134 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR 



keen eye, seeing the capabilities of the country, and the com- 

 manding position of the Delta, fixed upon a part of the coast 

 opposite the island of Pharos as a . site for a metropolis. 

 Democrates, earring out the instructions of his master, con- 

 nected Pharos with the mainland by a jetty or mole, and thus 

 divided the channel into two harbours, facing the new city. 

 Alexandria was built upon a grand plan, having, including the 

 suburbs, a circuit of fifteen miles ; while two noble roads, 

 100 feet broad, and adorned with temples, colonnades, and 

 palaces, crossed it at right angles. These formed at their inter- 

 section a noble open place or square, whence could be viewed 

 vessels sailing in from the sea to either harbour. One of the 

 quarters thus marked out was wholly devoted to the palaces 

 and gardens of royalty ; and here, a few years afterwards, in 

 the chief of the royal temples, was deposited the body of the 

 great founder, in a coffin of gold. 



The successors of Alexander in Egypt were the Ptolemies, 

 who raised the city to the summit of its opulence and great- 

 ness. Ptolemy Philadelphus reared a lighthouse of white 

 marble, on the island of Pharos, to the height of 400 feet, 

 adorned with columns, and described as one of the seven 

 wonders of the ancient world. Fires on its summit at night 

 guided vessels safely into port. A modern lighthouse now 

 stands on the same spot. Lake Mareotis, on the south of the 

 city, was formed into a third harbour, by a canal communicating 

 with that on the east. The western harbour was so spacious 

 and deep, that vessels too large for any other port could there 

 find anchorage, and load and discharge their freights. Such a 

 ship, sent by Hiero, King of Sicily, as a present to one of the 

 Ptolemies, is said to have had on board small gardens, with 

 water-courses for their irrigation, an apparatus for slinging 

 stones, and eight lofty towers, and to have taxed the utmost 

 powers of Archimedes to make it manageable. Caravans un- 

 loaded at Lake Mareotis, whence their treasures were conveyed 

 by canal to the adjoining harbour. 



Alexandria retained its rank as a great commercial city for a 

 thousand years. At one period it contained three-quarters of a 

 million of inhabitants, half of whom probably were slaves. 

 While Egypt was a Roman province its commerce declined ; 

 yet Alexandria must still have been a magnificent place when 

 taken by the Arabs, A.D. 651, for Amrou, the victorious general, 

 in writing to the Caliph Omar, said it was impossible to describe 

 its beauty and the variety of its riches. 



The convenience of Alexandria as a mart for trade between the 

 East and the West, attracted merchants from every commercial 

 country. Its inhabitants thus became quite cosmopolitan, blend- 

 ing the thoughts and manners of all regions. The Ptolemies, 

 especially the first four princes of that name, fostered the deve- 

 lopment of the city. Ptolemy Lagus, or Soter, encouraged 

 foreigners to reside there, by granting them districts to live in. 

 As many as 100,000 Jews were at one time inhabitants of the city. 

 Although this prince was almost constantly at war, he still made 

 commerce his care. He owned, besides a powerful navy, a fine 

 fleet of merchant ships, promoted expeditions to establish trade, 

 and signed treaties of commerce with other states. His son, 

 Ptolemy Philadelphus, who inherited the same spirit, dug a 

 canal for ships from the Nile to the Bed Sea, and, to increase 

 the inland traffic, lined the caravan routes with wells and 

 caravanserais. Arsinoe, Berenice, and Myos Hormos, arose on 

 the banks of the new canal, whence commodities transferred 

 from ship to caravan were conveyed to Coptis and Thebes. It 

 was a boast in his reign that "no citizen was idle in Alex- 

 andria." Even the blind and lame were taught to labour. 

 Glass-blowing, the weaving of linen, paper-making from the 

 papyrus, and the arts connected with the shipping trade, em- 

 ployed the people ; while the most fruitful country known to 

 mankind provided them with abundant food. 



Ptolemy Euergebes (Ptolemy III.) succeeding to the rich in- 

 heritance of his fathers, determined to make his capital the 

 most learned as well as the most commercial city of the time. 

 He founded a school for teaching the sciences connected with 

 commerce, and invited philosophers of every country to make 

 Alexandria their home. Eratosthenes, who suggested the means 

 of measuring the earth by methods similar to our own, was 

 among those who responded to his call. The basis of commer- 

 cial prosperity thus laid was broad enough to bear, without 

 serious peril, the devastations of the civil wars caused by the 

 follies and incapacities of some of the succeeding Ptolemies. 



