Behind
it there were five native villages scattered
along the strip between Lake Mareotis
and the sea, according to a history of
Alexander attributed to the author known
as pseudo-Callisthenes. A few months after
the foundation, Alexander left Egypt for
the East and never returned to his city.
His general, Ptolemy (later Ptolemy I
of Egypt) succeeded in bringing Alexander's
body to Alexandria, where it became a
famous tourist destination for ancient
travellers. After Alexander departed,
his viceroy, Cleomenes, continued the
creation of Alexandria. The Heptastadion,
however, and the mainland quarters seem
to have been mainly Ptolemaic work. Inheriting
the trade of ruined Tyre and becoming
the centre of the new commerce between
Europe and the Arabian and Indian East,
the city grew in less than a century to
be larger than Carthage; and for some
centuries more it was second only to Rome.
Nominally a free Greek city, Alexandria
retained its senate to Roman times; and
indeed the judicial functions of that
body were restored by Septimius Severus,
after temporary abolition by Augustus.
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