[8] Histoire du Monde, Vol. IV. p. 319.
[9] Religion des Anciens, p. 211.
[10] Researches in Asia Minor. 8ᵛᵒ. London. 1842.
[11] It was reprinted with a Latin translation by J. C. Orelli, at Leipzig in 1816. Strabo also mentions the Colossus as one of the seven wonders of the world.
[12] This Greek word signifies, according to Cicero, a secret book, set apart to contain the doings and tricks of contemporaries which it is not desirable to reveal to the public.
[13] Lucan’s Pharsalia, Book X. p. 230, 231, translated by N. Rowe.
[14] Dissertation historique sur la Bibliothèque d’Alexandrie, by Bonamy, in the Histoire de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, Vol. IX. year 1736.
[15] In a report of the meeting of the Academy of Sciences in Paris, May 1857, M. le Baron Dupin, the spokesman of the Academy, informed the public “that Omar, Mahomet’s general, having conquered the valley of the Nile, his lieutenant Amrou suggested to him the formation of a canal direct from Suez to Pelusium; but,” continues Monsieur Dupin, “was it likely that the man (Amrou) who was guilty of burning the Alexandrian library, should possess sufficient capacity to carry out so grand an idea.”
Now there are here almost as many errors as words. First, the Emir Omar never did conquer the valley of the Nile. Secondly, he could not have rejected the idea of the construction of a canal from Suez to Pelusium, for the very good reason that the canal already existed; and lastly, he did not burn the Ptolomean library of Alexandria, as it had been destroyed two centuries and a half previously.
[16] This literal translation from the passage in Arabic is due to Silvestre de Sacy. G. Heyne, in his Opuscula Academica, explains concisely all the vicissitudes the Alexandrian Library underwent.