aroundworldortra00peebiala-1

308 AEOUND THE WORLD.
and sculptured portraits ; and, further, they are slightly
under the medium size, as are the exhumed mummies.
ALEXANDEIA.
In the palmy days of the Ptolemies this city numbered
full half a million : it has to-day about one hundred and
fifty thousand. Bating Pompey's Pillar and Cleopatra's
Needle ; broken columns, cisterns, aqueducts, traces of walls,
unexplored catacombs, porphyry, portions of Caesar's palace,
fragments of statues, and library ashes, are all that remain of
this ancient magnificent city, founded by Alexander the
Great soon after the fall of Tyre, 333 B.C. Strabo gives
a brilliant description of the streets, avenues, libraries,
museums, obelisks, groves inclosing retreats for learned
men, and temples of marble and porphyry that ultimately
enriched Rome and Constantinople.
The same architect, Dinocratus, who acquired such fame
from planning the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, was
employed by Alexander in the construction of Alexandria.
Upon the death of this Macedonian monarch, he became
governor of Egypt, and finally assumed the title of king 304
B.C. Ptolemy Philadelphus, while adding much to the
grandeur of the city, and increasing its libraries, built a
marble tower, upon the summit of which a fire was kept
continually burning as a direction to sailors. At this period,
and long after, it was the great cosmopolitan seat of theological
controversy and moral philosophy. One links with
it precious memories of Proclus, Plotinus, Ammonius,
Saccas, the Alexandrian school, and its modifying influences
upon Christianity.
THE ALEXANDEIAK LIBEAHY, DESTEOYED BY WHOM?
This massive collection of literature was shelved in the
Temple of Serapeion. Most of its rolls and scrolls were
originally brought from India. Ptolemy Sotor has the
honor of being its founder.
Ptolemy Philadelphus enlarged