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A review by jdintr
The Rise and Fall of Alexandria: Birthplace of the Modern Mind by Justin Pollard, Howard Reid
3.0
Typical history courses in the United States focus on everything west of Athens, Greece. Yet a pearl of the Mediterranean connects Alexander the Great with the rise of Islam, one of the greatest cities of Antiquity which today is a ruin.
Alexandria is the city that spans the ancient world like a Colossus--or another lighthouse like Pharos, if you insist. But the key to the city isn''t the Great man who founded it, or the great empires--Rome, Islam--that conquered it. It is in the catalysts that connected the dots--the knowledge and scientific observations of the day, and leapt more than 1,000 years forward.
The story of Alexandria begins with three remarkable rulers who all went by Ptolemy. Taking a sparsely populated island off the coast of Egypt, they filled the city with temples and palaces, and most of all, sought to collect the wisdom of the ancient world in a library and museum. Pollard keeps the museum and its story at the heard of the book, which focuses on the philosophers and teachers who came to Alexandria.
The chapters wind their way through classical history. Some historical figures pop up: Julius Caesar, Cleopatra (of course), and Constantine, but the fate of Alexandria, Pollard shows, is tied up in its ill-fated scrolls, not its kings or generals.
This book is a good introduction to a key place in world history.
Alexandria is the city that spans the ancient world like a Colossus--or another lighthouse like Pharos, if you insist. But the key to the city isn''t the Great man who founded it, or the great empires--Rome, Islam--that conquered it. It is in the catalysts that connected the dots--the knowledge and scientific observations of the day, and leapt more than 1,000 years forward.
The story of Alexandria begins with three remarkable rulers who all went by Ptolemy. Taking a sparsely populated island off the coast of Egypt, they filled the city with temples and palaces, and most of all, sought to collect the wisdom of the ancient world in a library and museum. Pollard keeps the museum and its story at the heard of the book, which focuses on the philosophers and teachers who came to Alexandria.
The chapters wind their way through classical history. Some historical figures pop up: Julius Caesar, Cleopatra (of course), and Constantine, but the fate of Alexandria, Pollard shows, is tied up in its ill-fated scrolls, not its kings or generals.
This book is a good introduction to a key place in world history.