من ۳۰۰ (ق.م) حتى ٦٠٠ ميلادي _ الإسكندرية والسيمياء

From 300 BC to 600 AD Alexandria and Alchemy

- Alexandria, Egypt
- Alchemy
- Chinese technological heritage
- Chinese philosophical heritage
- Indian technological heritage
- Indian philosophical heritage

Starting in 335 BC, the events of ten years reshaped the Mediterranean world, spreading the seeds of Greek civilization all the way from Egypt to the Indian continent and rearranging the history of chemistry. The culprit was a gentle, boyish-looking 23-year-old Alexander, who would later be called the Great.

Alexander was born to make victory. His father, Philip of Macedon (Macedonia is the province located just north of Greece), is credited with developing several military techniques, including the ten-spear phalanx (an impenetrable front because it is barbed with spears), and the use of the catapult in siege warfare to keep defenders away from the walls during an attack. Philip's goal was to unify the "city-states" (1) as distinct from Chemistry, which is in English Alchemy.

In this context, he conquered Tiras, Thebes, and Athens. He enabled his son to study under the Greek teacher and former Macedonian pioneer Aristotle as part of his plan to assimilate Greek methods.

Under the influence of these two influences, the warrior father Philip and the philosopher-patron tutor Aristotle, Alexander's personality emerged: a mixture of brutal brutality with docile idealism. When his father was assassinated, Alexander took his place and led his armies from Macedonia into Syria, crushing the rebellious Greeks without Mercy and selling whole nations as slaves. But when Alexander captured the family of the Persian king Darius, he refused to use his privilege with regard to women and treated them with all the respect and courtesy befitting a royal title. When Alexander conquered the remnants of the Persian Empire, he pushed his exhausted forces further than was necessary to secure his borders, but on his way back from India, where Alexander died, he poured his share of water on the ground so that his troops would see that he did not seize water when they had none. He killed one friend in a fit of drunken rage, but when another died, he grieved until his health was threatened. Alexander crushed free cities that had been states, and the Greeks angrily called him a tyrant, but he revered the gods of Egypt, who welcomed him to this land as a liberator.

Alexander's ability to disregard contradictions allowed him to be one of the greatest influences in the harmonization of the ancient world. He ruled by uniting East and West in an enlightened empire. He founded some 25 cities in Asia and North Africa - most of them called Alexandria - and populated them with Greek veterans. In this way, he formed the Hellenic world into a Greek culture in a Persian synthesis. Alexander died of fever at the age of 33. Some rumors said that he was poisoned. This could easily have happened by being given spoiled water to drink, since it was well known in those days which springs had polluted water and which had good water. However, he was badly wounded in battle and was not destined to live much longer. As was the custom among the people among whom Alexander lived, at his age, he had more intimate, emotional and sensual relationships with men than with women, and for this reason, in addition to leading military campaigns, he was unable to impregnate his Persian wife Roxana until shortly before his death. It is said that Alexander whispered on his deathbed, as his heir became apparent in his wife's womb, that his kingdom would only go to those who deserved it most. After his death, his generals fought for 40 years to determine who was most deserving, and they ended up dividing his kingdom. When the dust settled and the disputes were resolved, Ptolemy took Egypt and the surrounding areas, while Seleucus took Babylon, which included Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, and Persia. Although our path leads us quickly to Babylon, our story of chemistry begins with the Greeks in Egypt.