to Rome in population and power, equal to it in culture. By its
geographical position, the nature of its foundation, and the sources
of its population, and by the wonderful organization of its Museum, in
which the records of all nations were stored and studied, Alexandria
was fitted to become the meeting-place of civilizations.

There was already a considerable settlement of Jews in Egypt before
Alexander's transplantation in 332 B.C.E. Throughout Bible times the
connection between Israel and Egypt had been close. Isaiah speaks of
the day when five cities in the land of Egypt should speak the
language of Canaan and swear to the Lord of hosts (xix. 18); and when
Nebuchadnezzar led away the first captivity, many of the people had
fled from Palestine to the old "cradle of the nation." Jeremiah (xliv)
went down with them to prophesy against their idolatrous practices and
their backslidings; and Jewish and Christian writers in later times,
daring boldly against chronology, told how Plato, visiting Egypt, had
heard Jeremiah and learnt from him his lofty monotheism. Doubt was
thrown in the last century upon the continuance of the Diaspora in
Egypt between the time of Jeremiah and Alexander, but the recent
discovery of a Jewish temple at Elephantine and of Aramaic papyri at
Assouan dated in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E. has proved that
these doubts were not well founded, and that there was a
well-established community during the interval.

From the time of the post-exilic prophets Judaism developed in three
main streams, one flowing from Jerusalem, another from Babylon, the
third from Egypt. Alexandria soon took precedence of existing
settlements of Jews, and became a great centre of Jewish life. The
first Ptolemy, to whom at the dismemberment of Alexander's empire
Egypt had fallen,[2] continued to the Jewish settlers the privileges