Every Instrument Which Could Facilitate The
Study Of Astronomy Was Purchased By The Ptolemies And Placed In That
Observatory, For They Were Fully Aware Of The Dependency Of A Full And
Accurate Knowledge Of Geography, As A Science, On A Full And Accurate
Knowledge Of Astronomy.
With respect to commerce, the advancement of which,
may fairly be supposed to have had some weight in their
Patronage of these
sciences, they encouraged it as much as possible to centre in Alexandria,
and with citizens of Egypt, by making it a standing law of the country,
that no goods should pass through the capital, either to India or Europe,
without the intervention of an Alexandrian factor, and that even when
foreign merchants resided there, they should employ the same agency. The
roads and canals they formed, and the care they took to keep the Red Sea
free from pirates, are further proofs of their regard for commerce.
And justly was it held by the Ptolemies in high estimation, for from it
they derived their immense wealth. We are informed by Strabo, that the
revenue of Alexandria, in the worst of times, was 12,500 talents,
equivalent to nearly two millions and a half sterling; and if this was the
revenue under the last and most indolent of the Ptolemies, what must it
have been under Ptolemy Philadelphus, or Ptolemy Euergetes? But the account
given by Appian of the treasure of the Ptolemies is still more
extraordinary: the sum he mentions is 740,000 talents, or L191,166,666,
according to Dr. Arbuthnot's computation; we should be disposed to doubt
the accuracy of this statement, did we not know that Appian was a native of
Alexandria, and did he not moreover inform us, that he had extracted his
account from the public records of that city.
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