Alexander's Empire (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1887 edition. Excerpt: ...king who first carried out the scheme of Alexander, and effected the circumnavigation of Arabia, so as to open its coasts to Hellenistic traffic. We have, too, the remarkable inscription of Adula, on the East Coast of Africa, not far from the present Suakim, which an Egyptian monk, Cosmas Indicopleustes, saw in the fifth century A.D. on a marble throne set up by Euergetes to commemorate his visit, at the very end of his reign. Luckily the monk copied the inscription, which not only details the king's Eastern campaigns, but also his explorations and expeditions to Southern Arabia, Abyssinia, and Ethiopia, where he made highways, swept the seas of pirates, and brought back elephants ALEXANDRIAN SCIENCE. l6l to be trained for the purposes of war. It is possible that these southern campaigns and voyages may account for his apparent indifference to Hellenistic politics. The strides of science at this time were not less remarkable. Geographical exploration was not left without theory to gather and explain the facts. Eratosthenes, the father of the scientific study of the earth, having learned that at the summer solstice the sun cast no shadow at Syene (Aswan), in Upper Egypt, noted the shadows at Alexandria, and at intervening places, having measured the distance. He thus, by his " Science of Shadows," discovered or proved that the earth was round, and estimated the way from Syene to Alexandria was one-fiftieth of the circumference of the globe. At the same time Apollonius was making those researches into the properties of the section of a cone, which led ultimately to the pure science of astronomy, and the practical science of systematic navigation. The true method of criticism was at the same time being applied by Aristophanes of Byzantium, ...