Abstract
After the death of Alexander in 323 BC, the empire was divided among his generals Antigonus (Macedonia), Lysimachus (Asia Minor), Seleucus I (Mesopotamia and Syria), and Ptolemy I (Egypt and Palestine). Since Ptolemy’s mother Arsinoe lived at the court of Philip of Macedonia, it is possible that he was related to Alexander by blood. In 305 BC he proclaimed himself king and took the name Ptolemy I Soter (= Savior), because as Alexander’s bodyguard he had saved his life.
Are we not dead and only imagine ourselves to be alive, we Greeks, who plunged deeply into misfortune and only saw life in a dream? Or do we live indeed—while the true life passed away? (Lament of the poet Palladas over the destruction of the Museion [from Anthologia Graeca, X, 82])
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Notes
- 1.
Ibn Dchubair: Diary of a Pilgrim to Mecca, p. 24, Library of Arab Storytellers, Goldmann 1988.
- 2.
Catulli carmina 66, 59–68, in Balss H. (ed.): Antike Astronomie, Tusculum München 1949.
- 3.
Caesar G. J., Jahn C.(ed.): Bellum Alexandrinum, p. 18, in the anthology: Kriege in Alexandrien, Afrika und Spanien.
- 4.
Sartorius J. (ed.): Alexandria Fata Morgana, Wissenschaft. Buchgesellschaft o. J., pp. 235 ff.
Further References
Clauss, M.: Alexandria – Eine antike Weltstadt. Klett Cotta, Stuttgart (2003)
Cuomo, S.: Pappus of Alexandria and the Mathematics of Late Antiquity. Cambridge University, Cambridge (2007)
Deakin, M.: Hypatia of Alexandria – Mathematician and Martyr. Prometheus, Amherst (2007)
Fraser, P.M.: Ptolemaic Alexandria I. Clarendon, Oxford (2000)
Pollard J., Reid H.: The Rise and Fall of Alexandria. Penguin Books, New York (2007)
Sartorius, J. (ed.): Alexandria Fata Morgana. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Stuttgart (2001)
Sidoli, N., Van Brummelen, G. (ed.): From Alexandria, Through Baghdad. Springer, Berlin (2014)
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Herrmann, D. (2022). Alexandria. In: Ancient Mathematics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-66494-0_9
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