Alexandria

City of the Western Mind

Theodore Vrettos

• Éditeur: Free Press
• Année: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781451603484
• Sujet: History
• Sous-sujet: Ancient History

Alexandria was the greatest cultural capital of the ancient world. Accomplished classicist and author Theodore Vrettos now tells its story for the first time in a single volume. His enchanting blend of literary and scholarly qualities makes stories that played out among architectural wonders of the ancient world come alive. His fascinating central contention that this amazing metropolis created the western mind can now take its place in cultural history.Vrettos describes how and why the brilliant minds of the ages -- Greek scholars, Roman emperors, Jewish leaders, and fathers of the Christian Church -- all traveled to the shining port city Alexander the Great founded in 332 B.C. at the mouth of the mighty Nile. There they enjoyed learning from an extraordinary population of peaceful citizens whose rich intellectual life would quietly build the science, art, faith, and even politics of western civilization. No one has previously argued that, unlike the renowned military centers of the Mediterranean such as Rome, Carthage, and Sparta, Alexandria was a city of the mind. In a brief section on the great conqueror and founder Alexander, we learn that he himself was a student of Aristotle. In Part Two of his majestic story, Vrettos shows that in the sciences the city witnessed an explosion: Aristarchus virtually invented modern astronomy; Euclid wrote the elements of geometry and founded mathematics; amazingly, Eratosthenes precisely figured the circumference of the earth; and 2, 500 years before Freud, the renowned Alexandrian physician Erasistratus identified a mysterious connection between sexual problems and nervous breakdowns. What could so cerebral a community care about geopolitics? As Vrettos explains in the third part of this epic saga, if Rome wanted power and prestige in the Mediterranean, the emperors had to secure the good will of the ruling class in Alexandria. Julius Caesar brought down the Roman Republic, and then almost immediately had to go to Alexandria to secure his power base. So begins a wonderfully told story of political intrigue that doesn't end until the Battle of Actium in 33 B.C. when Augustus Caesar defeated the first power couple, Anthony and Cleopatra.The fourth part of Alexandria focuses on the sphere of religion, and for Vrettos its center is the famous Alexandrian Library. The chief librarian commissioned the Septuagint, the oldest Greek version of the Old Testament, which was completed by Jewish intellectuals. Local church fathers Clement and Origen were key players in the development of Christianity; and the Coptic religion, with its emphasis on personal knowledge of God, flourished.Vrettos has blended compelling stories with astute historical insight. Having read all the ancient sources in Ancient Greek, Hebrew, and Latin himself, he has an expert's knowledge of the everyday reality of his characters and setting. No reader will ever forget walking with him down this lost city's beautiful, dazzling streets.

PART ONE
THE BIRTH OF THE CITY

WITHIN A CENTURY after Alexandria was built, it was larger than Carthage and growing so swiftly that it acknowledged no superior, even Rome. It had already become the center not only of Hellenism, but also of Judaism. Its Mouseion was the leading university of its time—the finest teachers, philosophers, and scientists flourishing within its walls. Here ancient scholars produced the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament), and on these streets Julius Caesar would stroll with Cleopatra to the wild cheers of the populace.

For the thousand years after its foundation, Alexandria served as the cultural, political, and religious center of Egypt. In addition to its reputation for learning, its architecture was famous. The Royal Palaces were spread out along the northeast angle and occupied the promontory of Lochias, which locked in the harbor on the east. The Great Theater, together with the gigantic temple to Poseidon, stood on an imposing hill, while below, the docks of the Emporium accepted ships from all over the world, their marble arms stretching out toward the sea, all the way to the Caesarium, which was protected on each side by two gigantic obelisks, Cleopatra’s Needles. The Gymnasium and Palestra were situated in the eastern half of the city, whereas the Mausoleum of Alexander the Great lay at the point of intersection of the city’s two main thoroughfares: Canopic Way and Street of the Soma (body of Alexander). The Serapium, the most famous of all Alexandrian temples, stood toward the western border of the city near Rhakotis Hill and occupied the highest spot in Alexandria. Later excavations revealed that its basement contained a series of long subterranean galleries and burial chambers carved in the rock and lined with limestone.

Many descriptions of this extraordinary city survive. The ancients liked to compare places with objects. A map of Piraeus resembled a vase; the island of Rhodes looked like a theater and its rounded port an orchestra. Of Alexandria, the Roman scholar Pliny wrote: “The city is made in the image of a Macedonian chlamys [a short oblong cloak worn by horsemen], circular in shape, notched along the edges, and jutting out to left and right.”

