Alexandria

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ALEXANDRIA was founded (b.c. 332) by Alexander the Great after his conquest of Egypt. Recognizing the inconvenience caused by the want of a harbour for 600 miles along the shore, he selected as the site of a new port the village of Rhacotis, lying on a strip of land between Lake Mareotis and the sea. This he united to the little island of Pharos by a huge mole about a mile long, and thus he formed two splendid havens, which speedily became the commercial meeting-place of Africa, Asia, and Europe. The city was laid out in shape like the outspread cloak of a Macedonian soldier; in circumference about 15 miles: and it was divided into quarters by a magnificent street nearly 5 miles long, and 100 feet wide, running from E. to W., and crossed by another of somewhat lesser dimensions from N. to S. One of these quarters (Soma, ‘the body’) received the corpse of Alexander, and preserved it embalmed in the Royal Mausoleum. The Ptolemys, who succeeded to the Egyptian portion of Alexander’s divided empire, made Alexandria their capital, and by their extensive building operations rendered the city famous for the magnificence and beauty of its public edifices. Besides the Royal Palace, the Royal Mausoleum, the Temple of Neptune, the Great Theatre, the Gymnasium, and the vast Necropolis, Alexandria possessed three other structures for which it was celebrated. (1) The Museum, which was not a place where collections were laid out for instruction, but a spot where the fine arts, science, and literature were studied. The Museum of Alexandria became in course of time practically the centre of the intellectual life of the world. It answered very largely to what we associate with the idea of a great modern university. It had its staff of State-paid professors, its professorial dining-hall, its shaded cloisters, where eager students from all parts of the world walked to and fro, listening to lectures from men like Euclid, Eratosthenes, and Hipparchus. (2) The Library, which was the greatest treasure of the city, was founded by the first Ptolemy. His successors increased the number of volumes till the collection embraced upwards of 700,000 MSS, in which were inscribed the intellectual efforts of Greece, Rome, Asia Minor, Palestine, and even India. The value of this unrivalled collection was immense. The Library was in two portions; and, in the siege of Alexandria by Julius Cæsar, the part stored in the Museum was burned; a loss, however, which was largely made up by the presentation to Cleopatra, by Mark Antony, of the Royal Library of Pergamum. The other portion was stored in the Serapeum, which in 1895 was discovered to have been situated where ‘Pompey’s Pillar’ now stands. History is undecided as to whether this celebrated Library was destroyed in a.d. 391 by Bishop Theophilus or by the Caliph Omar in a.d. 641. (3) The third structure which attracted the attention of the world to Alexandria was the Pharos (Lighthouse), erected by Ptol. II. Philadelphus, on the island which had been joined to the mainland by Alexander. Rising in storeys of decreasing dimensions to a height of 450–490 ft., adorned with white marble columns, balustrades, and statues, it was justly reckoned one of the ‘Seven Wonders of the World.’ Though it was destroyed by an earthquake in a.d. 1303, it has nevertheless exercised a permanent influence on mankind. The idea of humanity to the mariner which it embodied was accepted by almost every civilized nation, and the thousands of lighthouses throughout the world to-day can all be traced to the gracious thoughtfulness which was displayed in the costly erection of this first Pharos.
In its times of greatest prosperity, Alexandria had a population of between 800,000 and 1,000,000. Trade, amusement, and learning attracted to it inhabitants from every quarter. It was an amalgam of East and West. The alertness and versatility of the Greek were here united with the gravity, conservativeness, and dreaminess of the Oriental. Alexandria became, next to Rome, the largest and most splendid city in the world. Amongst its polyglot community, the Jews formed no inconsiderable portion. Jewish colonists had settled in Egypt in large numbers after the destruction of Jerusalem (Jer_42:14), and during the Persian period their numbers greatly increased. The Ptolemys, with one exception, favoured them, and assigned a special quarter of the city to them. More than an eighth of the population of Egypt was Jewish. Their business instincts brought to them the bulk of the trade of the country. They practically controlled the vast export of wheat. Some had great ships with which they traded over all the Mediterranean. St. Paul twice sailed in a ship of Alexandria (Act_27:6; Act_28:11). The Jews were under their own governor or ‘Alabarch,’ and observed their own domestic and religious customs. Their great central synagogue was an immense and most imposing structure, where all the trade guilds sat together, and the 70 elders were accommodated in 70 splendidly bejewelled chairs of state.
It was in Alexandria that one of the most important events in the history of religion took place, when the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into the Greek tongue. The legendary tales narrated by Josephus regarding the accomplishment of this task may be dismissed as baseless. But it is undisputed that during the reigns of the earlier Lagidæ (somewhere between b.c. 250 and 132) the ‘Septuagint’ made its appearance. It is certainly not the product of a syndicate of translators working harmoniously, as Jewish tradition asserted. The work is of very unequal merit, the Pentateuch being the best done, while some of the later books are wretchedly translated. The translation was regarded by the Jews with mingled feelings,—execrated by one section as the grossest desecration of the holy oracles, extolled by another section as the means by which the beauties of the Law and the Prophets could be appreciated for the first time by the Greek-speaking Gentile world. The LXX [Note: Septuagint.] became, under God’s providence, a most valuable preparation for the truths of Christianity. It familiarized the heathen nations with the God of righteousness as He had been revealed to the Jewish race. It paved the way for the gospel. It formed the Bible of the early Church. In the Eastern Church to-day it is the only orthodox text of the OT.
The wars of the Ptolemys with the Seleucidæ at Antioch are described in Dan_11:1-45. Ptolemy II. Philadelphus left his mark on Palestine in the cities of Philadelphia (= Rabbath-ammon, Deu_3:11), Ptolemais (Act_21:7 = Acco, Jdg_1:31), Philoteria, etc. Under Ptolemy III. Euergetes I. (b.c. 247–222) the famous ‘stele of Canopus’ was inscribed. With Ptolemy IV. Philopator the dynasty began to decline, and his oppressions of the Jews (largely mythical) are narrated in 3 Maccabees. Under Ptolemy V. Epiphanes the Alexandrian supremacy over Palestine was exchanged for that of Antiochus III. the Great (Dan_11:14-17). In his reign the celebrated ‘Rosetta stone’ was erected. The ten succeeding Ptolemys were distinguished for almost nothing but their effeminacy, folly, luxury, and cruelty. The city increased in wealth, but sank more and more in political power. Julius Cæsar stormed Alexandria in b.c. 47, and after a brief spell of false splendour under Cleopatra, it fell after the battle of Actium into the hands of the Romans, and its fortunes were henceforth merged with those of the Empire.
But while its political power was thus passing away, it was developing an intellectual greatness destined to exercise a profound influence through succeeding centuries. Among its Jewish population there had arisen a new school which sought to amalgamate Hebrew tradition and Greek philosophy, and to make the OT yield up Platonic and Stoic doctrines. This attempted fusion of Hebraism and Hellenism was begun by Aristobulus, and reached its climax in Philo, a contemporary of Jesus Christ. The Jews found in the Gentile writings many beautiful and excellent thoughts. They could logically defend their own proud claim to be the sole depositaries and custodians of Divine truth only by asserting that every rich and luminous Greek expression was borrowed from their Scriptures. Plato and Pythagoras, they declared, were deeply in debt to Moses. The Greeks were merely reproducers of Hebrew ethics, and Hebrew religious and moral conceptions. The next step was to re-write their own Scriptures in terms of Greek philosophy, and the most simple way of doing this was by an elaborate system of allegory. Philo carried the allegorizing of the OT to such an extent that he was able to deduce all the spurious philosophy he required from the most matter-of-fact narratives of the patriarchs and their wives. But it was a false issue. It was based on a logical figment, and Philo’s voluminous works, gifted and learned though he was, merely reveal that there was no hope either for Greek philosophy or for Hebrew religious development along these lines. The results of the allegorical method of interpretation, however, were seen in Christian Church history. We read of a ‘synagogue of the Alexandrians’ in Jerusalem, furiously hostile to St. Stephen with his plain declaration of facts (Act_6:9). Apollos of Alexandria (Act_18:24-28) needed to be ‘more accurately instructed’ in Christian doctrine, though we have no direct evidence that he was a disciple of Philo. The Ep. to the Hebrews shows traces of Alexandrian influence, and there are evidences that St. Paul was not unfamiliar with Alexandrian hermeneutics and terminology (cf. Gal_4:24-31). But there is no proof that St. Paul ever visited Alexandria. He seems to have refrained from going thither because the gospel had already reached the city (cf. Rom_15:20). Eusebius credits St. Mark with the introduction of Christianity into Egypt. In the 2nd and 3rd cents. Alexandria was the intellectual capital of Christendom. The Alexandrian school of theology was made lustrous by the names of Pantænus, Clement, and especially Origen, who, while continuing the allegorical tradition, strove to show that Christian doctrine enshrined and realized the dreams and yearnings of Greek philosophy. The evil tendencies of the method found expression in the teachings of the Alexandrian heretics, Basilides and Valentinian. Alexandria became more and more the stronghold of the Christian faith. Here Athanasius defended contra mundum the true Divinity of Christ in the Nicene controversy, and the city’s influence on Christian theology has been profound. In a.d. 641, Alexandria fell before Amrou; in the 7th cent. it began to decline. The creation of Cairo was another blow, and the discovery in 1497 of the new route to the East via the Cape of Good Hope almost destroyed its trade. At the beginning of the 19th cent. Alexandria was a mere village. To-day it is again a large and flourishing city, with a rapidly increasing population of over 200,000, and its port is one of the busiest on the Mediterranean shore.
