LIVING IN A MATERIAL WORLD
In some future age, people will say history began with the twentieth century, for it will be the earliest period from which they’ll have...
In matters of government and religion
In matters of government and religion, Alexandria did what it needed to do to remain on good terms with Constantinople, if always with reservations....
Alexandria never forgot that across the Mediterranean
Alexandria never forgot that across the Mediterranean and up through the Aegean lay the path to Constantinople—a city we will visit in later pages....
Like Dioscoros the Apiones
The emergence of this kind of superrich family subtly undermined imperial authority. They were no longer one of several dividing up the power in...
Businessman Dioscoros from the modest city of Aphrodito
A sober contemporary of that family, the businessman Dioscoros from the modest city of Aphrodito (Aphrodite’s town, back when the landscape was given Greek...
Within the Arab community
Within the Arab community, there were more settled and prosperous tribes, reaching out into the more intractable desert, marginal desert dwell- ers—forerunners of the...
Merchants like Cosmas also knew
Merchants like Cosmas also knew their way around land, since by definition the commodities that shipped best were also easy to carry ashore and...
Monastic metropolis west of Constantinople
Cosmas returned to Alexandria to write his stories, and that’s why we know of him. Christian Topography, his lavish illustrated book, is something that...
Alexandrian called John Philoponos
We have a good idea what Cosmas was attacking—that is, what drove him to say such ridiculous things. The leading philosopher in Alexandria was...
THE VIEW FROM ALEXANDRIA
The Alexandria that Cosmas and Philoponos knew as a home of mer¬chants, philosophers, monks, and more had been a place of civilization,
contention, and shortsightedness...
