Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1859 Excerpt:...and his friend Dion in this reign; but even such travellers were few. Aristides indeed lost the notes which he made upon his journey; and from him we learn little beyond the measure of the Nile's rise, which was twenty-eight cubits at Elephantine, twenty-one at Coptos, and fourteen at Memphis. (3) The celebrated Museum, which had held the vast library of the Ptolemies, had been burnt by the soldiers of Julius Cffisar in one of their battles with the Egyptian army in the streets of Alexandria; but the loss had been in part repaired by Mark Antony's gift of the library from Pergamus to the temple of Serapis. The new library however would seem to have been placed in a building somewhat separated from the temple, as when the temple of Serapis was burnt in the reign of Euaebii Marcus Aurelius, and again when it was in part Cbronicon. destroyed by fire in the second year of this reign we hear of no loss of books; and two hundred years later the library of the Serapium had risen to the number of seven hundred thousand volumes. The temple-keeper to Inacript the great god Serapis, or one of the temple-keepers, Gruter, at this time was Asclepiades, a noted boxer and wrestler, who had been made chief of the wrestling-ground and had received the high rank of the emperor's freedman. He set up a statue to his father Demetrius, an equally noted boxer and wrestler, who had been chief priest of the wrestling-ground and of the emperor's baths in the last reign. Such was the strange union of offices and honours among the priests of Alexandria. Another favourite in the theatre was Apolaustus of Inscr;pt Memphis, who removed to Rome where he was crowned Grater, cocxiii. 8. as conqueror in the games, and as a reward made priest to Apollo and emperor's freedman. Fig. 97. (4) The...