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Travelling Mathematics - the Fate of Diophantos' Arithmetic Science Networks. Historical Studies 41 Travelling Mathematics - The Fate of Diophantos' Arithmetic Bearbeitet von Ad Meskens 1. Auflage 2010. Buch. x, 210 S. Hardcover ISBN 978 3 0346 0642 4 Format (B x L): 15,5 x 23,5 cm Gewicht: 537 g Weitere Fachgebiete > Mathematik > Algebra Zu Inhaltsverzeichnis schnell und portofrei erhältlich bei Die Online-Fachbuchhandlung beck-shop.de ist spezialisiert auf Fachbücher, insbesondere Recht, Steuern und Wirtschaft. Im Sortiment finden Sie alle Medien (Bücher, Zeitschriften, CDs, eBooks, etc.) aller Verlage. Ergänzt wird das Programm durch Services wie Neuerscheinungsdienst oder Zusammenstellungen von Büchern zu Sonderpreisen. Der Shop führt mehr als 8 Millionen Produkte. Chapter 2 Alexandria ad Aegyptum 2.1 The capital of memory From the time of Alexander the Great, Alexandria ad Aegyptum1, the Hellenic capital of Egypt designed by Deinokrates, was a centre of learning. It was situated at the westernmost tributary of the Nile, along its widest chan- nels, and seemed destined after Alexander’s destruction of Tyre to become the dominant centre of trade between the Mediterranean, the Nile Valley, Arabia and India. Ideally located at the crossroads of these cultures, it attracted people from everywhere and could rightly be called the world’s first cosmopolitan metropolis. The city was oblong-shaped: about 4 miles at its longest and about a mile wide2. The streets were laid out in a checkerboard pattern, with two large thoroughfares that almost bisected the city. Off the mainland, in the harbour of Alexandria, lay the isle of Pharos with its famous lighthouse. The island was almost connected to the shore by a long finger of land, a promontory known as Lochias, which stretched out towards the east. A causeway called the Heptastadium was built from the mainland, thus closing the bay toward the west. The tongue of land on which the city stood made it singularly adapted to its purpose as a commercial and military centre. Lake Mareotis, which bounded the city to the south, served both as a wet dock and as a general harbour for inland navigation along the Nile valley. Economically, it was the largest market in the inhabited world3 and the commercial hub of the Eastern Mediterranean. In the pre-Roman era, the city’s economy declined temporarily, but it would soon recover and prosper again under the Romans. Egypt’s agrarian economy was focused on Alexandria, with its stockpiles of grain destined for export. Other export products 1Alexandria by Egypt, not in Egypt. 2Pliny, The Natural History, 5.11 and Strabo, Geography, XVII, I, 8. 3Strabo, Geography, XVII, I.13. A. Meskens, Travelling Mathematics - The Fate of Diophantos’ Arithmetic, Science Networks. 27 Historical Studies 41, DOI 10.1007/978-3-0346-0643-1_2, © Springer Basel AG 2010 28 Chapter 2. Alexandria ad Aegyptum Figure 2.1 Ancient Alexandria included papyrus, book scrolls, glasswork, jewelry, fragrance and medicine. The harbour also offered military benefits: it was large enough to accommodate large fleets, while its narrow entrance made it easy to defend. According to Strabo, Alexandria’s famed salubrious atmosphere was attrib- utable to its location, in between the sea and Lake Mareotis, which was filled annually by waters from the Nile4. Galen also believed that the regular replen- ishment of the lake prevented pestilences, which he associated with marshes of stagnant waters. However, the waters would eventually recede, creating a fertile breeding ground for disease-carrying mosquitoes. Obviously there is no reason to imagine that the autumnal outbreaks of pestilential fevers (= malaria) described by sixteenth-century local physicians, and which were associated with the propin- quity of Lake Mareotis, might have been absent in Antiquity5. The population of Alexandria is assumed to have been close to half a million6. The city was divided into three districts: the Jewish quarter, the Greek quarter or Brucheion, and the Egyptian quarter or Rhakotis. After 31 B.C., the Romans, who occupied the Greek quarter, became the fourth ethnic group. The Jewish quarter had its own walls and gates, as hostilities between Greeks and Jews were common. 4Strabo, Geography, XVII, I.7 “When a large quantity of moisture is exhaled from swamps, a noxious vapour rises, and is the cause of pestilential disorders. But at Alexandreia, at the beginning of summer, the Nile, being full, fills the lake also, and leaves no marshy matter which is likely to occasion malignant exhalations". 5W. SCHEIDEL(2001), p.79. 6W. SCHEIDEL(2001), p.184. 