G. A. Frank Knight.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909


Founded by Alexander the Great, 332 B.C., successively the Greek, Roman, and Christian capital of Lower Egypt. Its harbors, formed by the island Pharos and the headland Lochias, were suitable alike for commerce and war. It was a chief grain port of Rome, and the grain vessels were large and handsome; usually sailing direct to Puteoli, but from severity of weather at times, as the vessel that carried Paul, sailing under the coast of Asia Minor (Acts 27). At Myra in Lycia (Act_27:5) the centurion found this Alexandrian. ship bound for Italy; in Act_27:10 Paul speaks of the "lading," without stating what it was; but in Act_27:38 it comes out casually. The tackling had been thrown out long before, but the cargo was kept until it could be kept no longer, and then first we learn it was wheat, the very freight which an Alexandrian vessel usually (as we know from secular authors) carried to Rome: an undesigned propriety, and so a mark of truth.
The population of Alexandria had three prominent elements, Jews, Greeks, Egyptians. The Jews enjoyed equal privileges with the Macedonians, so that they became fixed there, and while regarding Jerusalem as "the holy city," the metropolis of the Jews throughout the world, and having a synagogue there (Act_6:9), they had their own Greek version of the Old Testament. the Septuagint, and their own temple at Leontopolis. At Alexandia the Hebrew divine Old Testament revelation was brought into contact with Grecian philosophy. Philo's doctrine of the word prepared men for receiving the teaching of John 1 as to the Word, the Son of God, distinct in one sense yet one with God; and his allegorizing prepared the way for appreciating similar teachings in the inspired writings (e.g. Gal_4:22-31; Hebrew 7).
Hence Apollos, born at Alexandia, eloquent and mighty in the Scriptures, being instructed in the way of the Lord and fervent in the spirit, taught diligently (Greek accurately) the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John (Act_18:25); i.e., his Alexandrine education would familiarize him with Philo's idea of the word as the mediating instrument of creation and providence; and John the Baptist's inspired announcement of the personal Messiah would enable him to "teach accurately the things of the Lord" up to that point, when Aquila's and Priscilla's teaching more perfectly informed him of the whole accomplished Christian way of salvation. Mark is said to have been the first who preached and founded a Christian church in Alexandia. Various forms of Gnostic and Arian error subsequently arose there. (See ALLEGORY.)
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.


Alexan'dria or Alexandri'a. (from Alexander), 3Ma_3:1; Act_18:24; Act_6:9. The Hellenic, Roman and Christian capital of Egypt.
Situation. ? (Alexandria was situated on the Mediterranean Sea directly opposite the island of Pharos, 12 miles west of the Canopic branch of the Nile and 120 miles from the present city of Cairo). It was founded by Alexander the Great, B.C. 332, who himself traced the ground plan of the city. The work thus begun was continued after the death of Alexander by the Ptolemies.
Description. ? Under the despotism of the later Ptolemies, the trade of Alexandria declined, but its population and wealth were enormous. Its importance as one of the chief corn-ports of Rome secured for it the general favor of the first emperors. Its population was mixed from the first. According to Josephus, Alexander himself assigned to the Jews a place in his new city. Philo estimated the number of the Alexandrine Jews in his time at a little less than 1,000,000 and adds that two of the five districts of Alexandria were called "Jewish districts," and that many Jews lived scattered in the remaining three.
"For a long period Alexandria was the greatest of known cities." After Rome became the chief city of the world, Alexandria ranked second to Rome in wealth and importance, and second to Athens only in literature and science. Its collection of books grew to be the greatest library of ancient times, and contained at one time 700,000 rolls or volumes.
Here was made the Septuagint (LXX) translation of the Old Testament into Greek, begun about B.C. 285, especially in grain, was very great. According to the common legend, St. Mark first "preached the gospel in Egypt, and founded the first church in Alexandria." At the beginning of the second century, the number of Christians at Alexandria must have been very large, and the great leaders of Gnosticism who arose there (Basilides, Valentinus) exhibit an exaggeration of the tendency of the Church.
Present Condition. The city still bears the same name and is a thriving metropolis, with inhabitants from nearly every European and Oriental nation. Cleopatra's needle, set up by Thotmes in 1500 B.C., was found in Alexandria.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863


a famous city of Egypt, and, during the reign of the Ptolemies, the regal capital of that kingdom. It was founded by Alexander the Great: who being struck with the advantageous situation of the spot where the city afterward stood, ordered its immediate erection; drew the plan of the city himself, and peopled it with colonies of Greeks and Jews: to which latter people, in particular, he gave great encouragement. They were, in fact, made free citizens, and had all the privileges of Macedonians granted to them; which liberal policy contributed much to the rise and prosperity of the new city; for this enterprising and commercial people knew much better than either the Greeks or the Egyptians how to turn the happy situation of Alexandria to the best account. The fall of Tyre happening about the same time, the trade of that city was soon drawn to Alexandria, which became the centre of commercial intercourse between the east and the west; and in process of time grew to such an extent, in magnitude and wealth, as to be second in point of population and magnificence to none but Rome itself.
Alexandria owed much of its celebrity as well as its population to the Ptolemies. Ptolemy Soter, one of Alexander's captains, who, after the death of this monarch, was first governor of Egypt, and afterward assumed the title of king, made this city the place of his residence, about B.C. 304. This prince founded an academy, called the Museum, in which a society of learned men devoted themselves to philosophical studies, and the improvement of all the other sciences; and he also gave them a library, which was prodigiously increased by his successors. He likewise induced the merchants of Syria and Greece to reside in this city, and to make it a principal mart of their commerce. His son and successor, Ptolemy Philadelphus, pursued the designs of his father.
In the hands of the Romans, the successors of the Macedonians in the government of Egypt, the trade of Alexandria continued to flourish, until luxury and licentiousness paved the way, as in every similar instance, for its overthrow.
Alexandria, together with the rest of Egypt, passed from the dominion of the Romans to that of the Saracens. With this event, the sun of Alexandria may be said to have set: the blighting hand of Islamism was laid on it; and although the genius and the resources of such a city could not be immediately destroyed, it continued to languish until the passage by the Cape of Good Hope, in the fifteenth century, gave a new channel to the trade which for so many centuries had been its support; and at this day, Alexandria, like most eastern cities, presents a mixed spectacle of ruins and wretchedness,—of fallen greatness and enslaved human beings.
Some idea may be formed of the extent and grandeur of Alexandria, by the boast made by Amrou: “I have taken,” said he, “the great city of the west. It is impossible for me to enumerate the variety of its riches and beauty. I shall content myself with observing, that it contains four thousand palaces, four thousand baths, four hundred theatres or places of amusement, twelve thousand shops for the sale of vegetable foods, and forty thousand tributary Jews.”
It was in Alexandria chiefly that the Grecian philosophy was engrafted upon the stock of ancient oriental wisdom. The Egyptian method of teaching by allegory was peculiarly favourable to such a union: and we may well suppose that when Alexander, in order to preserve by the arts of peace that extensive empire which he had obtained by the force of arms, endeavoured to incorporate the customs of the Greeks with those of the Persian, Indian, and other eastern nations, the opinions as well as the manners of this feeble and obsequious race would, in a great measure, be accommodated to those of their conquerors. This influence of the Grecian upon the oriental philosophy continued long after the time of Alexander, and was one principal occasion of the confusion of opinions which occurs in the history of the Alexandrian and Christian schools. Alexander, when he built the city of Alexandria, with a determination to make it the seat of his empire, and peopled it with emigrants from various countries, opened a new mart of philosophy, which emulated the fame of Athens itself. A general indulgence was granted to the promiscuous crowd assembled in this rising city, whether Egyptians, Grecians, Jews, or others, to profess their respective systems of philosophy without molestation. The consequence was, that Egypt was soon filled with religious and philosophical sectaries of every kind; and particularly, that almost every Grecian sect found an advocate and professor in Alexandria. The family of the Ptolemies, as we have seen, who after Alexander obtained the government of Egypt, from motives of policy encouraged this new establishment. Ptolemy Lagus, who had obtained the crown of Egypt by usurpation, was particularly careful to secure the interest of the Greeks in his favour, and with this view invited people from every part of Greece to settle in Egypt, and removed the schools of Athens to Alexandria. This enlightened prince spared no pains to raise the literary, as well as the civil, military, and commercial credit of his country. Under the patronage first of the Egyptian princes, and afterward of the Roman emperors, Alexandria long continued to enjoy great celebrity as the seat of learning, and to send forth eminent philosophers of every sect to distant countries. It remained a school of learning, as well as a commercial emporium, till it was taken, and plundered of its literary treasures by the Saracens. Philosophy, during this period, suffered a grievous corruption from the attempt which was made by philosophers of different sects and countries, Grecian, Egyptian, and oriental, who were assembled in Alexandria, to frame, from their different tenets, one general system of opinions. The respect which had long been universally paid to the schools of Greece, and the honours with which they were now adorned by the Egyptian princes, induced other wise men, and even the Egyptian priests and philosophers themselves, to submit to this innovation. Hence arose a heterogeneous mass of opinions, under the name of the Eclectic philosophy, and which was the foundation of endless confusion, error, and absurdity, not only in the Alexandrian school, but among Jews and Christians; producing among the former that specious kind of philosophy, which they called their Cabala, and among the latter innumerable corruptions of the Christian faith.
