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The Rise and Fall of Alexandria: Birthplace of the Modern World Paperback – October 30, 2007

by Justin Pollard (Author), Howard Reid (Author)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 240 ratings
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A short history of nearly everything classical. The foundations of the modern world were laid in Alexandria of Egypt at the turn of the first millennium. In this compulsively readable narrative, Justin Pollard and Howard Reid bring one of history's most fascinating and prolific cities to life, creating a treasure trove of our intellectual and cultural origins. Famous for its lighthouse, its library-the greatest in antiquity-and its fertile intellectual and spiritual life--it was here that Christianity and Islam came to prominence as world religions--Alexandria now takes its rightful place alongside Greece and Rome as a titan of the ancient world. Sparkling with fresh insights on science, philosophy, culture, and invention, this is an irresistible, eye- opening delight.
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  1. Print length
    329 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Penguin Books
  4. Publication date
    October 30, 2007
  5. Reading age
    18 years and up
  6. Dimensions
    8.42 x 5.48 x 0.75 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0143112511
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0143112518
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Lively and Lucid. The real action [in] the classical world lay in Alexandria. Tells the story of ancient Alexandrian science, Cleopatra, with relish and brio."
-The Weekly Standard

"A marvelous work, a sweeping narrative, as grand as it is unusual, Pollard and Reid breathe life into the dust of philosophers and kings."
-Barry Strauss, author of The Trojan War: A New History and The Battle of Salamis

"Lucid, entertaining, full of exquisite images."
-Michael Hirst, screenwriter of Elizabeth

About the Author

Justin Pollard, a freelance writer and producer specializing in historical documentaries, has written for PBS and A&E. He is currently providing script and historical consultancy for Sam Mendes’s upcoming feature film, Tom Fool.

Howard Reid has made award-winning documentaries for National Geographic, the BBC, and Channel 4, including The Story of English. He is the author of five books.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books; Reprint edition (October 30, 2007)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 329 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0143112511
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0143112518
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.42 x 5.48 x 0.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 240 ratings

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  1. Justin Pollard

    Justin Pollard

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Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
240 global ratings
The Authors should be teaching college students!
5 Stars
The Authors should be teaching college students!
This book was nothing short of phenominal! A very intelligently written book. The authors should be teaching history at a Harvard!
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Top reviews from the United States

Bernard M. Patten
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book with a great theme and noble language
Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2021
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This is a great book. It has a great theme, ancient history told from the Alexandrian point of view. It speaks in uplifting and noble language. It has excellent well researched and well documented content and its presentation is clear and interesting. What life lessons do we learn from this excellent review of ancient history? The whole sad story of course. People killing people for kooky ideas or power or both. Dangerous leaders like Cyril making up lies to accuse people he wants out of the way and then spreading the lies to activate the mob to riot and kill. Does this sound familiar? The Romans attack the Christians. Then when the Christians gain the upper hand, they attack the Jews and the Pagans and the Romans. Then the Muslims muscle in and kill the Christians. In addition, we have the terrible record of Christians killing other Christians over the Filioque problem – who is the more powerful God – God the father or God the Son or are they both equally powerful? No kidding. Stupid ideas like those resulted in war, horrible deaths and mass destruction of property. When Christians ran out of Jews and pagans, they directed their force against the scholars and their books. And who is next for persecution? Answer: women, especially smart women. The Hypatia story is a case in point. She was the very famous mathematician and logician. Cyril (afterwards made Saint Cyril) accused her of doing black magic and the crowd dragged her off her chariot, beat her to death, and burned her body. Everywhere it is force of arms against the force of reason with arms winning out most of the time. Oh joyless hearts of mankind! Take a look, and weep, at the Caliph’s instructions about books: …”if what is written in them agrees with the Book of God, they are not required: if it disagrees, they are not desired. Destroy them therefore.” And over 400,000 scrolls are used to heat the baths for over six months. Sad to say, we must conclude from the long miserable history of our species, vividly displayed in this excellent history, that religious bigotry dragged Alexandria and the ancient world into a learning oblivion that would last for over a thousand years.
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R.P. St. Amour
5.0 out of 5 stars A look into Egypt’s glorious past history.
Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2023
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Exceptionally entertaining in content and educational in scope. Hard bound book was in mint condition.
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Didaskalex
4.0 out of 5 stars A Tragical Ending to the Zenith of Civilization in the Old World
Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2008
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"Alexandria ... a cosmopolitan city bringing together adventurers, men of letters and science, merchants and travellers. Alexandria was the heart of a complex administration whose particular ambition was to amass all the trappings of wealth,..." Alexandria, The knowledge of the world in a single city

Birthplace of Modern Mind:
This entertaining book, which posts a good question: "Where are, today, those universal figures that give birth to the future of the world and the universe?" deserves an expert review only few could offer. "The Rise and Fall of Alexandria," is much more of a work of historical art than a study on the complex maze of sciences, technology, religious thought and philosophy, of the city of the great scriptorium. Pollard and Reid created a great project guiding the reader through the intellectual adventure of the city and its contribution to the way modern humanity think, learn, and belief.
Alexandria's important status in history has often been overlooked due to the loss of its great landmarks, both architectural and intellectual: its Pharos, the greatest lighthouse, until its destruction, the world's great library of 600,000 codices reduced to references in the history of World Civilization. The book is a documentary of the city's vital role in development of Geography, and Cartography that enhanced maritime trade in ancient times as well as the important exchange of ideas and skilled people.
Through twenty chapters, counting introduction/epilogue, the authors take us into a virtual tour of the historical city through encountering some of its geniuses, inventors and philosophic figures and their contribution to the unique tradition of Alexandria, that has triggered the development of Western civilization of thought and technology.