The shape of the city indeed resembled a chlamys. Moreover, it was approximately bisected by Canopic Way, which ran from the Sun Gate to the Moon Gate, a distance of 40 furlongs (8,000 yards). Its width was a plethron (100 feet). Both sides of the lengthy street were bordered with endless rows of magnificent columns and rich facades of houses and temples. Finally, before embarking for the Siwa Oasis, Alexander instructed his architects to build royal palaces that would be notable for their size and massiveness. Those who were to rule Egypt after him would repeatedly enlarge these already lavish palaces.

By the early part of the first century B.C., the city had grown so rapidly that travelers and historians overwhelmingly agreed she was the greatest city of the civilized world and surpassed all others in size, elegance, and luxury. She was at the height of her fascination and beauty when the geographer Strabo visited her in 25 B.C. and remained there for several years, consulting the works of historians, geographers, and astronomers at Alexandria’s famous Library. Both the long sides of the city were washed by the waters of the Mediterranean and Lake Mareotis, with a diameter of some 30 stadia (approximately 606 feet), while the short sides were the isthmuses, each 7 or 8 stadia wide and pinched in—one by the sea, and the other by the lake. For administrative purposes, the city was cut into five sections, each called after a letter: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon.

Beta included the Royal Palaces, the Mouseion, and other buildings; Delta was the Jewish Quarter. The city was intersected by streets ideal for horse-riding and chariot-driving; two in particular, Canopic Way and Street of the Soma, extended to more than a plethron in breadth (a stadion was 6 plethra), cutting one another into two parts and at right angles. There was building on building here, all linked with one another and the harbor—even those that lay outside the harbor on the Lochias promontory.

The Mouseion was part of the palaces. It had a public walk, an exedra (a hall or arcade with seats or recesses suitable for lectures and discussions) and a large building to house the scholars who resided there. They not only held property in common, but also had a leader in charge of the Mouseion, formerly appointed by the kings, and later by the caesars. In addition, there were many spacious exedras with porticoes and seats where philosophers, rhetoricians, physicians, scientists, and poets studied and debated new theories. Part of the palace area (the Mausoleum) provided the enclosure where Alexander the Great and the Ptolemaic kings were buried. Across the Great Harbor, on Pharos Island, the imposing Lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, warned ships of the approaching coast.

The first sight to catch the traveler’s eye as he sailed into Alexandria’s waters were the Royal Palaces, which ran contiguous with the Royal Palaces on Lochias. Along its serene coast rolled groves of lush trees and shrubs. But it was what lay inside Alexandria that attracted visitors: the countless temples, a magnificent Theater, Cleopatra’s Needles standing guard over the port, the Poseidium, and particularly the Emporium, with its busy bazaars and warehouses extending as far as the Heptastadion, the great mole that connected Pharos Island to the mainland.

Further on, a navigable canal led to Lake Mareotis; and beyond the canal, the Necropolis (Western Cemetery), with abundant gardens, graves, and halting stations for corpse-embalming. Along both sides of the canal, as far as the Serapium, there were more buildings. The most beautiful of all, however, was the University, whose rows of porticoes extended more than a hundred meters in length. At the heart of the city stood the imposing Court of Justice. Here too was the Paneium (temple to Pan, the Greek god of shepherds and goatherds), reached by a winding spiral road, and from whose commanding summit the whole city could be viewed below.

After the conquest of Egypt, Cleomenes was appointed collector of revenues by Alexander. He was greatly despised. Demosthenes called him “Ruler of Egypt and dishonest manipulator of the country’s lucrative grain trade.” Aristotle concurred, citing Cleomenes’ numerous incidents of fraudulent conduct with merchants, priests of the temple, and government officials. The Roman historian Arrian added his own assessment: “He was an evil man who committed many grievous wrongs in Egypt.”

Although Deinocrates had drawn up the original plans for the new city, it was Cleomenes who began Alexandria’s construction. During his two-year tenure as collector of revenues, Cleomenes had amassed a huge fortune through bribes and corruption. Soon after the death of Alexander, however, General Ptolemy took control of Egypt and one of his first functions was to have Cleomenes put to death. Deinocrates then proceeded to lay out the city and to erect some of its principal buildings. Alexandria grew so rapidly, first under Ptolemy Soter, then under his son Ptolemy II, that in 270 B.C. the city had to be divided into three governable districts.

Rhakotis was the native Egyptian quarter, within which was erected the Serapium. Here also was Pompey’s Shrine, the Catacombs, and the Race Course.

