The business of working out the great design of Alexander could not have devolved on a more fitting person than Ptolemy Soter. From his first arrival in Egypt, he made Alexandria his residence; and no sooner had he some respite from war, than he bent all the resources of his mind to draw to his kingdom the whole trade of the East, which the Tyrians had, up to his time, carried on by sea to Elath, and from thence, by the way of Rhinocorura, to Tyre. He built a city on the west side of the Red Sea, whence he sent out fleets to all those countries to which the Phoenicians traded from Elath. But, observing that the Red Sea, by reason of rocks and shoals, was very dangerous towards its northern extremity, he transferred the trade to another city, which he founded at the greatest practicable distance southward. This port, which was almost on the borders of Ethiopia, he called, from his mother, Berenice; but the harbour being found inconvenient, the neighbouring city of Myos Horrnos was preferred. Thither the products of the east and south were conveyed by sea ; and were from thence taken on camels to Coptus, on the Nile, where they were again shipped for Alex andria, and from that city were dispersed into all the nations of the west, in exchange for merchan dise which was afterwards exported to the East (Strabo, xxii. p. 805 ; Plin. Ilia'. Nat. vi. 23). By these means, the whole trade was fixed at Alexandria, which thus became the chief mart of all the traffic between the East and West, and which continued to be the greatest emporium in the world for above seventeen centuries, until the discovery of the passage by the Cape of Good Hope opened another channel for the commerce of the East.
Alexandria became not only the seat of com merce, but of learning and the liberal sciences. This distinction also it owed to Ptolemy Soter, himself a man of education, who founded an aca demy, or society of learned men, who devoted themselves to the study of philosophy, literature, and science. For their use he made a collection of choice books, which, by degrees, increased under his successors until it became the finest library in the world, and numbered 7oo,000 volumes (Strab. xvii. p. 791 ; Euseb. Chron.) It sustained repeated losses, by fire and otherwise, but these losses were as repeatedly repaired ; and it continued to be of great fame and use in those parts, until it was at length burnt by the Saracens when they made themselves masters of Alexandria in A.D. 642. Undoubtedly the Jews at Alexandria shared in the benefit of these institutions, as the Christians did afterwards; for the city was not only a seat of heathen, but of Jewish, and subsequently of Chris tian learning. The Jews never had a more pro foundly learned man than Philo, nor the Christians men more erudite than Origen and Clement ; and if we may judge from these celebrated natives of Alexandria, who were remarkably intimate with the heathen philosophy and literature—the learn ing acquired in the Jewish and Christian schools of that city must have been of that broad and com prehensive character which its large and liberal institutions were fitted to produce. It will be remembered that the celebrated translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek [SEPTUAGINT] was made, under every encouragement from Ptolemy Philadelphus, principally for the use of the Jews in Alexandria, who knew only the Greek language ; but partly, no doubt, that the great library might possess a version of a book so remarkable, and, in some points, so closely connected with the ancient history of Egypt. The work of Josephus against Apion affords ample evidence of the attention which the Jewish Scriptures excited.
At its foundation Alexandria was peopled less by Egyptians than by colonies of Greeks, Jews, and other foreigners. The Jews, however much their religion was disliked, were valued as citizens; and every encouragement was held out by Alexander himself and by his successors in Egypt, to induce them to settle in the new city. The same privi leges as those of the first class of inhabitants (the Greeks) were accorded to them, as well as the free exercise of their religion and peculiar usages : and this, with the protection and security which a powerful state afforded against the perpetual con flicts and troubles of Palestine, and with the inclina tion to traffic, which had been acquired during the Cativity, gradually drew such immense numbers Jews ews to Alexandria, that they eventually formed a very large portion of its vast population, and at the same time constituted a most thriving and im portant section of the Jewish nation. The Jewish inhabitants of Alexandria are therefore often men tioned in the later history of the nation; and their importance as a section of that nation would doubt less have been more frequently indicated, had not the Jews of Egypt thrown off their ecclesiastical dependence upon Jerusalem and its temple, and formed a separate establishment of their own, at On or Heliopolis. They were thus left with less inducement or occasion than they would otherwise have had to mix themselves up with the affairs of the parent country : but they were not wanting in becoming patriotism ; and they were on more than one occasion involved in measures directed against the Jews as a nation, and occasionally experienced some effects of that anger in the ruling powers, or of exasperation in the populace, of which the Jews in Palestine were the primary objects, or which resulted from the course which they had taken.
The inhabitants of Alexandria were divided into three classes : i. The Macedonians, the original founders of the city; 2. the mercenaries who had served under Alexander ; 3. the native Egyptians. Through the favour of Alexander and Ptolemy Soter, the Jews were admitted into the first of these classes, and this privilege was so important that it had great effect in drawing them to the new city (Hecatmus, in Joseph. Coutnz Apion. ii. 4; Bell. Yud. ii. IS. 7 ; Q. Curt. iv. 8). These privileges they enjoyed undisturbed until the time of Ptolemy Philopator, who, being exasperated at the resistance he had met with in attempting to enter the temple at Jerusalem, wreaked his wrath upon the Jews of Alexandria, on his return to Egypt. He reduced to the third or lowest class all but such as would consent to offer sacrifices to the gods he worshipped ; but of the whole body only 30o were found willing to abandon their principles in order to preserve their civil advantages. The act of the general body in excluding the 30o apostates from their congregations was so represented to the king as to move his anger to the utmost, and he madly deter mined to exterminate all the Jews in Egypt. Ac cordingly, as many as could be found were brought together, and shut up in the spacious hippodrome of city, with the intention of letting loose 500 elephants upon them; but the animals refused their horrid task, and, turning wildly upon the spectators and the soldiers, destroyed large numbers of them. This, even to the king, who was present, seemed so manifest an interposition of Providence in favour of the Jews, that he not only restored their privi leges, but loaded them with new favours. This story, as it is omitted by Josephus and other writers, and only found in the third book of Maccabees (ii. -v.), is considered doubtful.