Ancient Sciences
Greek culture had definitely begun to decline, and Greek science with it. A few years later, the decline was accelerated by the invasion and military conquest of the country by Alexander the Great. Yet events which seemed to be disastrous to science at the time may perhaps have been a piece of good fortune in disguise. For Alexander now decided to celebrate his victories and consolidate his empire by building a new capital which was to be the most magnificent city in the world. He chose a site on the flat lands where the Nile ran into the sea, and called the still unborn city Alexandria, after himself. He died in 323 B.C., his grandiose scheme still incomplete, and his kingdom was divided among all who could lay hands on a piece of it. Egypt fell to the lot of one of his generals, Ptolemy, who chose the still unfinished Alexandria as his capital and, more ambitious even than Alexander, aspired to make it the world's capital not only for government and commerce but for culture and intellect as well.
To this end he chose a site adjoining his palace, and on it began to build a 'Museum' or Temple of the Muses, which was roughly the equivalent of a modern university. Such was the origin of the city which was to replace Athens as the cultural capital of the Mediterranean world, and of the university which was to provide a home for science for a thousand years to come. These thousand years form the subject of the present chapter. By about 300 B.C., the university was ready for occupation, and Ptolemy proceeded to staff it with the most eminent scholars of the time; many came to it from Athens, and by so doing carried the torch of learning a step back from west to east. When Ptolemy died in 285 B.C., his successor Ptolemy II, no less ardent to make Alexandria the cultural centre of the world, established the famous library which was accounted one of the seven wonders of the world. It was divided into the four departments of literature, mathematics, astronomy and medicine, each with its own librarian or curator, and is said to have accumulated no fewer than 400,000 manuscripts in the first forty years of its existence.
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