cannot give enduring greatness to a city; but Alexander's keen eye
and marvelous brain saw at once that the site of Alexandria was
such that a great commercial community planted there would live
and flourish throughout out succeeding ages. He was right; for
within a century this new capital of Egypt leaped to the forefront
among the exchanges of the world's commerce, while everything that
art could do was lavished on its embellishment.

Alexandria lay upon a projecting tongue of land so situated that
the whole trade of the Mediterranean centered there. Down the Nile
there floated to its gates the barbaric wealth of Africa. To it
came the treasures of the East, brought from afar by caravans--
silks from China, spices and pearls from India, and enormous
masses of gold and silver from lands scarcely known. In its harbor
were the vessels of every country, from Asia in the East to Spain
and Gaul and even Britain in the West.

When Cleopatra, a young girl of seventeen, succeeded to the throne
of Egypt the population of Alexandria amounted to a million souls.
The customs duties collected at the port would, in terms of modern
money, amount each year to more than thirty million dollars, even
though the imposts were not heavy. The people, who may be
described as Greek at the top and Oriental at the bottom, were
boisterous and pleasure-loving, devoted to splendid spectacles,
with horse-racing, gambling, and dissipation; yet at the same time
they were an artistic people, loving music passionately, and by no
means idle, since one part of the city was devoted to large and
prosperous manufactories of linen, paper, glass, and muslin.

To the outward eye Alexandria was extremely beautiful. Through its