Ptolemy IV. possessed a fleet of more than 400 ships. The 

 crew of one is said to have consisted of 7,400 sailors and 

 mariners, and the size, as described, is almost incredible. That 

 his fleet was numerous we may be sure, for there are proofs that 

 the Egyptian trade had extended to the Euxine ; and his influ- 

 ence must have been great, inasmuch as he sought and obtained 

 the abolition of the tolls at the Bosphorus. Cleopatra, the last 

 of this celebrated dynasty, added 400 vessels to the fleet of 

 Mark Antony ; and when the great battle of Actium was lost, 

 she was prevented from retreating to India, by the Arabs having 1 

 burnt another fleet belonging to her in the Red Sea. 



By the destruction of Carthage, B.C. 146, the great trade of 

 that city was diverted to Alexandria, which thus received a 

 great impulse to its prosperity. Possessing universal com- 

 merce, its commodities necessarily comprised almost everything 

 marketable that could link nations together. Primarily, Alex- 

 andria drew its stores from Egypt, of which it was for the time 

 being the capital. 



Under the Ptolemies, Coptos, below Thebes, was the starting 

 point for the caravans of Arabia and India, as Kopt, its modern 

 representative, is now for the pilgrimages to Mecca. 



Asia and India dispatched their treasures to Alexandria for 

 further distribution ; and Europe, from its remotest islands, 

 sent to the same mart her surplus produce. From the south 

 and west came the merchandise of Soudan. We do not trace to 

 Alexandria any inventions that have modified commerce. There 

 are extant coins of the Ptolemies, showing an acquaintance with 

 money ; but these, though an advance beyond the primitive 

 silver rings and ingots of Egypt, were merely adopted from the 

 Greeks, and are inscribed with Greek characters. 



The city was long noted for the fostering care it bestowed 

 upon art and science; and even while its trade languished 

 under the military rule of the Romans, the library contained, it 

 is affirmed, a volume for every inhabitant a larger number of 

 books than were ever collected elsewhere, before the invention 

 of printing. The whole are, however, lost to us ; the Arabs 

 having, it is said, destroyed the entire collection when they 

 captured the city, A.D. 640. 



From this period Alexandria gradually declined. 



LESSONS IN GREEK. XLVI. 



VERBS IN fit (continued). 



VERBS IN fJ.1 WHICH, AFTER ADDING THE SYLLABLE WV OR VV 

 TO THE STEM-VOWEL, APPEND THE PERSONAL ENDINGS. 



WE give here the formation of the verbs in o, 6, o, and of 

 those whose stem terminates in a consonant : 



(a.) Verbs with a Stem ending in a, f, o (<u). 



Active. 



Pres. aKtba.-vvv-p.i, I K0pt-vvv-fj.i, I ffTpia-vvu-m, I 

 scatter. satisfy. spread oik',:. 



Imp. t-aK&a-vvv-v. f-Kopt-vvv-v. e-<rrpca-i>vv-v. 



Perf. e-<r/ce8d-Ka. Kf-Kopt-Ka.. f-frrpa-KO,. 



Plup. e-ffKfSa.-Kiti' f-Kf-Kopf-Ketv. t-arpta-Ktiv. 



Fut. (TKfSd-ffia. Kopf-aia. ffrpta-G<a. 



Attic, ffKtoia, -as, a. Attic, Kopca, -?s, -?. 



Aor. f-ffKeSa-aa. t-Kopt-cra. f-ffrpca-ffa. 



Middle. 



Pres. (TKiSa-vifv-imai. 



Imp. f-<rKt8a-isvv-/iiT) 



Perf. e-cTKeSa-ir-uai. Kf-Kopf.-a-p.aL. f-ffTpit>-/j.ai. 



Plup. f-ffKtba-ff-fj.r]v. f-Kt-Kopf-ff-/j.rii>. f-crrpw-M.rjv. 



Fut. Kope-ffo/j.ai. 



Aor. (-Kopf-rrafj.rji'. -. 



3 F"*-. Ke-K.opf-ffofj.cu. 



Passive. 



Aor. f~ffKf8a-a'-6rii>. t-Kopf-a-Qr)v. e-irrpt>>-0r]v. 



Fut. ff' KtSa-ff-6ri(To/j.a.i. H.opt-<r-6r]a'o/j.a.i. <np<a-Qri<Top.a.i. 



Verbal Adj crKtSaaros, ffKtSao-reos; nopta-ros, Kopfffreos ; ffTpcaros, 

 ffrpcareos. 



Another form of the present and imperfect is, o-KeSa-wvu, 

 f-(TKtSa-vvvov ; Kopf-vvvou, e-KOpt-vvvov ; ffTpia-vvvta, f-ffrp<a-vvuov ; 

 the v being always short. 



Kopf-vviJ-iJ.a.1. 



<7Tpa;-/ci)-jUai. 



