YouSaid · the spoken record

Toby Wilkinson

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58
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2026-05-27
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2026-05-27
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1
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  1. “Almost any big name from ancient science has some connection with Alexandria, Euclid the mathematician studied there, Eratosthenes who quite amazingly calculated the circumference of the earth. He carried out those calculations in Alexandria. There were leaders in the fields of astronomy, of anatomy and medicine, of geography, of philosophy, of literary theory. They were all active in Alexandria under the patronage of the Ptolemaic kings.”

    2026-05-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Toby Wilkinson on Ptolemaic Egypt and the First Great Commercial Civilization · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “Half a million manuscripts, mostly written on papyrus, but representing really the sum total of human knowledge at that time.”

    2026-05-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Toby Wilkinson on Ptolemaic Egypt and the First Great Commercial Civilization · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “Well, this is interesting because the Ptolemaic kings not only wanted to be wealthy economically, but they wanted to be renowned throughout the ancient world as great scholar leaders. They thought it was important that a new dynasty establish its credentials as a patron of the arts and of learning, not just as the head of a great sort of commercial enterprise. So they invited all the leading scholars from the Greek-speaking world from right across the Mediterranean to Alexandria where they provided them with a library, with what was called a museum or a temple of the muses, a place where scholars could think great thoughts and be well looked after. And the library was developed over centuries really as the greatest repository of learning that the world had ever seen up to this point. It is thought that maybe at its height it contained half a million volumes.”

    2026-05-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Toby Wilkinson on Ptolemaic Egypt and the First Great Commercial Civilization · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “They built a city quite unlike anything previously seen in the Valley of the River Nile, with, in fact, any inhabitant today of a modern city would recognize the grid iron pattern of streets, streets intersecting at right angles. That was something completely unheard of until this point in Egypt, with vast public buildings. This was the Manhattan of the Ancient World, if you like. Both in scale, in grandeur, and in the level of commercial activity.”

    2026-05-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Toby Wilkinson on Ptolemaic Egypt and the First Great Commercial Civilization · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “Build Alexandria. Alexandria, the city, was a new foundation established by Alexander the Great to bear his name. And unlike all previous ancient Egyptian cities, it was a city built from the outset for commerce. It was a city built on the Mediterranean coast with a great natural harbour, with facilities for loading and offloading ships. It had a great lighthouse guarding the entrance to its harbour, which became one of the wonders of the world. So the whole city was really designed from the get-go as a great commercial center looking outwards to the Mediterranean rather than inwards to the rest of Egypt.”

    2026-05-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Toby Wilkinson on Ptolemaic Egypt and the First Great Commercial Civilization · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “While the Persians had a pretty formidable army, their military technology was certainly superior to the Egyptians at the time that they conquered Egypt originally in the 6th century BC. But they, like many empires, I suppose, throughout history, they kind of overreach themselves. They overextended themselves. And they found it increasingly hard to hold together this empire stretching all the way from the Aegean to the borders of India. And so bits of the empire started to kind of fragment and pull away. And Egypt had always had this very strong sense of its own identity. So when it had a chance to throw off the Persian yoke, it took it.”

    2026-05-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Toby Wilkinson on Ptolemaic Egypt and the First Great Commercial Civilization · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “Yeah, and Egypt, of course, had been a very, very mighty civilization for thousands of years. But in the centuries before Alexander the Great, it had been weakened internally and threatened externally by a variety of other powers. And it had fallen to the might of Persia. Well, the Persians were hated in Egypt. They really were loathed and despised because they didn't celebrate or even pay due respect to Egyptian gods and Egyptian traditions. So when Alexander the Great, who himself was trying to overthrow Persia, arrived at the gates of Egypt, he was welcomed as a hero because he had thrown off the hated Persians. So I suppose it was the old principle, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. So Alexander the Great was welcomed as a friend into Egypt and took over control of the country almost without a fight.”

    2026-05-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Toby Wilkinson on Ptolemaic Egypt and the First Great Commercial Civilization · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “Sure, so we're talking here about Egypt, the Valley of the River Nile, in the northeastern corner of the continent, but always really a crossroads between Africa, the Middle East and Europe. And the time period we're talking about starts in 332 BC with Alexander the Great's conquest of Egypt and it ends in 30 BC, so 300 years later with the death of the famous Cleopatra and Egypt's absorption into the Roman Empire.”

    2026-05-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Toby Wilkinson on Ptolemaic Egypt and the First Great Commercial Civilization · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source