Museon, Library of Alexandria:
The great library comprised perhaps as many as 400-700 thousand manuscripts, the total accumulated corpus of knowledge generated by ancient philosophers, scientists and poets. It was contained in the Museon, a building thought by the ancient historians to have been of surpassing architectural glory, not a trace of which survived. By decree of Ptolemy III of Egypt, all visitors to the city were required to surrender all books and scrolls in their possession; these writings were then swiftly copied by official scribes. The originals were put into the Library, and the copies were delivered to the previous owners. This decree helped to create a reservoir of books in the relatively new city.
The Library's contents were likely distributed over several buildings, with the main library either located directly attached to or close to the oldest building, the Museon; a smaller library in the Serapeum, a temple of Serapis.

Pharos, Alexandria's Lighthouse:
The crown of Alexandria's harbor was the great lighthouse erected on the eastern edge of the Pharos island. The Pharos was built to warn sailors of the dangerous sandbars off Alexandria, the busiest port of the ancient world.
It was constructed of a three-stage tower, decorated with mythical creatures, atop of which was a lantern with a giant bonfire whose light reflected by mirrors, made of polished bronze, focused into a beam visible 42 kilometer away. Ancient accounts such as those by Strabo and Pliny the Elder give us a brief description of the "tower" and its white marble casing, how its mysterious mirror reflected the lightbeam fifty kilometers away. Statius (40-96 AD) describes the light of the Pharos in the night as like that of the Moon. It was described by Antipater of Sidon (130 BC) as one of the seven Wonders of the ancient world, it remained operational until it was totally destroyed by earthquakes in the 14th century.

Epilogue to an Episode:
After a glimpse of that miraculous adventure, I have to just look into the book's Epilogue, which starts in chapter 17, 'The end of reason'. As experienced directors, the authors selected Hypatia death to anticipate Alexandria's fate, 'With the death of Hypatia, her city began to die," which is described in a tragic title, 'The shipwreck of Time'! This is really very compelling, since you take with you the accentuated feeling of tragical ending to the zenith of civilization in the Old World.

 The Library of Alexandria: Centre of Learning in the Ancient World, Revised Edition
The Electric Mirror on the Pharos Lighthouse and Other Ancient Lighting
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Jerome the Cat
5.0 out of 5 stars A fun, layman's read on Alexandria
Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2019
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As others have noted, this is not a work for scholars. You'll find an easy-to-read book that presents the history of Alexandria in a way that almost feels like reading a novel. It's captivating and made me want to keep reading. I recommend it for this reason alone. I study church history almost exclusively and this helped me to gain a better understanding of Alexandria - what happened there and the culture that was later replaced with Christianity and then Islam after that.

However, it's not a good book for scholarly work. In it, you'll find no references and lots of opinions, some of which I find to be questionable. He's not a theologian, so when discussing theologians he sometimes misses the nuances of their work. Also, when he dislikes someone (such as Cyril) then he'll only present stories that cast that person in a bad light. So what you get is a lopsided, unbalanced portrayal of some historical characters.

Still, the strengths of the book outweigh its weaknesses so I recommend it.
7 people found this helpful
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Don Hiemstra
5.0 out of 5 stars History Truly Repeats Itself
Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2024
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This is a must read for any one of that is brave enough to experience the dangers of blind faith.
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sandy
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book
Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2024
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Invention and the stretching of imagination. Love this book
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Top reviews from other countries

HT
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating!
Reviewed in Germany on June 29, 2020
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So fascinating that I couldn't put it down. I can only recommend it to those interested not only in ancient Greek history but also in the evolution and devevlopment of philosophy, geography, astronomy and mathematics in the ancient world.
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H. Barca
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book on one of the most amazing cities of ...
Reviewed in Canada on September 21, 2015
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An excellent book on one of the most amazing cities of antiquity. The ease with which the book synthesizes the various inventions and creations that took place in that city over the centuries makes it an exceptional read for anyone interested in human civilization.
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James Poonnolly
4.0 out of 5 stars From Ptolemy to Hypatia
Reviewed in India on September 13, 2016
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I chanced upon this book after watching the movie 'Agora' (2009). Though the movie mostly deals with the power struggles of Cyril and Orestes, which in turn causes Hypatia's death, the book paints an overall picture. It explains Alexandria's rise as a metropolis and centre of learning, the city's slow decline through the Roman occupation and finally the rise of religious extremism which deals the death blow to Alexandrian centre's of knowledge and learning. Some sections I found hollow and lacking in in-depth analysis. But overall a good read.
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Brian Levine
5.0 out of 5 stars An eye-opener
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 27, 2006
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Pollard and Reid throw us into a wondrous world of forty-storey lighthouses, Manhattan street-grids and inquisitive minds circa 300BC. Ancient Alexandria spawned an astonishing number of breakthroughs across physics, astronomy, medicine and mathematics, all carefully logged in its grand library which sadly ceased to exist many centuries ago. A wonderful example of early 'open-source' software, the library attracted its disciples, each working on the discoveries of his predecessor in order to progress to the next level. Much of this work was lost for centuries, re-discovered only recently and it is surprising how much of Alexandria's output affects our lives today.

This is an important book written in an accessible style which succeeds in piecing together a reconstruction of a long-gone ancient civilisation influenced by the Greeks, the Romans and the Egyptians.
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sxylisa19810905
5.0 out of 5 stars Well researched and brilliantly written
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 11, 2019
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Such a great book! The author thoroughly researched many books and organized all the information in a chronological way. From the foundation of Alexandria city to the climax and down spiral path, each part contains history and characters (heroes, scientists and philosophers). Some quotations from some original material supplemented the contents. Therefore, this book gives you an epic picture of Alexandria, matching this magnificent city perfectly! This is a book worth reading many times because of the rich contents.
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