4.31, Strom. 1.1;
August. Civ. D. 18.5; Mm. de l'Acad. des Inscr. vol. x. p. 500; Gibbon, D. and F. xxviii. p. 113.

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, illustrated by numerous engravings on wood. William Smith,
LLD. London. Walton and Maberly, Upper Gower Street and Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row; John Murray,
Albemarle Street. 1854.