At Alexandria there was, in a very early period of the Christian aera, a Christian school of considerable eminence. St. Jerome says, the school at Alexandria had been in being from the time of St. Mark. Pantaenus, placed by Lardner at the year 192, presided in it. St. Clement of Alexandria succeeded Pantaenus in this school about the year 190; and he was succeeded by Origen. The extensive commerce of Alexandria, and its proximity to Palestine, gave an easy entrance to the new religion, and when Adrian visited Egypt, he found a church composed of Jews and Greeks, sufficiently important to attract the notice of that inquisitive prince. The theological system of Plato was introduced into both the philosophical and Christian schools of Alexandria; and of course many of his sentiments and expressions were blended with the opinions and language of the professors and teachers of Christianity.
Alexandria was the source, and for some time the principal stronghold, of Arianism; which had its name from its founder, Arius, a presbyter of the church of this city, about the year 315. His doctrines were condemned by a council held here in the year 320; and afterward by a general council of three hundred and eighty fathers, held at Nice, by order of Constantine, in 325. These doctrines, however, which suited the reigning taste for disputative theology, and the pride and self-sufficiency of nominal Christians, better than the unsophisticated simplicity of the Gospel, spread widely and rapidly notwithstanding. Arius was steadfastly opposed by the celebrated Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, the intrepid champion of the catholic faith, who was raised to the archiepiscopal throne of Alexandria in 326.
This city was, in 415, distinguished by a fierce persecution of the Jews by the patriarch Cyril. They who had enjoyed the rights of citizens, and the freedom of religious worship, for seven hundred years, ever since the foundation of the city, incurred the hatred of this ecclesiastic; who, in his zeal for the extermination of heretics of every kind, pulled down their synagogues, plundered their property, and expelled them, to the number of forty thousand, from the city.
It was in a ship belonging to the port of Alexandria, that St. Paul sailed from Myra, a city of Lycia, on his way to Rome, Act_27:5-6. Alexandria was also the native place of Apollos.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.


After his conquest in 333 BC, Alexander the Great of Greece built the city of Alexandria as a Mediterranean sea port for Egypt and named it after himself. It soon became the greatest Greek city of the time, and was famed for its architectural magnificence. It was the capital of Egypt during the Greek and Roman Empires, and was a busy centre of commercial and manufacturing activity. From here the famous grain ships of Alexandria carried Egypt’s corn to Greece and Rome (Act_27:6; Act_28:11).
The population of the city was a mixture of Greek, Egyptian, Jewish and Roman people (Act_6:9; Act_18:24). The city became a centre of learning, famous for its Greek philosophers and its Jewish Bible scholars. Some non-canonical Jewish books of pre-Christian times were written in Alexandria (see CANON). More importantly, Alexandria was the place where seventy Jewish scholars prepared the first Greek translation of the Old Testament. This is known as the Septuagint (referred to in writing as LXX) and was widely used in New Testament times along with the Hebrew Old Testament (see SEPTUAGINT).
A feature of the Alexandrian school of Jewish Old Testament scholars was that their interpretations were detailed, earnest, philosophical and often extravagant. They gained the reputation of being learned and eloquent speakers. In the New Testament there is a record of one of them, Apollos, whose knowledge of Old Testament references to the Messiah was extraordinary. His knowledge of certain Christian teachings was lacking, but he was willing to learn. He soon became a powerful Christian preacher (Act_18:24-28; see APOLLOS).
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.


al-eg-zan?dri-a (ἡ Ἀλεξάνδρεια, hē Alexándreia).
1. History
In 331 bc, Alexander the Great, on his way to visit the Oracle of Amon seeking divine honors, stopped at the West extremity of the Delta at the isle of Pharos the landing-place of Odysseus (Od. iv.35) His keen eye noted the strategic possibilities of the site occupied by the little Egyptian village of Rhacotis, and his decision was immediate to erect here, where it would command the gateway to the richest domain of his empire, a glorious city to be called by his own name. Deinocrates, greatest living architect, already famous as builder of the Temple of Diana, was given free hand and like a dream the most beautiful city of the ancient or modern world (with the single exception of Rome) arose with straight, parallel streets - one at least 200 feet wide - with fortresses, monuments, palaces, government buildings and parks all erected according to a perfect artistic plan. The city was about fifteen miles in circumference (Pliny), and when looked at from above represented a Macedonian cloak, such as was worn by Alexander's heroic ancestors. A colossal mole joined the island to the main land and made a double harbor, the best in all Egypt. Before Alexander died (323 bc) the future of the city as the commercial metropolis of the world was assured and here the golden casket of the conqueror was placed in a fitting mausoleum. Under the protection of the first two Ptolemies and Euergetes Alexandria reached its highest prosperity, receiving through Lake Mareotis the products of Upper Egypt, reaching by the Great Sea all the wealth of the West, while through the Red Sea its merchant vessels brought all the treasures of India and Arabia into the Alexandria docks without once being unladen. The manufactories of Alexandria were extensive, the greatest industry however being shipbuilding, the largest merchant ships of the world and battleships capable of carrying 1,000 men, which could hurl fire with fearful effect, being constructed here. This position of supremacy was maintained during the Roman domination up to the 5th century during which Alexandria began to decline. Yet even when Alexandria was captured by the Arabs (641) under the caliph Omar, the general could report: ?I have taken a city containing 4,000 palaces and 4,000 baths and 400 theaters.? They called it a ?city of marble? and believed the colossal obelisks, standing on crabs of crystal, and the Pharos, that white stone tower 400 ft. high, ?wonder of the world,? to be the creation of jinn, not of men. With oriental exaggeration they declared that one amphitheater could easily hold a million spectators and that it was positively painful to go upon the streets at night because of the glare of light reflected from the white palaces. But with the coming of the Arabs Alexandria began to decline. It sank lower when Cairo became the capital (circa 1000 ad), and received its death blow when a sea route to India was discovered by way of the Cape of Good Hope (circa 1500). Today the ancient Alexandria lies entirely under the sea or beneath some later construction. Only one important relic remains visible, the so-called Pompey's Pillar which dates from the reign of Diocletian. Excavations by the English (1895) and Germans (1898-99) have yielded few results, though Dr. G. Botti discovered the Serapeum and some immense catacombs, and only recently (1907) some fine sphinxes. In its most flourishing period the population numbered from 600,000 to 800,000, half of whom were perhaps slaves. At the close of the 18th century. it numbered no more than 7,000. Under the khedives it has recently gained something of its old importance and numbers now 320,000, of whom 46,000 are Europeans, chiefly Greeks (Baedeker, Handbook, 1902; Murray, Handbook, 1907).
2. The Jews in Alexandria
Among the private papers of Alexander it is said a sketch was found outlining his vast plan of making a Greek empire which should include all races as harmonious units. In accordance with this, Europeans, Asiatics and Africans found in Alexandria a common citizenship. Indeed in several cities, under the Ptolemies, who accepted this policy, foreigners were even given superiority to natives. Egyptians and Greeks were conciliated by the introduction of a syncretic religion in which the greatest Greek god was worshipped as Osiris, Egyptian god of the underworld, whose soul appeared visibly in the form of the Apis bull. This was the most popular and human form of the Egyptian worship. This new religion obtained phenomenal success. It was in furtherance of this general policy that the Jews in Alexandria were given special privileges, and though probably not possessing full civic rights, yet they ?occupied in Alexandria a more Influential position than anywhere else in the ancient world? (Jewish Encyclopedia). To avoid unnecessary friction a separate district was given to the Jews, another to the Greeks and another to the native Egyptians. In the Greek section were situated the palaces of the Ptolemies, the Library and Museum. In the Egyptian district was the temple dedicated to Serapis (Osiris-Apis) which was only excelled in grandeur by the capitol at Rome. The Jews possessed many synagogues in their own district and in Philo's day these were not confined to any one section of the city. Some synagogues seem to have exercised the right of asylum, the same as heathen temples. One of these was so large that the hazan signaled by a flag when the congregation should give the Amen! Each district had a practically independent political government. The Jews were at first ruled by a Hebrew ethnarch. By the days of Augustus a Council of Elders (gerusia) had control, presided over by 71 archons. Because of their wealth, education and social position they reached high public office. Under Ptol. VI and Cleopatra the two generals-in-chief of the royal army were Jews. Ptol. I had 30,000 Jewish soldiers, in his army, whose barracks have only recently been discovered. It may have been a good thing that the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes (2nd century bc) checked Jewish Hellenization. During the Roman supremacy the rights of the Jews were maintained, except during their persecution for a brief period by the insane Caligula, and the control of the most important industries, including the corn trade, came into their hands. When Christianity became the state religion of Egypt the Jews at once began to be persecuted. The victory of Heraclius over the Persians (629 ad) was followed by such a massacre of the Jews that the Coptics of Egypt still denominate the first week in Lent as the ?Fast of Heraclius.? Wisdom and many other influential writings of the Jews originated in Alexandria. Doubtless numbers of the recently discovered documents from the Cairo genı̄zāh came originally from Alexandria. But the epochal importance of Alexandria is found in the teaching which prepared the Hebrew people for the reception of a gospel for the whole world, which was soon to be preached by Hebrews from Hellenized Galilee.
3. Alexandria's Influence on the Bible
(1) In Dan 11 the Ptolomies of Alexandria and their wives are made a theme of prophecy. Apollos, the ?orator,? was born in Alexandria (Act_18:24). Luke twice speaks of himself and Paul sailing in ?a ship of Alexandria? (Act_27:6; Act_28:11). Stephen 'disputed' in Jerusalem in the synagogue of the Alexandrians (Act_6:9). These direct references are few, but the influence of Alexandria on the Bible was inestimable.
(2) The Septuagint, translated in Alexandria (3rd to 2nd centuries bc), preserves a Hebrew text 1,000 years older than any now known. This translation if not used by Jesus was certainly used by Paul and other New Testament writers, as shown by their quotations. It is Egyptian even in trifles. This Greek Bible not only opened for the first time the ?Divine Oracles? to the Gentiles and thus gave to the Old Testament an international influence, but it affected most vitally the Hebrew and Christian development.