2.1. The capital of memory 29 The Royal or Greek quarter contained the most important public buildings, lush gardens and the Royal Palaces. It is here that the far-famed Library and Museum were located. The Museum, or Temple of the Muses, is believed to have been erected under Ptolemy I (367-283 B.C.)7. It was a semi-religious research institution based on the model of the Athenian Academy and Lyceum and devoted to the cult of the Muses. Contrary to the Academy and the Lyceum, however, it was under gov- ernment control. The Museum was apparently located within the palace walls8. Not all members of the Museum are known, nor whether the institution had a continuous existence. However, we do encounter some famous names among its librarians: Apollonios of Samothrace, Eratosthenes (the mathematician and scien- tist), Aristophanes, and Aristarchos of Rhodes9. The members were not obliged to teach, but it seems likely that most were surrounded by a group of students. It was at the Museum that the first attempts at literary criticism were made. The librarians were painfully aware that the texts they received were imperfect in various ways. Therefore, they indicated possible corruptions, standardized texts, and developed a number of reading aids, such as punctuation and accentuation. From 38 onward, membership was a kind of award bestowed upon civil servants and high-ranking officers10. There is no detailed account of daily life at the Mu- seum at any time in its history. Indirect evidence, mostly relating to Kings and Emperors11, comes from authors such as Strabo and Athenaeus, or from imperial biographies. A covered marble colonnade connected the Museum with an adjacent stately build- ing: the famous Library known as the Alexandrina12. 7E.A. PARSONS(1952), pp.83 ff., P.M. FRASER(1972), pp.312 ff. 8“The Museum is also part of the Royal Quarters, having a public walk (peripaton), seating chamber (exedra), and a large building containing the dining-hall of the men of learning (philol- ogon andron) who participate in the Museum. This group of men have common property as well as a priest in charge of the Museum, appointed in former times by the Kings, and nowadays by the Emperor.” Strabo, Geography, XVII, I.8. 9E.A. PARSONS(1952), p.116, L. REYNOLDS & N. WILSON(1974), p.8, R. Mac- LEOD(2000), p.6. 10See for example N. LEWIS(1963). 11Emperor Claudius (10 B.C.-54 A.D.), for example, had a new wing added to the institution: “At last he [=Claudius] even wrote historical works in Greek, twenty books of Etruscan History and eight of Carthaginian History. Because of these works there was added to the old Museum at Alexandria a new one called after his name, and it was provided that in the one his Etruscan History should be read each year from beginning to end, and in the other his Carthaginian, by various readers in turn, in the manner of public recitations.” Suetonius, Life of Claudius, 42. 12For an account of the history of the Library, see E.A. PARSONS(1952). Excellent brief overviews can be found in D. DELIA(1992), M. EL-ABBADI(1990/92) and K. STAIKOS & T. CULLEN(2004), pp.157-245. Other works, some of which tend to adopt a strong literary perspective, include L. CANFORA et al (1988). 30 Chapter 2. Alexandria ad Aegyptum The library of Alexandria was supposedly erected by Ptolemy II (309-247 B.C.), although no ancient account of its establishment exists13. Estimates of the size of the library collection vary from 400000 to 700000 volumes, though the distinction between books, scrolls and chapters is not always entirely clear14. The Library is said to have held Greek, Roman, Jewish, Persian, Ethiopian, Babylonian, Phoeni- cian and Indian writings, and its collection seems to have grown so rapidly that part of it had to be housed in the temple of Serapis or Serapeum, in the Rhakotis district15. However, R. Bagnall 16 feels these numbers are grossly exaggerated. We know of only about 450 Greek authors, which, at an average of fifty scrolls each, makes 31250 scrolls. The cited figures are ten times greater, implying that we know just 10% of the classical authors. This, argues Bagnall, seems highly unlikely. On the other hand, the suggested physical space needed to store the number of scrolls is quite reasonable17. Also, we know that Seneca reproached Livy for showing regret 13Diogenes Laertius 4.1, 5.51. The Alexandrian library was certainly not the first of its kind. Assurbanipal, for example, had previously established a library in Niniveh, which at its height seems to have held some 30000 tablets. See also D.T. POTTS in R. MacLEOD(2000). Pergamum is said to have had a library once comparable in size to the Alexandrina, possibly containing up to 200000 scrolls. It is believed by some that competition with the library of Pergamum led to a veritable bookhunt. The Seleucids built a library in Antioch about which little is known. E.A. PARSONS(1952), pp.29 & 49. 14Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 12.11, Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights, 7.17. 15Tacitus, History, 4.84, Tertullian, Apologeticum, 18, Epiphanius, De Mensuris et Ponderibus, 11, J.S.
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