Tag Archives: The library of Alexandria

Written by Brendan Heard, Author of the Decline and Fall of Western Art The Ptolemaic Dynasty of Egypt is a unique reference point in classical history. Most notably, our very notion of classical wisdom itself largely depends on this period, insofar as it played a role in  the documentation, preservation, and accumulation of the wisdom

An important center of Hellenistic civilization, Alexandria was the capital of Ptolemaic Egypt, Roman and Byzantine Egypt for almost 1,000 years. The city was founded around c. 332 BC by the Macedonian King, Alexander the Great, during his conquest of the Achaemenid Empire. At one point, Alexandria became the largest city in the world and, for