(3) The Alexandrinus Codex (4th to 5th centuries) was the first of all the great uncials to come into the hands of modern scholars. It was obtained in Alexandria and sent as a present to the king of England (1628) by Cyrellus Lucaris, the Patriarch of Constantinople. The Sinaiticus and Vaticanus uncials with many other most important Bible manuscripts - Hebrew, Greek, Coptic and Syriac - came from Alexandria.
(4) John and several other New Testament writings have justly been regarded as showing the influence of this philosophic city. Neither the phraseology nor conceptions of the Fourth Gospel could have been grasped in a world which Alexandria had not taught. Pfleiderer's statement that He ?may be termed the most finished treatise of the Alexandria philosophy? may be doubted, but no one can doubt the fact of Alexandrian influence on the New Testament.
4. Influence of Alexandria on Culture
With the founding of the University of Alexandria began the ?third great epoch in the history of civilization? (Max M?ller). It was modeled after the great school of Athens, but excelled, being pre?minently the ?university of progress? (Mahaffy). Here for the first time is seen a school of science and literature, adequately endowed and offering large facilities for definite original research. The famous library which at different eras was reported as possessing from 400,000 to 900,000 books and rolls - the rolls being as precious as the books - was a magnificent edifice connected by marble colonnades with the Museum, the ?Temple of the Muses.? An observatory, an anatomical laboratory and large botanical and Zoological gardens were available. Celebrated scholars, members of the various faculties, were domiciled within the halls of the Museum and received stipends or salaries from the government. The study of mathematics, astronomy, poetry and medicine was especially favored (even vivisection upon criminals being common); Alexandrian architects were sought the world over; Alexandrian inventors were almost equally famous; the influence of Alexandrian art can still be marked in Pompeii and an Alexandrian painter was a hated rival of Apelles. Here Euclid wrote his Elements of Geometry; here Archimedes, ?that greatest mathematical and inventive genius of antiquity,? made his spectacular discoveries in hydrostatics and hydraulics; here Eratosthenes calculated the size of the earth and made his other memorable discoveries; while Ptolemy studied here for 40 years and published an explanation of the stellar universe which was accepted by scientists for 14 centuries, and established mathematical theories which are yet the basis of trigonometry. ?Ever since this epoch the conceptions of the sphericity of the earth, its poles, axis, the equator, the arctic and antarctic circles, the equinoctial points, the solstices, the inequality of climate on the earth's surface, have been current notions among scientists. The mechanism of the lunar phases was perfectly understood, and careful though not wholly successful calculations were made of inter-sidereal distances. On the other hand literature and art flourished under the careful protection of the court. Literature and its history, philology and criticism became sciences? (Alexandria Weber). It may be claimed that in literature no special originality was displayed though the earliest ?love storms? and pastoral poetry date from this period (Mahaffy); yet the literature of the Augustan Age cannot be understood ?without due appreciation of the character of the Alexandrian school? (EB, 11th ed.), while in editing texts and in copying and translating manuscripts inconceivable patience and erudition were displayed. Our authorized texts of Homer and other classic writers come from Alexandria not from Athens. All famous books brought into Egypt were sent to the library to be copied. The statement of Josephus that Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-247) requested the Jews to translate the Old Testament into Greek is not incredible. It was in accordance with the custom of that era. Ptol. Euergetes is said to have sent to Athens for the works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, etc., and when these were transcribed, sent back beautiful copies to Greece and kept the originals! No library in the world except the prophetic library in Jerusalem was ever as valuable as the two Alexandrian libraries. The story that the Arabs burned it in the 7th century is discredited and seemingly disproved (Butler). At any rate, after this period we hear of great private libraries in Alexandria, but the greatest literary wonder of the world has disappeared.
5. Influence on Philosophy
Though no department of philosophy was established in the Museum, nevertheless from the 3rd century bc to the 6th century ad it was the center of gravity in the philosophic world. Here Neo-Pythagoreanism arose. Here Neo-Platonism, that contemplative and mystical reaction against the materialism of the Stoics, reached its full flower. It is difficult to overestimate the influence of the latter upon religious thought. In it the profoundest Aryan speculations were blended with the sublimest Semitic concepts. Plato was numbered among the prophets. Greece here acknowledged the Divine Unity to which the Old Testament was pledged. Here the Jew acknowledged that Athens as truly as Jerusalem had taught a vision of God. This was the first attempt to form a universal religion. The Alexandrian philosophy was the Elijah to prepare the way for a Saviour of the world. The thought of both Sadducee and Pharisee was affected by it and much late pre-Christian Jewish literature is saturated with it. Neo-Platonism drew attention to the true relation between matter and spirit, good and evil, finite and infinite; it showed the depth of antagonism between the natural and spiritual, the real and ideal; it proclaimed the necessity of some mystic union between the human and the Divine. It stated but could not solve the problem. Its last word was escape, not reconciliation (Ed. Caird). Neo-Platonism was the ?germ out of which Christian theology sprang? (Caird) though later it became an adverse force. Notwithstanding its dangerous teaching concerning evil, it was on the whole favorable to piety, being the forerunner of mysticism and sympathetic with the deepest, purest elements Of a spiritual religion.
6. Christian Church in Alexandria
According to all tradition, Mark the evangelist, carried the gospel to Alexandria, and his body rested here until removed to Venice, 828 ad. From this city Christianity reached all Egypt and entered Nubia, Ethiopia and Abyssinia. During the 4th century, ten councils were held in Alexandria, it being theological and ecclesiastical center of Christendom. The first serious persecution of Christians by heathen occurred here under Decius (251) and was followed by many others, the one under Diocletian (303-11) being so savage that the native Coptic church still dates its era from it. When the Christians reached political power they used the same methods of controversy, wrecking the Caesarion in 366 and the Serapeum twenty-five years later. Serapis (Osiris-Apis) was the best beloved of all the native deities. His temple was built of most precious marbles and filled with priceless sculptures, while in its cloisters was a library second only to the Great Library of the Museum. When Christianity became the state religion of Egypt the native philosophers, moved by patriotism, rallied to the support of Serapis. But Theodosius (391) prohibited idolatry, and led by the bishop, the Serapeum was seized, and smitten by a soldier's battle-axe, the image - which probably represented the old heathen religion at its best - was broken to pieces, and dragged through the streets. That day, as Steindorff well puts it, ?Egyp paganism received its death blow; the Egyptian religion fell to pieces? (History of Egypt). Thereafter heathen worship hid itself in the dens and caves of the earth. Even secret allegiance to Serapis brought persecution and sometimes death. The most appalling tragedy of this kind occurred in 415 when Hypatia, the virgin philosopher, celebrated equally for beauty, virtue and learning, was dragged by a mob to the cathedral, stripped, and torn to pieces before the altar. Some of the greatest Christian leaders used all their influence against such atrocities, but the Egyptian Christians were always noted for their excitability. They killed heretics easily, but they would themselves be killed rather than renounce the very slightest and most intangible theological tenet. It only needed the change of a word e.g. in the customary version to raise a riot (Expos, VII, 75). Some curious relics of the early Egyptian church have very recently come to light. The oldest autographic Christian letter known (3rd century) proves that at that time the church was used as a bank, and its ecclesiastics (who, whether priests or bishops, were called ?popes?) were expected to help the country merchants in their dealings with the Roman markets. Some sixty letters of the 4th century written to a Christian cavalry officer in the Egyptian army are also preserved, while papyri and ostraca from circa 600 ad show that at this time no deacon could be ordained without having first learned by heart as much as an entire Gospel or 25 Psalms and two epistles of Paul, while a letter from a bishop of this period is filled with Scripture, as he anathematizes the ?oppressor of the poor,? who is likened unto him who spat in the face of our Lord on the cross and smote Him on the head (Adolph Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, etc., 1910). Oppression of Jews and heretics was not, however, forbidden and during the 5th and 6th centuries. Egypt was a battle-field in which each sect persecuted every other. Even when the Arabs under the caliph Omar captured the city on Good Friday (641), Easter Day was spent by the orthodox in torturing supposed heretics! The next morning the city was evacuated and Jews and Coptics received better treatment from the Arabs than they had from the Roman or Greek ecclesiastics. After the Arab conquest the Coptic church, being released from persecution, prospered and gained many converts even from the Mohammedans. But the Saracenic civilization and religion steadily displaced the old, and the native learning and native religion soon disappeared into the desert. By the 8th century, Arabic had taken the place of Greek and Coptic, not only in public documents but in common speech. Then for 1,000 years the Egyptian church remained without perceptible influence on culture or theology. But its early influence was immeasurable and can still be marked in Christian art, architecture and ritual as well as in philosophy and theology. Perhaps its most visible influence was in the encouragement of image-reverence and asceticism. It is suggestive that the first hermit (Anthony) was a native Egyptian, and the first founder of a convent (Pachomius) was a converted Egyptian (heathen) monk. Today Alexandria has again become a Christian metropolis containing Coptics, Romans, Greeks, Armenians, Maronites, Syrians, Chaldeans and Protestants. The Protestants are represented by the Anglican church, the Scotch Free church, the evangelical church of Germany and the United Presbyterian church of the U.S. (For minute divisions see Catholic Encyclopedia)
7. Catechetical School in Alexandria
The first theological school of Christendom was founded in Alexandria. It was probably modeled after earlier Gnostic schools established for the study of religious philosophy. It offered a three years' course. There were no fees, the lecturers being supported by gifts from rich students. Pantaenus, a converted Stoic philosopher, was its first head (180). He was followed by Clement (202) and by Origen (232) under whom the school reached its zenith. It always stood for the philosophical vindication of Christianity. Among its greatest writers were Julius Africanus (215), Dionysius (265), Gregory (270), Eusebius (315), Athanasius (373) and Didymus (347), but Origen (185-254) was its chief glory; to him belongs the honor of defeating paganism and Gnosticism with their own weapons; he gave to the church a ?scientific consciousness,? his threefold interpretation of Scripture affected Biblical exegesis clear down to the last century. Arius was a catechist in this institution, and Athanasius, the ?father of orthodoxy? and ?theological center of the Nicene age? (Schaff), though not officially connected with the catechetical school was greatly affected by it, having been bred and trained in Alexandria. The school was closed toward the end of the 4th century because of theological disturbances in Egypt, but its work was continued from Caesarea and other centers, affecting profoundly Western teachers like Jerome and Ambrose, and completely dominating Eastern thought. From the first there was a mystical and Docetic tendency visible, while its views of inspiration and methods of interpretation, including its constant assumption of a secret doctrine for the qualified initiate, came legitimately from Neo-Platonism. For several centuries after the school disbanded its tenets were combated by the ?school of Antioch,? but by the 8th century the Alexandrian theology was accepted by the whole Christian world, east and west.
