Science and Religion at Alexandria
From History Wiki
Founded by Alexander the Great sometime around 334 BCE, Alexandria was from the start intended to be a center of commerce. More than that, it was intended to be a center of learning. Located on Egypt's coast, it became the seat of power in Egypt under the rule of the Ptolemies.
[edit] The Museum
Technically set up and dedicated to the service of the Muses, it was actually a college of educated men engaged in research and the recording of knowledge. Additionally it was also involved in the process of teaching others and may very well have been the world's first University.
Over time the Museum enabled Alexandria to overtake Athens as the World's Center of Learning. A position it was able to hold for several generations.
During this time, a number of names stand out:
- Euclid - developed a geometry that is still studied in secondary schools the world over.
- Eratosthenes - who worked out the true diameter of the Earth and only missed by about fifty miles.
- Hipparchus - engaged in the first systematic western attempt to catalogue and map the stars.
- Hero - devised the first known steam engine.
Among its many students was Archimedes.
[edit] Religion
If Alexandria was a center of Science and Knowledge, it was also a center of religious development. Its very civic structure reflected it, with the city being divided into three quarters: Greek, Jewish and Egyptian. It was a place where religions met, mixed and to a certain degree fused. In a process called theocrasia, many of the competing faiths often came to be seen as being different aspects of the same gods. Only Judaism and Mithraism, being monotheistic, were resistent to the fusion process. Later, an early form of Christianity known as Arianism would be developed here as well.
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