Alexandria
became and remained for several centuries the scientific and
philosophical capital of the world.
=Pergamum.=--The kingdom of Pergamum in Asia Minor was small and weak.
But Pergamum, its capital, was, like Alexandria, a city of artists and
of letters. The sculptors of Pergamum constituted a celebrated school
in the third century before our era.[101] Pergamum, like Alexandria,
possessed a great library where King Attalus had assembled all the
manuscripts of the ancient authors.
It was at Pergamum that, to replace the papyrus on which down to that
time they used to write, they invented the art of preparing skins.
This new paper of Pergamum was the parchment on which the manuscripts
of antiquity have been preserved.
FOOTNOTES:
[95] An episode told by Xenophon shows what fear the Greeks inspired.
One day, to make a display before the queen of Cilicia, Cyrus had his
Greeks drawn up in battle array. "They all had their brazen helmets,
their tunics of purple, their gleaming shields and greaves. The trumpet
sounded, and the soldiers, with arms in action, began the charge;
hastening their steps and raising the war-cry, they broke into a run.
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