m of philosophy, which had been rebuilt since the burning by
Caesar's soldiers; the exchange, crowded with merchants, the temple of
Neptune, and Mark Antony's fortress, called the Timonium, on a point of
land which jutted into the harbour; the Caesarium, or new palace; and the
great temple of Serapis, which was on the western side of the city, and
was the largest and most ornamented of all these buildings. Farther off
was the beautiful gymnasium for wrestlers and boxers, with its porticoes
of a stadium in length, where the citizens used to meet in public
assembly. From the top of the temple of Pan, which rose like a
sugar-loaf in the middle of the city, and was mounted by a winding
staircase, the whole of this remarkable capital might be seen spread
out before the eye. On the east of the city was the circus, for
chariot races, and on the west lay the public gardens and pale green
palm-groves, and the Necropolis ornamenting the roadside with tombs for
miles along the seashore. Other tombs were in the catacombs underground
on the same side of the city. The banks of the Mareotic Lake were
fringed with vineyards, which bore the famed wine of the same name,
and which formed a pleasant contrast with the burning whiteness of the
desert beyond. The canal from the lake to the Nile marked its course
through the plain by the greater freshness of the green along its banks.
In the distance were the new buildings of Augustus' city of Nicopolis.
The arts of Greece and the wealth of Egypt had united to adorn the
capital of the Ptolemies. Heliopolis, the ancient seat of Egyptian
learning, had never been wholly repaired since its siege by Cambyses,
and was then almost a deserted city. Its schools were empty, its
teachers silent; but the houses in which Plato and his friend Eudoxus
were said to have dwelt and studied were pointed out to the traveller,
to warm his love of knowledge and encourage him in the pursuit of
virtue. Memphis was the second city in Egypt, while Thebes and Abydos,
the former capitals, had fallen to the size and rank of villages. At
Memphis Strabo saw the bull-fights in the circus, and was allowed to
look at the bull Apis through a window of his stable. At Crocodilopolis
he saw the sacred crocodile caught on the banks of the lake and fed
with cakes and wine. Ptolemais, which was at first only an encampment of
Greek soldiers, had risen under the sovereigns to whom it owed its name
to be the largest city in the Thebaid, a