DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11636#0153
AND LOWER EGYPT. 125
delicacy, and have forms more elegant than that of
Alexandria. Not that this last wants beauty; but
its principal merit consists in the prodigious mag-
nitude of its dimensions, and the truly astonishing
enormity of its mass.
The same considerations which suggest a doubt
respecting the ascription of this pillar to the time
of Adrian, apply still more forcibly to that of the
emperor Severus. Abulfeda, quoted by Savary,
only says," iUexandria possessesa renowned pharos,
" and the column of Severus*." He adds not a
word more, and does not so much as point out the
spot where the column of Severus was reared. The
city of Alexandria contained such a number of co-
lumns, that it is impossible to ascertain to which of
them the passage of the Arabic historian is appli-
cable. Alexander-Severus traced his pedigree up
to Alexander the Great: it was natural for him to
prize a city founded by the conqueror his ancestor,
and it is by no means wonderful, that he should en-
deavour farther to embellish it by works of various
description, to supply the place of such as had been
thrown down or destroyed, with those which had
already rendered it so magnificent. On the other
hand, on comparing the column dedicated to Se-
verus, and still existing in the ancient city of An-
tinoe, with that of Alexandria, we shall find it im-
* Description of Egypt, Savary's translation.
possible
delicacy, and have forms more elegant than that of
Alexandria. Not that this last wants beauty; but
its principal merit consists in the prodigious mag-
nitude of its dimensions, and the truly astonishing
enormity of its mass.
The same considerations which suggest a doubt
respecting the ascription of this pillar to the time
of Adrian, apply still more forcibly to that of the
emperor Severus. Abulfeda, quoted by Savary,
only says," iUexandria possessesa renowned pharos,
" and the column of Severus*." He adds not a
word more, and does not so much as point out the
spot where the column of Severus was reared. The
city of Alexandria contained such a number of co-
lumns, that it is impossible to ascertain to which of
them the passage of the Arabic historian is appli-
cable. Alexander-Severus traced his pedigree up
to Alexander the Great: it was natural for him to
prize a city founded by the conqueror his ancestor,
and it is by no means wonderful, that he should en-
deavour farther to embellish it by works of various
description, to supply the place of such as had been
thrown down or destroyed, with those which had
already rendered it so magnificent. On the other
hand, on comparing the column dedicated to Se-
verus, and still existing in the ancient city of An-
tinoe, with that of Alexandria, we shall find it im-
* Description of Egypt, Savary's translation.
possible