endezvous for all the Orientals--Greeks,
Egyptians, Jews, and Syrians; each brought there his religion, his
philosophy, his science, and all were mingled together. Alexandria
became and remained for several centuries the scientific and
philosophical capital of the world.

=Pergamum.=--The kingdom of Pergamum in Asia Minor was small and weak.
But Pergamum, its capital, was, like Alexandria, a city of artists and
of letters. The sculptors of Pergamum constituted a celebrated school
in the third century before our era.[101] Pergamum, like Alexandria,
possessed a great library where King Attalus had assembled all the
manuscripts of the ancient authors.

It was at Pergamum that, to replace the papyrus on which down to that
time they used to write, they invented the art of preparing skins.
This new paper of Pergamum was the parchment on which the manuscripts
of antiquity have been preserved.

FOOTNOTES:

[95] An episode told by Xenophon shows what fear the Greeks inspired.
One day, to make a display before the queen of Cilicia, Cyrus had his
Greeks drawn up in battle array. "They all had their brazen helmets,
their tunics of purple, their gleaming shields and greaves. The trumpet
sounded, and the soldiers, with arms in action, began the charge;
hastening their steps and raising the war-cry, they broke into a run.
The barbarians were terrified; the Cilician queen fled from her chariot,
the merchants of the market abandoning their goods took to flight, and
the Greeks returned with laughter to their tents."

[96] There were two assemblies in Corinth--the first in, 338, the second
in 337.--ED.

[97] The Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles composed in Asia Minor
were written in Greek.

[98] They were called Lagidae from the father of Ptolemy I.

[99] The library of the Museum was burnt during the siege of Alexandria
by Caesar. But it had a successor in the Serapeum which contained 300,000
volumes. This is said to have been burnt in the seventh century by the
Arabs. [The tale of the destruction of the library under orders of Omar
is doubtful.--ED.]

[100] King Ptolemy Philadelphus who had great fear of death passed many
years searching for an elixir of life.

[101] There still remain to us some of the statues executed by the
orders of King Attalus to commemorate his victory over the Gauls of
Asia.

CHAPTER XVI

THE LAST YEARS OF GREECE

DECADENCE OF THE GREEK CITIES

=Rich and Poor.=--In almost all th