Bruchium, the royal Greek-Macedonian quarter, occupied the entire front of the Great Harbor from the promontory of Lochias to the long causeway that connected Alexandria to the island of Pharos. Together with the large population of Greek-Macedonians, many other Europeans and Asians dwelt in this quarter. It was the most thriving section of the city, with its elaborate government offices, trade marts, and imposing public buildings. Of these, the Mausoleum, or Soma, stood out, as did the great Mouseion with its famous Library and Theater, both of which were adorned with colonnades of rare Egyptian marble. Toward the slender promontory of Lochias, among exotic gardens and groves of unusual trees and flowers, rose the beautiful and stately palaces of the Ptolemaic kings and the Temple of Isis.

The Jewish Quarter was almost as large as the Greek. It had its own sturdy walls and was governed by an ethnarch (Greek for “leader of the people”) under a jewish council and laws. In essence, the Alexandrian Jews had a city of their own. Occasionally, quarrels broke out between them and the Greeks or the Romans, and with every change of political wind their privileges were periodically abolished. According to the historian Josephus, Jews settled in Alexandria shortly after the death of Alexander the Great. At first, they dwelt in the eastern sector of the city, near the sea; but during the Roman era, two of the city’s five quarters (particularly the fourth, or Delta) were inhabited by Jews, whose synagogues spread over almost every part of the city. The Jews of Alexandria engaged in various crafts and commerce. Though some were extremely wealthy (merchants and moneylenders), the vast majority worked as artisans. Together they formed an autonomous community governed by respected leaders, ethnarchs, and a council of seventy-one elders. The ethnarch was responsible for the general conduct of Jewish affairs in the city, especially in matters of law and the drawing up of documents.

During the Ptolemaic period, relations between the Jews and the government were good, and many of the Jews acquired citizenship in the city. Only twice (in 145 and 88 B.C.) did insignificant clashes break out, both over political disagreements. In 38 B.C., during the tumultuous reign of Caligula, a serious riot erupted against the Jews, instigated largely by the anti-Semitic attitude of the Roman governor, Flaccus. As a result, many Jews were murdered, their leaders publicly scourged, synagogues defiled, and all the Jewish population confined to one quarter of the city. On Caligula’s death, the emperor Claudius restored their religious and national rights.

Within the three main districts of the city, the Greek, Egyptian, and Jewish quarters, an enormous population of many other groups and classes coexisted: Asian tradesmen; Greeks from the mainland and the Aegean Islands; Afrasians from Cyrene; people from Syria, Asia Minor, Arabia, Babylonia, Assyria, Media, Persia, Carthaginia, Italy, Gaul, Iberia, and India. In truth, the city was a universal nurse, or pantotrophus, nurturing each race that settled there.

Alexandria was cut into these distinct parts by two large avenues: Canopic Way stretched from the Moon Gate in the Western Harbor and extended through the heart of the city, all the way to the Sun Gate at the eastern outskirts, beyond the Jewish Quarter. The Street of the Soma began on the shore of the Great Harbor and traversed the city, crossing Canopic Way from north to south, on to the shore of Lake Mareotis. These two magnificent streets were more than 100 feet wide and flanked on both sides with marble colonnades, statues, monuments, and sphinxes. Most of the other streets ran parallel to Canopic Way or braced the Street of the Soma.

Every cistern in Alexandria connected to the Nile, carrying water clear of silt for domestic use. Like the cisterns, all the buildings in the city were built of stone—even the ordinary dwellings—without wooden floorings and timbers. Their foundations were of masonry and adorned with vaulted arches. The absence of wood construction made Alexandria the only fireproof city in the world. Sprawled over the mainland and Pharos Island, this superb metropolis boasted a wide variety of shops, industrial factories, institutions of learning, centers of culture, and magnificent works of art. Almost daily, ships from every corner of the globe docked on each side of the Heptastadion, a thin strip of land connecting Pharos with mainland Alexandria. The workers loaded and unloaded their wares: silk and rice from the Orient, grain and corn from the fertile valley of the Nile bound for Greece and Rome, ivory from deep in Africa. For bathers, massive marble steps descended from the shore into the salty waters of the Mediterranean.

Within the confines of the city were military camps for the Macedonian and mercenary soldiers, barracks and arsenals, a huge Gymnasium and Stadium for athletic events, halls for lectures, theaters for drama and comedy, where spectators could look up beyond the stage and see the eternal flame of the Pharos Light.