Literature
Besides works mentioned in the text see especially: Petrie, History of Egypt (1899), V, VI, Mahaffy, Empire of the Ptolemies (1895), Progress of Hellenism (1905); Butler, Arab Conquest of Egypt (1902); Ernst Sieglin, Ausgrabungen in Alexandrien (1908); Harnack, Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte (1895-1900), and in New Sch-Herz (1910); Inge, Alexandrian Theology in Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics (1908); Ed. Caird, Evolution of Theology in the Greek Philosophers (1904); Pfleiderer, Philosophy and Development of Religion (1894); Schaff, History of Christian Church (1884-1910); Zogheb, Etudes sur l'ancienne Alexandrie (1909).
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.


Alexandria (Act_6:9; Act_18:24; Act_27:6), the chief maritime city and long the metropolis of Lower Egypt. It is situated on the Mediterranean, twelve miles west of the Canopic mouth of the Nile, in 31? 13? N. lat. and 25? 53? E. long. It owes its origin to the comprehensive policy of Alexander, who perceived that the usual channels of commerce might be advantageously altered; and that a city occupying this site could not fail to become the common emporium for the traffic of the eastern and western worlds, by means of the river Nile, and the two adjacent seas, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean: and the high prosperity which, as such, Alexandria very rapidly attained, proved the soundness of his judgment, and exceeded any expectations which even he could have entertained. For a long period Alexandria was the greatest of known cities; for Nineveh and Babylon had fallen, and Rome had not yet risen to pre-eminence: and even when Rome became the mistress of the world, and Alexandria only the metropolis of a province, the latter was second only to the former in wealth, extent, and importance; and was honored with the magnificent titles of the second metropolis of the world, the city of cities, the queen of the East, a second Rome.
The city was founded in B.C. 332, and was built under the superintendence of the same architect (Dinocrates) who had rebuilt the Temple of Diana at Ephesus. The ancient city appears to have been of seven times the extent of the modern. If we may judge from the length of the two main streets (crossing each other at right angles) by which it was intersected, the city was about four miles long by one and a half wide: and in the time of Diodorus it contained a free population of 300,000 persons, or probably 600,000, if we double the former number as Mannert suggests, in order to include the slaves. The port of Alexandria was secure, but difficult of access; in consequence of which, a magnificent pharos, or lighthouse, was erected upon an islet at the entrance, which was connected with the mainland by a dyke. This pharos was accounted one of the 'seven' wonders of the world. It was begun by Ptolemy Soter, and completed under Ptolemy Philadelphus, by Sostratus of Cnidus, B.C. 283. It was a square structure of white marble, on the top of which fires were kept constantly burning for the direction of mariners. It was erected at a cost of 800 talents, which, if Attic, would amount to 165,000l, if Alexandrian, to twice that sum. It was a wonder in those times, when such erections were almost unknown; but, in itself, the Eddy Stone lighthouse is, in all probability, ten times more wonderful.
The business of working out the great design of Alexander could not have devolved on a more fitting person than Ptolemy Soter. From his first arrival in Egypt, he made Alexandria his residence: and no sooner had he some respite from war, then he bent all the resources of his mind to draw to his kingdom the whole trade of the East, which the Tyrians had, up to his time, carried on by sea to Elath, and from thence, by the way of Rhinocorura, to Tyre. He built a city on the west side of the Red Sea, whence he sent out fleets to all those countries to which the Phoenicians traded from Elath. But, observing that the Red Sea, by reason of rocks and shoals, was very dangerous towards its northern extremity, he transferred the trade to another city, which he founded at the greatest practicable distance southward. This port, which was almost on the borders of Ethiopia, he called, from his mother, Berenice; but the harbor being found inconvenient, the neighboring city of Myos Hormos was preferred. Thither the products of the East and South were conveyed by sea: and were from thence taken on camels to Coptus, on the Nile, where they were again shipped for Alexandria, and from that city were dispersed to all the nations of the west, in exchange for merchandise which was afterwards exported to the East. By these means, the whole trade was fixed at Alexandria, which thus became the chief mart of all the traffic between the East and West, and which continued to be the greatest emporium in the world for above seventeen centuries, until the discovery of the passage by the Cape of Good Hope opened another channel for the commerce of the East.

Fig. 25?Alexandria
Alexandria became not only the seat of commerce, but of learning and the liberal sciences. This distinction also it owed to Ptolemy Soter, himself a man of education, who founded an academy, or society of learned men, who devoted themselves to the study of philosophy, literature, and science. For their use he made a collection of choice books, which, by degrees, increased under his successors until it became the finest library in the world, and numbered 700,000 volumes. It sustained repeated losses, by fire and otherwise, but these losses were as repeatedly repaired; and it continued to be of great fame and use in those parts, until it was at length burnt by the Saracens when they made themselves masters of Alexandria in A.D. 642. Undoubtedly the Jews at Alexandria shared in the benefit of these institutions, as the Christians did afterwards; for the city was not only a seat of heathen, but of Jewish, and subsequently of Christian learning. It will be remembered that the celebrated translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, Septuagint, was made, under every encouragement from Ptolemy Philadelphus, principally for the use of the Jews in Alexandria, who knew only the Greek language.
At its foundation Alexandria was peopled less by Egyptians than by colonies of Greeks, Jews, and other foreigners. The Jews, however much their religion was disliked, were valued as citizens; and every encouragement was held out by Alexander himself and by his successors in Egypt, to induce them to settle in the new city. The same privileges as those of the first class of inhabitants (the Greeks) were accorded to them, as well as the free exercise of their religion and peculiar usages: and this, with the protection and peace which a powerful state afforded against the perpetual conflicts and troubles of Palestine, and with the inclination to traffic, which had been acquired during the Captivity, gradually drew such immense numbers of Jews to Alexandria, that they eventually formed a very large portion of its vast population and at the same time constituted a most thriving and important section of the Jewish nation. The Jewish inhabitants of Alexandria are therefore often mentioned in the later history of the nation; and their importance as a section of that nation would doubtless have been more frequently indicated, had not the Jews of Egypt thrown off their ecclesiastical dependence upon Jerusalem and its temple, and formed a separate establishment of their own, in imitation of it, at a place about twelve miles north of Heliopolis, and called Onion, from Onias, the expelled high-priest, by whom it was founded.
The inhabitants of Alexandria were divided into three classes: 1. The Macedonians, the original founders of the city; 2. the mercenaries who had served under Alexander; 3. the native Egyptians. Through the favor of Alexander and Ptolemy Soter, the Jews were admitted into the first of these classes, and this privilege was so important that it had great effect in drawing them to the new city.
The dreadful persecution which the Jews of Alexandria underwent in A.D. 39, shows that, notwithstanding their long establishment there, no relations of friendliness had arisen between them and the other inhabitants, by whom in fact they were intensely hated. This feeling was so well known, that at the date indicated, the Roman governor Avillius Flaccus, who was anxious to ingratiate himself with the citizens, was persuaded that the surest way of winning their affections was to withdraw his protection from the Jews, against whom the emperor was already exasperated by their refusal to acknowledge his right to divine honors, which he insanely claimed, or to admit his images into their synagogues. In consequence of the connivance of Flaccus, the unfortunate Jews were treated with every species of outrage and insult. Their synagogues were leveled with the ground, consumed by fire, or profaned by the emperor's statues. They were deprived of the rights of citizenship, and declared aliens. Their houses, shops, and warehouses were plundered of their effects, and they themselves were pent up in one narrow corner of the city, where the greater part were obliged to lie in the open air, and where the supplies of food being cut off many of them died of hardship and hunger; and whoever was found beyond the boundary, whether he had escaped from the assigned limits, or had come in from the country, was seized and put to death with horrid tortures.
