Fraser, P. M.
Oxford University Press (Clarendon Press), 2000 (reprint of 1972 edition)
Book Number 25687
Peter Fraser's account of Alexandrian life in the Ptolemaic period was enthusiastically welcomed by scholars when it first appeared in 1972 and has remained unsurpassed in the scope of its sources and the depth of detail in which Fraser examines the first 300 years of Alexander the Great's most successful city. The work is in two parts. Part I, providing a framework for the study of Alexandrian cultural acheivement, begins with the topography of the city and places it in the wider context of the rest of Egypt. Fraser goes on the describe the character of Alexandria's population, the citizen's relations with their Ptolemaic rulers; trade and industrial development in the city; and its "manufactured" religious cult of Serapis. Part II, described by one critic as "the real grist of the matter," comprises a survey of all branches of Alexandrian scientific and creative writing and covers patronage and scholarship, the Museum and Library, medicine, mathematics and applied science, philosophy, historiography, the epigram and poetry, particularly that of Callimachus. An Epilogue discusses the transition to Roman dominion.