1 The Birth of Science - MSRI

180 7. Some Other Aspects of the Scientific Revolution
water from the Nile to private homes, after it had been made fit to drink
by sedimentation of suspended impurities. 4
The city boasted parks, theaters, stadia, gyms, the great Hippodrome
and temples of several religions. The most stunning building, according
to Strabo, was the Gymnasion. 5 At the center of the city — which was so
crowded that a law from the third century B.C. set a minimum distance of
a few feet between buildings 6 — were the sacred groves and the Paneion, a
conical artificial hill from whose top one could admire the view all around.
The Pharos was reached by a road along a causeway that lay between the
two main harbors, joining the islet of the same name to the mainland.
Poëte draws the picture vividly:
In Alexandria the urban organism, more complex, gives an inkling
of the nascent modern city. . . We see it with its mass of buildings, its
numerous population, its concentration of riches, its masterful application
of technology to community life[.]
Referring more generally to Hellenistic cities, he writes:
We feel here for the first time what a city really is — its vast area occupied
by buildings, its fast pace, its imposing organization, its conveniences
for body and spirit, its splendid luxury and stark misery,
its amusements and its vices, its sprawl into a more or less extensive
suburban area. A breath of modernity seems to reach us from
this distant world. We have the impression that we would not be too
out-of-place in a city such as Alexandria or Antioch[.] 7
The influence of science on the fabric of the city is not limited to the use
of scientific technology in building certain works such as, in Alexandria,
the water supply system, the Pharos or the causeway. More momentous page 229
is the change undergone by the very notion of a city during the period of
the scientific revolution. The classical city was understood as an organism
whose natural dimensions were fixed and whose various parts existed
in a natural equilibrium. 8 Overpopulation was mitigated through birth
control and the foundation of colonies. Now, instead, urban development
is rationalized and directed, rather than combated. Martin writes:
4 See Pseudo-Caesar, De bello alexandrino, 5, where the unhealthy water of the Nile, drunk by
those who did not live in homes served by city water, is contrasted with the clear water delivered
through the underground network. Sedimentation tanks made for this purpose are documented at
several Hellenistic sites: see, for example [Tölle-Kastenbein], under index entry Absetzbecken.
5 Our main source about Hellenistic Alexandria is a long description by Strabo (Geography, XVII,
i, 6–10), who visited the city at the beginning of the Roman occupation.
6 Halle papyrus, I, 84 ff.
7 [Poëte], pp. 280 and 344.
8 See, for example, Aristotle, Politica, VII, 1326a–b.
Revision: 1.9 Date: 2002/10/11 23:59:33