At length king Herod Agrippa, who stayed long enough in Alexandria to see the beginning of these atrocities, transmitted to the emperor such a report of the real state of affairs as induced him to send a centurion to arrest Flaccus, and bring him a prisoner to Rome. This put the rioters in a false position, and brought some relief to the Jews; but the tumult still continued, and as the magistrates refused to acknowledge the citizenship of the Jews, it was at length agreed that both parties should send delegates, five on each side, to Rome, and refer the decision of the controversy to the emperor. At the head of the Jewish delegation was the celebrated Philo, to whom we owe the account of these transactions; and at the head of the Alexandrians was the noted Apion. The latter chiefly rested their case upon the fact that the Jews were the only people who refused to consecrate images to the emperor, or to swear by his name. But on this point the Jewish delegates defended themselves so well, that Caligula himself said, 'These men are not so wicked as ignorant and unhappy in not believing me to be a god!' The ultimate result of this appeal is not known, but the Jews of Alexandria continued to be harassed during the remainder of Caligula's reign; and their alabarch Alexander Lysimachus (brother of Philo) was thrown into prison, where he remained till he was discharged by Claudius, upon whose accession to the empire the Alexandrian Jews betook themselves to arms. This occasioned such disturbances that they attracted the attention of the emperor, who, at the joint entreaty of Herod and Agrippa, issued an edict conferring on the Jews of Egypt all their ancient privileges. The state of feeling in Alexandria which these facts indicate, was very far from being allayed when the revolt of the Jews in Palestine caused even those of the nation who dwelt in foreign parts to be regarded as enemies, both by the populace and the government. In Alexandria, on a public occasion, they were attacked, and those who could not save themselves by flight were put to the sword. Only three were taken alive, and they were dragged through the city to be consigned to the flames. The indignation of the Jews rose beyond all bounds at this spectacle. They first assailed the Greek citizens with stones, and then rushed with lighted torches to the amphitheatre, to set it on fire and burn all the people who were there assembled. The Roman prefect Tiberius Alexander, finding that milder measures were of no avail, sent out a body of 17,000 soldiers, who slew about 50,000 of the Jews, and plundered and burned their dwellings.
After the close of the war in Palestine, new disturbances were excited in Egypt by the Sicarii, many of whom had fled thither. They endeavoured to persuade the Jews to acknowledge no king but God, and to throw off the Roman yoke. Such persons as opposed their designs and tendered wiser counsels to their brethren, they secretly assassinated, according to their custom. But the principal Jews in Alexandria having in a general assembly earnestly warned the people against these fanatics, who had been the authors of all the troubles in Palestine, about 600 of them were delivered up to the Romans. Several fled into the Theba?d, but were apprehended and brought back. The most cruel tortures which could be devised had no effect in compelling them to acknowledge the emperor for their sovereign; and even their children seemed endowed with souls fearless of death, and bodies incapable of pain. Vespasian, when informed of these transactions, sent orders that the Jewish temple in Egypt should be destroyed. Lupus the prefect, however, only shut it up, after having taken out the consecrated gifts: but his successor Paulinus stripped it completely, and excluded the Jews entirely from it. This was in A.D. 75, being the 343rd year from the building of the temple by Onias.
St. Mark is said to have introduced the Christian religion into Alexandria, which early became one of the strongholds of the true faith The Jews continued to form a principal portion of the inhabitants, and remained in the enjoyment of their civil rights till A.D. 415, when they incurred the hatred of Cyril the patriarch, at whose instance they were expelled, to the number of 40,000, and their synagogues destroyed. However, when Amrou, in A.D. 640, took the place for the caliph Omar, he wrote to his master in these terms: 'I have taken the great city of the west, which contains 4000 palaces, 4000 baths, 400 theaters, 12,000 shops for the sale of vegetable food, and 40,000 tributary Jews.' From that time the prosperity of Alexandria very rapidly declined; and when, in 969, the Fatemite caliphs seized on Egypt and built New Cairo, it was speedily reduced to the rank of a secondary Egyptian city. The discovery of the passage to the East by the Cape, in 1497, almost annihilated its remaining commercial importance; and although the commercial and maritime enterprises of Mehemet Ali have again raised it to some distinction, Alexandria must still be accounted as one of those great ancient cities whose glory has departed. The number of Jews does not now exceed 500. The whole population at the present time (1843) is between 36,000 and 40,000, of whom 4876 are foreigners.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.


Alexandria
(properly Alexandri'a, Α᾿λεξάνδρεια, 3Ma_3:20; 3Ma_4:11; occurs in the N.T. only in the derivatives Α᾿λεξανδρεύς, an Alexandrian, Act_6:9; Act_18:24; and Α᾿λεξανδρινός, Alexandrine, Act_27:6; Act_28:11), the chief maritime city and long the metropolis of Lower Egypt, so called from its founder, Alexander the Great, was in many ways most importantly connected with the later history of the Jews — as well from the relations which subsisted between them and the Ptolemies, who reigned in that city, as from the vast number of Jews who were settled there, with whom a constant intercourse was maintained by the Jews of Palestine. It is situated on the Mediterranean, twelve miles west of the Canopic mouth of the Nile, in 310° 13' N. lat. and 25° 53' E. long. It owes its origin to the comprehensive policy of Alexander, who traced himself the ground-plan of the city (Plut. Alex. 26), perceiving that the usual channels of commerce might be advantageously altered; and that a city occupying this site could not fail to become the common emporium for the traffic of the Eastern and Western world, by means of the river Nile and the two adjacent seas, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. SEE ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
For a long period Alexandria was the greatest of known cities, for Nineveh and Babylon had fallen, and Rome had not yet risen to pre-eminence; and even when Rome became the mistress of the world, and Alexandria only the metropolis of a province, the latter was second only to the former in wealth; extent, and importance, and was honored with the magnificent titles of the second metropolis of the world, the city of cities, the Queen of the East, a second Rome (Diod. Sic. 17; Strab. 17; Ammian. Marcell. 22; Hegesipp. 4:27; Josephus, War, 4, 11, 5). It is not mentioned at all in the Old Testament [see No], and only incidentally in the New (Act_6:9; Act_18:24; Act_27:6).
Alexandria was founded B.C. 332, upon the site of the small village of Rhacotis (Strabo, 17, c. 1, 6), and; opposite to the little island of Pharos, which, even before the time of Homer, had given shelter to the Greek traders on the coast. Alexander selected this spot for the Greek colony which he proposed to found, from the capability of forming the deep water between Rhacotis and the isle of Pharos into a harbor that might become the port of all Egypt. He accordingly ordered Dinocrates, the architect who rebuilt the temple of Diana at Ephesus, to improve the harbor, and to lay down the plan of the new city; and he further appointed Cleomenes of Naucratis, in Egypt, to act as superintendent. The light-house upon the isle of Pharos was to be named after his friend Hephaestion, and all contracts between merchants in the port were to commence "In the name of Hephaestion." The great market which had hitherto existed at Canopus was speedily removed to the new city, which thus at once rose to commercial importance. After the death of Alexander, the building of the city was carried on briskly by his successor, Ptolemy Lagus, or Soter, but many of the public works were not completed till the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus. The city was built upon a strip of land between the sea and the Lake Mareotis, and its ground plan resembled the form of a Greek chlamys, or soldier's cloak. The two main streets, 240 feet wide, left a free passage for the north wind, which alone conveys coolness in Egypt. They crossed each other at right angles in the middle of the city, which was three miles long and seven broad, and the whole of the streets were wide enough for carriages. The long narrow island of Pharos was formed into a sort of breakwater to the port, by joining the middle of the island to the mainland by means of a mole seven stadia in length, and hence called the Hepta- stadium. To let the water pass, there were two breaks in the mole, over which bridges were thrown.
The public grounds and palaces occupied nearly a third of the whole extent of the city. The Royal Docks, the Exchange, the Posideion, or temple of Neptune, and many other public buildings, fronted the harbor. There also stood the burial-place for the Greek kings of Egypt, called "the Soma," because it held "the body," as that of Alexander was called. On the western side of the Hepta-stadium, and on the outside of the city were other docks, and a ship-canal into Lake Mareotis, as likewise the Necropolis, or public burial place of the city. There were also a theater, an amphitheater, a gymnasium, with a large portico, more than 600 feet long, and supported by several rows of marble columns; a stadium, in which games were celebrated every fifth year; a hall of justice, public groves or gardens, a hippodrome for chariot races, and, towering above all, was the temple of Serapis, the Serapeum. The most famous of all the public buildings planned by Ptolemy Soter were the library and museum, or College of Philosophy. They were built near the royal palace, in that part of the city called Bruchion, and contained a great hall, used as a lecture room and common dining-room, and had a covered walk all round the outside, and a seat on which the philosophers sometimes sat in the open air. Within the verge of the Serapeum was a supplementary library, called the daughter of the former.
The professors of the college were supported out of the public income. The light-house at Alexandria was not finished till the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, B.C. 284-246. It was built by the architect Sostratus. The royal burial-place was also finished in this reign, and Philadelphus removed the body of Alexander from Memphis to this city, and hither pilgrims came and bowed before the golden sarcophagus in which the hero's body was placed. Seleucus Cybiasactes, B.C. 54, is said to have stolen the golden coffin of Alexander. The Emperor Claudius, A.D. 41-55, founded the Claudian Museum; and Antoninus, A.D. 162-218, built the Gates of the Sun and of the Moon, and likewise made a hippodrome. At the great rebellion of Egypt, A.D. 297, Alexandria was besieged by Diocletian, when, in commemoration of his humanity in staying the pillage of the city, the inhabitants erected an equestrian statue, now lost, but which, there is little doubt, surmounted the lofty column known by the name of Pompey's Pillar, the base of which still bears the inscription, "To the most honored emperor, the savior of Alexandria, the unconquerable Diocletian." The port of Alexandria is described by Josephus ( War, 4, 10, 5), and his description is in perfect conformity with the best modern accounts. It was secure, but difficult of access, in consequence of which a magnificent pharos, or light-house, accounted one of the "seven" wonders of the world, was erected upon an islet at the entrance. From the first arrival of Ptolemy Soter in Egypt, he made Alexandria his residence; and no sooner had he some respite from war than he bent all the resources of his mind to draw to his kingdom the whole trade of the East, which the Tyrians had, up to this time, carried on by sea to Elath, and from thence, by the way of Rhinocolura, to Tyre. He built a city on the west side of the Red Sea, whence he sent out fleets to all those countries to which the Phoenicians traded from Elath; but, observing that the Red Sea, by reason of rocks and shoals, was very dangerous toward its northern extremity, he transferred the trade to another city, which he founded at the greatest practicable distance southward. This port, which was almost on the borders of Ethiopia, he called, from his mother, Berenice, but the harbor being found inconvenient, the neighboring city of Myos Hormos was preferred. Thither the products of the East and South were conveyed by sea, and were from thence taken on camels to Coptus on the Nile, where they were again shipped for Alexandria, and from that city were dispersed into all the nations of the West, in exchange for merchandise which was afterward exported to the East (Strabo, 22, p. 805; Pliny, Hist. Nat. 6, 23). The commerce of Alexandria being so great, especially in corn — for Egypt was considered the granary of Rome — the centurion might readily "find a ship, corn-laden, sailing into Italy" (Act_27:6; Act_28:11; see Conybeare and Howson, St. Paul, 2, 308, 309). The beauty (Athen. 1, p. 3) of Alexandria was proverbial. Every natural advantage contributed to its prosperity. The climate and site were singularly healthful (Strab. p. 793).
