that, having obtained from Athens the works of Euripides, Sophocles,
and Aeschylus, he sent to their owners transcripts, together with about
fifteen thousand dollars, as an indemnity. On his return from the Syrian
expedition he carried back in triumph all the Egyptian monuments from
Ecbatana and Susa, which Cambyses and other invaders had removed from
Egypt. These he replaced in their original seats, or added as adornments
to his museums. When works were translated as well as transcribed, sums
which we should consider as almost incredible were paid, as was the
case with the Septuagint translation of the Bible, ordered by Ptolemy
Philadelphus.

2. For the increase of knowledge. One of the chief objects of the Museum
was that of serving as the home of a body of men who devoted themselves
to study, and were lodged and maintained at the king's expense.
Occasionally he himself sat at their table. Anecdotes connected with
those festive occasions have descended to our times. In the original
organization of the Museum the residents were divided into four
faculties--literature; mathematics, astronomy, medicine. Minor branches
were appropriately classified under one of these general heads; thus
natural history was considered to be a branch of medicine. An officer of
very great distinction presided over the establishment, and had general
charge of its interests. Demetrius Phalareus, perhaps the most learned
man of his age, who had been governor of Athens for many years, was the
first so appointed. Under him was the librarian, an office sometimes
held by men whose names have descended to our times, as Eratosthenes,
and Apollonius Rhodius.

ORGANIZATION OF THE MUSEUM. In connection with the Museum were a
botanical and a zoological garden. These gardens, as their names import,
were for the purpose of facilitating the study of plants and animals.
There was also an astronomical observatory containing armillary spheres,
globes, solstitial and equatorial armils, astrolabes, parallactic
rules, and other apparatus then in use, the graduation on the divided
instruments being into degrees and sixths. On the floor of this
observatory a meridian line was drawn. The want of correct means of
measuring time and temperature was severely felt; the clepsydra of
Ctesibius answered very imperfectly for the former, the hydrometer
floating in a cup of water for the latter; it measured variations of
temperature by variations of density. Philadelphus, wh