A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



Alexandrian epoch was brought into a single channel. 

 We no longer, as in the day of the earlier schools of 

 Greek philosophy, have isolated groups of thinkers. 

 The scientific drama is now played out upon a sin- 

 gle stage; and if we pass, as we shall in the pres- 

 ent chapter, from Alexandria to Syracuse and from 

 Syracuse to Samos, the shift of scenes does no violence 

 to the dramatic unities. 



Notwithstanding the number of great workers who 

 were not properly Alexandrians, none the less the epoch 

 is with propriety termed Alexandrian. Not merely in 

 the third century B.C., but throughout the lapse of at 

 least four succeeding centuries, the city of Alexander 

 and the Ptolemies continued to hold its place as the 

 undisputed culture-centre of the world. During that 

 period Rome rose to its pinnacle of glory and began 

 to decline, without ever challenging the intellectual 

 supremacy of the Egyptian city. We shall see, in a 

 later chapter, that the Alexandrian influences were 

 passed on to the Mohammedan conquerors, and every 

 one is aware that when Alexandria was finally over- 

 thrown its place was taken by another Greek city, By- 

 zantium or Constantinople. But that transfer did not 

 occur until Alexandria had enjoyed a longer period of 

 supremacy as an intellectual centre than had perhaps 

 ever before been granted to any city, with the possi- 

 sible exception of Babylon. 



EUCLID (ABOUT 300 B.C.) 



Our present concern is with that first wonderful 

 development of scientific activity which began under 

 the first Ptolemy, and which presents, in the course of 



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