Entering Alexandria by land was an unforgettable experience, according to ancient accounts. The Greek historian Achilles Tatius traveled to the city from Ephesus in the fourth century A.D. and, after a journey of eight days, he reached Alexandria, entering it by the Sun Gate, just to the east of the Jewish Quarter. A straight, double row of columns led all the way from the Sun Gate to the Moon Gate near the Necropolis. From this vantage point, two things struck him as especially strange and extraordinary: it was impossible to decide which was the greater—the aura of the place and its beauty, or the city itself and its inhabitants. So deep was the impression, he later wondered “whether any other city in the world could be found large enough to hold such a population.” It so happened that he arrived in Alexandria during the combined sacred festival of the Greek god Zeus and the Egyptian Serapis. There was a long procession of torches. Although it was late evening and the sun had gone down, “it seemed as though another sun had arisen, vying indeed with the sky for beauty.”

Strabo, the Greek geographer, visited Egypt in the days of Augustus and was so enthralled with Alexandria’s beauty, he decided to remain there for an extensive period of time. He claimed the best approach to the city was from the sea, sailing along the right hand of the Great Harbor, past the Pharos Light. On the left hand, along the reefs and promontory of Lochias, stood the Royal Palaces; and within the harbor, just in front of the Royal Docks, rose the smaller island of Antirrhodus, with its plush gardens and multicolored lodges. “It is indeed quite fitting,” he remarked, “that Alexandria, with her two excellent harbors and easy access to the fertile valleys of the Nile, should be called the greatest emporium in the world!”

Son of Philip II and the Epirote princess Olympias, Alexander was born in 356 B.C., on the sixth day of the month Hecatombaeon (near the end of July), the same day that the famous Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was burned. This coincidence inspired Hegesias of Magnesia, a Greek rhetorician and historian, to construct a ponderous joke, “frigid and dull enough,” according to Plutarch, to have put out the fire. “It was no wonder,” jested Hegesias, “that the glorious temple of Artemis was burned, since she was away from it, attending to the birth of Alexander the Great.”

All the Persian soothsayers and magi in Ephesus imagined that the destruction of the temple was but the forerunner of an even greater disaster, so they ran through the streets of the city beating their faces and shouting, “On this day is born the destroyer of Asia!”

Philip, who had just captured the city of Potidaea, received at this time three messengers. The first announced that his general Parmenion had overthrown the Illyrians in a great battle; the second, that Philip’s superb racehorse had won a victory at the Olympic Games; and the third, that his son Alexander was born. As expected, Philip was delighted with such good news, but he was particularly overjoyed when the soothsayers told him that his son, whose birth coincided with these victories, would surely be the greatest king in the world.

Alexander’s personal appearance was best depicted by the sculptor Lysippus, the only artist whom he allowed to represent him, and in whose works can be clearly traced the slight droop of his head toward the left and the piercing glance of his eyes that formed his chief characteristic, later imitated by his friends and successors. The Greek artist Apelles, in the celebrated painting of Alexander wielding a thunderbolt, did not catch the fresh tint of Alexander’s flesh, but instead made it darker and swarthier than it was reputed to be. According to Aristoxenes, one of Aristotle’s pupils, Alexander’s skin was quite fair, even inclining to a reddish hue around the face and breast. In addition, “his body diffused a rich perfume, which scented his clothes and even made his breath remarkably sweet.” Theophrastus, Aristotle’s successor at the Peripatetic school in Athens, explained that the sweet scents emanating from Alexander’s body were caused by his hot and fiery temperament, an assertion supported by the popular belief of the time that sweet aromas were caused by heat acting on moisture. Theophrastus’s logic suggested that “the hottest and driest regions of the earth produce the most aromatic perfumes, because the sun dries up that moisture which causes moist substances to decay and putrefy.” Therefore, Alexander’s body would do the same.

Even as a child, Alexander showed unusual self-control, abstaining from all sensual pleasures despite his passionate nature. While Philip prided himself on his oratorical prowess and even minted his victories in the chariot races at Olympia on his coins, Alexander rarely chose to pursue glories of this type. To test him, his friends, knowing that he was a swift runner, asked him one day if he would be willing to compete in the foot race at Olympia. “Yes,” he replied, “but only if I compete against kings.”

He disliked athletic competition, particularly boxing and the pancratium, which included the footrace, leaping, throwing the quoit, hurling the javelin, and wrestling. In this contest, no one received the prize unless he was victorious in all five events.

Disdaining professed athletes, as a young man Alexander instead awarded prizes to dramatists, musicians, and rhapsodists, and enjoyed only hunting and cudgel-playing. Around this time, his father invited Aristotle to be his tutor. From the great philosopher, Alexander learned that moderation alo...

Table des matières

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Prologue
• Acknowledgments
• Principal Characters
• Part One: The Birth of the City
• Part Two: The Mind of the City
• Part Three: The Power of the City
• Part Four: The Soul of the City
• Part Five: The Death of the City
• Epilogue
• Bibliography
• Notes
• Index
• About the Author