Res Gestae

Ammianus Marcellinus

Ammianus Marcellinus. Ammianus Marcellinus, with an English translation, Vols. I-III. Rolfe, John C., translator. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; W. Heinemann, 1935-1940 (printing).

In Pentapolis-Libya is Cyrene, an ancient city, but deserted, founded by the Spartan Battus,[*](Cf. Hdt. iv. 150 ff.; Strabo, xvii. 3, 21. The founder is sometimes called Aristaeus (Just. xiii. 7, 1).) and Ptolemais, and Arsinoe, also called Teuchira, and

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Darnis and Berenice, which two they call Hesperidae

But in dry Libya are Paraetonion, Chaerecla, Neapolis, and a few small towns.

Egypt itself, which from the time when it was joined with the Roman empire has been governed by prefects in place of kings,[*](Because of its importance as a grain supply; cf. Suet., Jul. 35, 1; Tac., Hist. i. 11. The praefectus Aegypti ranked next to the praefectus praetorio in the equestrian cursus honorum. ) is adorned by the great cities of Athribis, Oxyrynchus, Thumis, and Memphis, to say nothing of many lesser towns.

But the crown of all cities is Alexandria, which is made famous by many splendid things, through the wisdom of its mighty founder and by the cleverness of the architect Dinocrates. The latter, when laying out its extensive and beautiful walls, for lack of lime, of which too little could at the time be found, sprinkled the whole line of its circuit with flour,[*](Cf. Strabo, xvii. 1, 6 (at end); Plutarch, Alex. 26, 5 f.) which chanced to be a sign that later the city would abound with a plentiful store of food.

There healthful breezes blow, the air is calm and mild, and as the accumulated experience of many ages has shown, there is almost no day on which the dwellers in that city do not see a cloudless sun.

Since this coast in former times, because of its treacherous and perilous approaches, involved seafarers in many dangers, Cleopatra[*](The pharos was the work of Sostrates of Cnidus, master-builder of Ptolemy Philadelphus. It was destroyed during the Alexandrine war, and rebuilt by Cleopatra.) devised a lofty tower in the harbour, which from its situation is called the

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Pharos[*](It was built on an island called Pharos; its height is estimated to have been about 360 feet, and its base 82 feet square. It stood until 1477 or 1478, when a fort was built from its material.) and furnishes the means of showing lights to ships by night; whereas before that, as they came from the Parthenian or the Libyan sea past flat and low shores, seeing no landmarks of mountains or signs of hills, they were dashed upon the soft, tenacious sandbanks and wrecked.

This same queen built the Heptastadium,[*](A causeway seven stadia in length; it is now, generally speaking, a mile wide, and forms a large part of the site of the modern city (Strabo, L.C.L., vol. viii. p. 27, n. 2. Cf. Strabo, xvii. 1, 6 (p. 792). This also is earlier than Cleopatra.) remarkable alike for its great size and for the incredible speed with which it was constructed, for a well-known and sufficient reason. The island of Pharos, where Proteus, as Homer relates in lofty language,[*](Odyss. iv. 400 ff.) lived with his herd of seals, lay a mile from the shore of the city, and was subject to tribute by the Rhodians.