The harbors, formed by the island of Pharos and the headland Lochias, were safe and commodious, alike for commerce and for war; and the lake Mareotis was an inland haven for the merchandise of Egypt and India (Strab. p. 798). Under the despotism of the later Ptolemies the trade of Alexandria declined, but its population (300,000 freemen, Diod. 17:52, which, as Mannert suggests, should be doubled, if we include the slaves; the free population of Attica was about 130,000) and wealth — (Strab. p. 798) were enormous. After the victory of Augustus it suffered for its attachment to the cause of Antony (Strab. p. 792); but its importance as one of the chief corn-ports of Rome secured for it the general favor of the first emperors. In later times the seditious tumults for which the Alexandrians had always been notorious desolated the city (A.D. 260, Gibbon, Decline and Fall, c. x), and religious feuds aggravated the popular distress (Dionys. Alex. Ep. 3, 12; Euseb. — H. E. 6, 41 sq.; 7:22). Yet even thus, though Alexandria suffered greatly from constant dissensions and the weakness of the Byzantine court, the splendor of "the great city of the West" amazed Amrou, its Arab conqueror (A.D. 640, Gibbon, c. 51); and after centuries of Mohammedan misrule it promises once again to justify the wisdom of its founder (Strab. 17:791-9; Frag. ap. Josephus, Ant. 14, 7, 2; Plut. Aler. 26; Arr. 3, 1; Josephus, War, 4, 5). Bonaparte took Alexandria in 1798, and it remained in the possession of the French till they surrendered it to the British, Sept. 2, 1801, when they were finally expelled from the country. Mohammed Ali dug a canal, called El-Mahmoudieh (a compliment to Mahmoud, the father of the present sultan, Abd-el-Mejid), which opened a water communication with the Nile, entering that river at a place called Fouah, a few miles distant from the city. All about the city, but particularly to the south and east, are extensive mounds, and fragments of ancient luxury and magnificence, granite columns, marble statues, and broken pottery. The modern city of Alexandria is surrounded by a high wall, built by the Saracens between A.D. 1200-1300. Some parts of the walls of the old city still exist, and the ancient vaulted reservoirs, extending under the whole town, are almost entire. The ancient Necropolis is excavated out of the solid rock. The site of that part known to have been Rhacotis is now covered by the sea; but beneath the surface of the water are visible the remains of ancient Egyptian statues and columns.
Alexandria became not only the seat of commerce, but of learning and the liberal sciences. This distinction also it owed to Ptolemy Soter, himself a man of education, who founded an academy, or society of learned men, who devoted themselves to the study of philosophy, literature, and science. For their use he made a collection of choice books, which by degrees increased under his successors until it became the finest library in the world, and numbered 700,000 volumes (Strab. 17, p. 791; Euseb. Chron.). It sustained repeated losses by fire and otherwise, but these losses were as repeatedly repaired; and it continued to be of great fame and use in those parts, until it was destroyed by a mob of Christians, A.D. 391, or, according to others, burnt by the Saracens, A.D. 642. SEE ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY.
Undoubtedly the Jews at Alexandria shared in the benefit of these institutions, as the Christians did afterward, for the city was not only a seat of heathen, but of Jewish, and subsequently of Christian learning (Am. Bib. Repos. 1834, p. 1-21, 190, 617). The Jews never had a more profoundly learned man than Philo, nor the Christians men more erudite than Origen and Clement; and if we may judge from these celebrated natives of Alexandria, who were remarkably intimate with the heathen philosophy and literature, the learning acquired in the Jewish and Christian schools of that city must have been of that broad and comprehensive character which its large and liberal institutions were fitted to produce.
It will be remembered that the celebrated translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, SEE SEPTUAGINT, was made, under every encouragement from Ptolemy Philadelphus, principally for the use of the Jews in Alexandria, who knew only the Greek language (see Sturz, De dialecto Macedonica et Alexandrina, Lips. 1808); but partly, no doubt, that the great library might possess a version of a book so remarkable, and, in some points, so closely connected with the ancient history of Egypt. The work of Josephus against Apion affords ample evidence of the attention which the Jewish Scriptures excited. According to Eusebius (Hist. Eccl. 2, 17), Mark first introduced the Gospel into Alexandria; and, according to less authentic accounts, he suffered martyrdom here about A.D. 68. A church dedicated to this evangelist, belonging to the Coptic (Jacobite) Christians, still exists in Alexandria (Rosenmuller, Bib. Geog. 3, 291 sq.). The Jewish and Christian schools in Alexandria were long held in the highest esteem, and there is reason to believe that the latter, besides producing many eloquent preachers, paid much attention to the multiplying of copies of the sacred writings. The famous Alexandrian manuscript (q.v.), now deposited in the British Museum, is well known. For many years Christianity continued to flourish at this seat of learning, but at length it became the source, and for some time continued the stronghold, of the Arian heresy. The divisions, discords, and animosities which were thus introduced rendered the churches of Alexandria an easy prey to the Arabian impostor, and they were swept away by his followers.
The population of Alexandria was mixed from the first (comp. Curt. 4:8, 5), and this fact formed the groundwork of the Alexandrine character. The three regions into which the city was divided (Regio Judoeorum, Brucheium, Rhacotis) corresponded to the three chief classes of its inhabitants, Jews, Greeks, Egyptians; but in addition to these principal races, representatives of almost every nation were found there (Dion Chrys. Orat. 32). According to Josephus, Alexander himself assigned to the Jews a place in his new city; “and they obtained," he adds, “equal privileges with the Macedonians" (Revelation 2, 4) in consideration “of their services against the Egyptians" (War, 2, 18, 7). Ptolemy I imitated the policy of Alexander, and, after the capture of Jerusalem, he removed a considerable number of its citizens to Alexandria. Many others followed of their own accord; and all received the full Macedonian franchise (Josephus, Ant. 12, 1; comp. Revelation 1, 22), as men of known and tried fidelity (Josephus, Revelation 2, 4). Already on a former occasion the Jews had sought a home in the land of their bondage. More than two centuries and a half before the foundation of Alexandria a large body of them had taken refuge in Egypt after the murder of Gedaliah; but these, after a general apostasy, were carried captive to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar (2Ki_25:26; Jeremiah 44; Josephus, Ant. 10, 9, 7). The Jews, however much their religion was disliked, were valued as citizens, and every encouragement was held out by Alexander himself and by his successors in Egypt to induce them to settle in the new city. The same privileges as those of the first class of inhabitants (the Greeks) were accorded to them, as well as the free exercise of their religion and peculiar usages; and this, with the protection and security which a powerful state afforded against the perpetual conflicts and troubles of Palestine, and with the inclination to traffic which had been acquired during the captivity, gradually drew such immense numbers of Jews to Alexandria that they eventually formed a very large portion of its vast population, and at the same time constituted a most thriving and important section of the Jewish nation (Hecataeus, in Josephus, Apion, 2; War, 2, 36; Q. Curtius, 4:8). The Jewish inhabitants of Alexandria are therefore often mentioned in the later history of the nation, and their importance as a section of that nation would doubtless have been more frequently indicated had not the Jews of Egypt thrown off their ecclesiastical dependence upon Jerusalem and its temple, and formed a separate establishment of their own at On or Heliopolis. SEE ON; SEE ONIAS.
