DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14564#0202
ALEXANDRIA.
sympathy with the Alexandrians. The momentary inde-
pendence of Thebes, and later the noble struggle in which
the ancient capital perished, were witnessed with indif-
ference, if not with aversion. The Alexandrian mob
had sunk into a chaos of unrest where they blindly
wandered, with no purpose but the desire of the moment
for pleasure or for revenge.
Yet this mob ruled Egypt under the weaker of the
Greek kings and Roman governors. The whole admin-
istration was centralised at Alexandria, and the pressure
of popular clamour could move the machine of the state
when it was uncontrolled by a master's hand. Thus in
time the centre ceased to have any influence but that
of brute force on the rest of Egypt. In the later days
of the Roman rule this restless population was drawn
into the religious conflicts which made the country an
easy prey to the Arabs—but this belongs to a later part
of the subject.
One would curiously inquire whether Alexander
planned all that his city became under the Ptolemies, his
successors in the Egyptian part of his great empire. He
had thought of a commercial centre, and had designed
for it a constitution which should unite, after his favourite
policy, the Greek and the Egyptian in a common citizen-
sympathy with the Alexandrians. The momentary inde-
pendence of Thebes, and later the noble struggle in which
the ancient capital perished, were witnessed with indif-
ference, if not with aversion. The Alexandrian mob
had sunk into a chaos of unrest where they blindly
wandered, with no purpose but the desire of the moment
for pleasure or for revenge.
Yet this mob ruled Egypt under the weaker of the
Greek kings and Roman governors. The whole admin-
istration was centralised at Alexandria, and the pressure
of popular clamour could move the machine of the state
when it was uncontrolled by a master's hand. Thus in
time the centre ceased to have any influence but that
of brute force on the rest of Egypt. In the later days
of the Roman rule this restless population was drawn
into the religious conflicts which made the country an
easy prey to the Arabs—but this belongs to a later part
of the subject.
One would curiously inquire whether Alexander
planned all that his city became under the Ptolemies, his
successors in the Egyptian part of his great empire. He
had thought of a commercial centre, and had designed
for it a constitution which should unite, after his favourite
policy, the Greek and the Egyptian in a common citizen-