A review by kahawa
The Rise and Fall of Alexandria: Birthplace of the Modern Mind by Justin Pollard
4.0
This was great, better than I was expecting. I can't give it 5 stars, because I'm not a big fan of this style of historical narrative which treats sources overly credulously. Sometimes sources were given, or mention was made of a source's credibility, but usually the authors simply wrote their history as though it was the unquestioned history. This is a common flaw in especially older works of history.
But apart from that, it was well-written and covered a lot of different people and events. I knew that Alexandria was a significant city in the past, but I didn't realise how significant, and influential on the direction that history has taken. It sounds like this city, after Athens and Rome, or perhaps along side of them, was the most influential city on earth, rising to prominence around ~300BC, and dominating events for a thousand years, before fading into the gloom of insignificance. I can't get over the library, and what's been lost. It kills me.
I also didn't realise how incredibly significant Alexandria was to the early development of Christianity. Outside of Jerusalem, and prior to Rome, Alexandria was the birthplace of Christianity.
It's amazing how developed the ancient world was. They had detailed maps of Europe, up through Wales, already in the 2nd century. Science was blossoming (they'd calculated the circumference of the earth), philosophy was highly sophisticated, engineering rivalled feats not repeated till the 19th century. There was so much learning, and travel, and progress. What could have killed all that? What kind of superstitious backward authoritarian belief system could have come in and dominated the Mediterranean and hijacked the amazing trajectory of progress that had started?
But apart from that, it was well-written and covered a lot of different people and events. I knew that Alexandria was a significant city in the past, but I didn't realise how significant, and influential on the direction that history has taken. It sounds like this city, after Athens and Rome, or perhaps along side of them, was the most influential city on earth, rising to prominence around ~300BC, and dominating events for a thousand years, before fading into the gloom of insignificance. I can't get over the library, and what's been lost. It kills me.
I also didn't realise how incredibly significant Alexandria was to the early development of Christianity. Outside of Jerusalem, and prior to Rome, Alexandria was the birthplace of Christianity.
It's amazing how developed the ancient world was. They had detailed maps of Europe, up through Wales, already in the 2nd century. Science was blossoming (they'd calculated the circumference of the earth), philosophy was highly sophisticated, engineering rivalled feats not repeated till the 19th century. There was so much learning, and travel, and progress. What could have killed all that? What kind of superstitious backward authoritarian belief system could have come in and dominated the Mediterranean and hijacked the amazing trajectory of progress that had started?