We find (Act_2:10) that, among those who came up to Jerusalem to keep the feast of Pentecost, there were Jews, devout men from Egypt, and the parts of Libya about Cyrene. Of this city, Apollos, the eloquent convert, was a native (Act_18:24); and of the Jews that disputed with Stephen and put him to death, many were Alexandrians, who, it seems, had a synagogue at that time in Jerusalem (Act_6:9). Philo estimates them in his time at little less than 1,000,000 (In Flacc. § 6, p. 971); and adds that two of the five districts of Alexandria were called “Jewish districts," and that many Jews lived scattered in the remaining three (ib. § 8, p. 973). Julius Caesar (Josephus, Ant. 14, 10, 1) and Augustus confirmed to them the privileges which they had enjoyed before, and they retained them, with various interruptions, of which the most important, A.D. 39, is described by Philo (1. c.), during the tumults and persecutions of later reigns (Josephus, Revelation 2, 4; War, 12, 3, 2). They were represented (at least from the time of Cleopatra to the reign of Claudius, Jost, Gesch. d. Judenth. p. 353) by their own officer, SEE ALABARCH, (ἐθνάρχης, Strab. ap. Josephus, Ant. 14, 7, 2; ἀλαβάρχης, ib. 18, 7, 3; 9, 1; 19:5,1; comp. Rup. ad Juv. Sat. 1, 130; γενάρχης, Philo, In Flacc. § 10, p. 975), and Augustus appointed a council (γερουσία, i e. Sanhedrim; Philo, 1. c.) “to superintend the affairs of the Jews," according to their own laws. The establishment of Christianity altered the civil position of the Jews, but they maintained their relative prosperity; and when Alexandria was taken by Amrou, 40,000 tributary Jews were reckoned among the marvels of the city (Gibbon, 151). They enjoyed their privileges undisturbed until the time of Ptolemy Philopator, who, being exasperated at the resistance he had met with in attempting to enter the temple at Jerusalem, wreaked his wrath upon the Jews of Alexandria on his return to Egypt. He reduced to the third or lowest class all but such as would consent to offer sacrifices to the gods he worshipped; but of the whole body only 300 were found willing to abandon their principles in order to preserve their civil advantages. The act of the general body in excluding the 300 apostates from their congregations was so represented to the king as to move his anger to the utmost, and he madly determined to exterminate all the Jews in Egypt. Accordingly, as many as could be found were brought together and shut up in the spacious hippodrome of the city, with the intention of letting loose 500 elephants upon them; but the animals refused their horrid task, and, turning wildly upon the spectators and soldiers, destroyed large numbers of them. This, even to the king, who was present, seemed so manifest an interposition of Providence in favor of the Jews, that he not only restored their privileges, but loaded them with new favors. This story, as it is omitted by Josephus and other writers, and only found in the third book of Maccabees (2-5), is considered doubtful.
The dreadful persecution which the Jews of Alexandria underwent in A.D. 39 shows that, notwithstanding their long establishment there, no friendly relations had arisen between them and the other inhabitants, by whom, in fact, they were intensely hated. This feeling was so well known that, at the date indicated, the Roman governor, Avillius Flaccus, who was anxious to ingratiate himself with the citizens, was persuaded that the surest way of winning their affections was to withdraw his protection from the Jews, against whom the emperor was already exasperated by their refusal to acknowledge his right to divine honors, which he insanely claimed, or to admit his images into their synagogues. The Alexandrians soon found out that they would not be called to account for any proceedings they might have recourse to against the Jews. The insult and bitter mockery with which they treated Herod Agrippa, when he came to Alexandria before proceeding to take possession of the kingdom he had received from Caligula, gave the first intimation of their dispositions. Finding that the governor connived at their conduct, they proceeded to insist that the emperor's images should be introduced into the Jewish synagogues; and on resistance being offered, they destroyed most of them, and polluted the others by introducing the imperial images by force. The example thus set by the Alexandrians was followed in other cities of Egypt, which contained at this time about a million of Jews; and a vast number of oratories-of which the largest and most beautiful were called synagogues-were all either levelled with the ground, consumed by fire, or profaned by the emperor's statues (Philo, In Flacc. p. 968-1009, ed. 1640; De Leg. 9; Euseb. Chron. 27, 28).
Flaccus soon after published an edict depriving the Jews of the rights of citizenship, which they had so long enjoyed, and declaring them aliens. The Jews then occupied two out of the five quarters (which took their names from the first five letters of the alphabet) into which the city was divided; and as they were in those times by no means remarkable for their submission to wrong treatment, it is likely that they made some efforts toward the maintenance of their rights, which Philo neglects to record, but which gave some pretense for the excesses which followed. At all events, the Alexandrians, regarding them as abandoned by the authorities to their mercy, openly proceeded to the most violent extremities. The Jews were forcibly driven out of all the other parts of the city, and confined to one quarter; and the houses from which they had been driven, as well as their shops and warehouses, were plundered of all their effects. Impoverished, and pent up in a narrow corner of the city, where the greater part were obliged to lie in the open air, and where the supplies of food were cut off, many of them died of hardship and hunger; and whoever was found beyond the boundary, whether he had escaped from the assigned limits or had come in from the country, was seized and put to death with horrid tortures. So likewise, when a vessel belonging to Jews arrived in port, it was boarded by the mob, pillaged, and then burnt, together with the owners. At length King Herod Agrippa, who staid long enough in Alexandria to see the beginning of these atrocities, transmitted to the emperor such a report of the real state of affairs as induced him to send a centurion to arrest Flaccus, and bring him a prisoner to Rome. This put the rioters in a false position, and brought some relief to the Jews; but the tumult still continued, and as the magistrates refused to acknowledge the citizenship of the Jews, it was at length agreed that both parties should send delegates, five on each side, to Rome, and refer the decision of the controversy to the emperor.
At the head of the Jewish delegation was the celebrated Philo, to whom we owe the account of these transactions; and at the head of the Alexandrians was the noted Apion. The latter chiefly rested their case upon the fact that the Jews were the only people who refused to consecrate images to the emperor, or to swear by his name. But on this point the Jewish delegates defended themselves so well that Caligula himself said, "These men are not so wicked as ignorant and unhappy in not believing me to be a god." The ultimate result of this appeal is not known, but the Jews of Alexandria continued to be harassed during the remainder of Caligula's reign; and their alabarch, Alexander Lysimachus (brother of Philo), was thrown into prison, where he remained till he was discharged by Claudius, upon whose accession to the empire the Alexandrian Jews betook themselves to arms. This occasioned such disturbances that they attracted the attention of the emperor, who, at the joint entreaty of Herod and Agrippa, issued an edict conferring on the Jews of Egypt all their ancient privileges (Philo, In Flacc. p. 1019-1043; Josephus, Ant. 18, 10; 19:4). The state of feeling in Alexandria which these facts indicate was very far from being allayed when the revolt of the Jews in Palestine caused even those of the nation who dwelt in foreign parts to be regarded as enemies both by the populace and the government. In Alexandria, on a public occasion, they were attacked, and those who could not save themselves by flight were put to the sword. Only three were taken alive, and they were dragged through the city to be consigned to the flames. At this spectacle the indignation of the Jews rose beyond all bounds. They first assailed the Greek citizens with stones, and then rushed with lighted torches to the amphitheater to set it on fire and burn all the people who were there assembled. The Roman prefect, Tiberius Alexander, finding that milder measures were of no avail, sent against them a body of 17,000 soldiers, who slew about 50,000 of them, and plundered and burned their dwellings (Josephus, War, 2, 18, 7; comp. Mat_24:6).
After the close of the war in Palestine, new disturbances were excited in Egypt by the Sicarii, many of whom had fled thither. They endeavored to persuade the Jews to acknowledge no king but God, and to throw off the Roman yoke. Such persons as opposed their designs, and tendered wiser counsels to their brethren, they secretly assassinated, according to their custom. But the principal Jews in Alexandria having in a general assembly earnestly warned the people against these fanatics, who had been the authors of all the troubles in Palestine, about 600 of them were delivered up to the Romans. Several fled into the Thebaid, but were apprehended and brought back. The most cruel tortures which could be devised had no effect in compelling them to acknowledge the emperor for their sovereign; and even their children seemed endowed with souls fearless of death and bodies incapable of pain. Vespasian, when informed of these transactions, sent orders that the Jewish temple in Egypt should be destroyed. Lupus, the prefect, however, only shut it up, after having taken out the consecrated gifts; but his successor, Paulinus, stripped it completely, and excluded the Jews entirely from it. This was in A.D. 75, being the 343d year from its erection by Onias.
The Jews continued to form a principal portion of the inhabitants, and remained in the enjoyment of their civil rights till A.D. 415, when they incurred the hatred of Cyril, the patriarch, at whose instance they were expelled, to the number of 40,000, and their synagogues destroyed. However, when Amrou, in A.D. 640, took the place for the Caliph Omar, he wrote to his master in these terms: “I have taken the great city of the West, which contains 4000 palaces, 4000 baths, 400 theaters, 12,000 shops for the sale of vegetable food, and 40,000 tributary Jews." From that time the prosperity of Alexandria very rapidly declined; and when, in 969, the Fatemite caliphs seized on Egypt and built New Cairo, it sunk to the rank of a secondary Egyptian city. The discovery of the passage to the East by the Cape in 1497 almost annihilated its remaining commercial importance; and although the commercial and maritime enterprises of Mehemet Ali have again raised it to some distinction, Alexandria must still be accounted as one of those great ancient cities whose glory has departed. When Benjamin of Tudela visited the place (Itin. 1, 158, ed. Asher), the number of Jews was not more than 3000, and does not now exceed 500 families of African Jews, besides about 150 families of the Italian community (Benjamin's Eight Years in Asia and Africa, Hannov. 1859, p. 230). The entire population, at present, is rapidly increasing, but the statistical statements greatly vary. Pierer's Universal Lexicon (Altenburg, 1857) gives 60,000; Chambers's Encyclopedia (Edinburgh and New York, 1860, vol. 1), 80,000; the Almanac de Gotha for 1860, 400,000. It is now called Scanderia or El-lskenderiyeh (Mannert, 10:615 sq.; Forbiger, Handb. d. alt. Geogr. 2, 777; Ruppell, Abyssinien, 1, 82; Niebuhr, Trav. 1, 32 sq.; Ukert, Erdbeschr. 5, Afrika, 1, 183 sq.; Descr. de l'Egypte, 18, 83 sq.; Olivier, Voyage, 3, 1 sq.; Schubert, Reis. 1, 484 sq.; comp. Penny Cyclopoedia, s.v.; Smith's Dict. of Class. Geogr. s.v.; M'Culloch's Gazetteer, s.v.). SEE EGYPT.



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