. The redemption of Egypt. butsurely acquiring its supremacy over the conduct and thought ofthe Gra3CO-Roman Avorld; and although the forces of paganismfound a last stronghold in the Serapeum of Alexandria, the ^ Decline and Fall, vol. i. chap. x. ALEXANDRIA 33 disputes of the philosophers had ah-eady been replaced by thespeculations of theology, and the brown monks from the conventsand retreats of the desert had become objects as familiar andcharacteristic in the streets of Alexandria as the students of the ?^. So-called Pompeys Pillar. museum. The final triumph of the Christians of Alexandri
. The redemption of Egypt. butsurely acquiring its supremacy over the conduct and thought ofthe Gra3CO-Roman Avorld; and although the forces of paganismfound a last stronghold in the Serapeum of Alexandria, the ^ Decline and Fall, vol. i. chap. x. ALEXANDRIA 33 disputes of the philosophers had ah-eady been replaced by thespeculations of theology, and the brown monks from the conventsand retreats of the desert had become objects as familiar andcharacteristic in the streets of Alexandria as the students of the ?^. So-called Pompeys Pillar. museum. The final triumph of the Christians of Alexandriaover their pagan neighbours, represented by the destruction ofthe temple of Serapis in 391, is marked by the tall column,so long miscalled Pompeys Pillar, which antiquarians have identi-fied as a monument erected to commemorate this event, in the c 34 THE REDEMPTION OF EGYPT closing years of the reign of Theodosius, or in the time of hisson Aurehan. But the internecine conflicts of its own citizenswere not the only events to devastate the city. Caracalla, in thecourse of his insane progress through the eastern provinces ofthe Empire ( 213), ordered a general massacre of the Alexan-drians, the progress of Avhich he watched and directed from theSerapeum. The Great Library had disappeared in the reign ofhis predecessor, Septimius Severus; after Caracallas visit to Egyptthe ancient museum was no longer in existence.^ In 296Dioclesian reduced Alexandria after a siege of eight months, inwhich it
Size: 2321px × 1077px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectegyptdescriptionandt
