Famous Men of Greece · Ch. XXVIII · Unit 9: After Alexander and the fall of Greece
34. Ptolemy
Goal: Your child can explain how Greeks came to rule Egypt and why Alexandria became the home of learning.
You'll need
- A map or globe (a free online map works well)
- A notebook or paper and colored pencils
- A sunny day and a stick or pencil (for the shadow activity)
What's in the book
Alexander's generals divide his empire; Ptolemy takes Egypt and his family rules it for centuries. He brings Alexander's body to Alexandria, founds a museum and library, and his son Ptolemy Philadelphus builds the greatest library in the world, has the Jewish Bible translated into Greek, and reopens a canal from the Nile to the Red Sea. Cleopatra was of this line.
The lesson, step by step
Set the scene
Find Alexandria at the mouth of the Nile in Egypt, then the Red Sea. See how a canal from the Nile to the Red Sea could let ships go from the Mediterranean toward India.
Read the chapter together
Read pages 245–248 aloud, or let your child read and help with the hard names.
Narration
Close the book. Ask your child to tell the story back in their own words, from the beginning. Don't correct as they go; just listen. If they get stuck, use a prompt:
- How was Alexander's empire divided?
- What did Ptolemy do with Alexander's body?
- What were the books in the library made of?
- What two things did Ptolemy Philadelphus do that are worth remembering?
A great discovery
The book says an astronomer in Alexandria found out nearly how big the earth is. His name was Eratosthenes. He did it by comparing the sun's shadows in two cities on the same day.
SayThe Greeks had known for a while before this that the earth is round. In Alexandria they worked out how big.
Watch a shadow
On a sunny day, stand a stick or pencil upright in the ground (or in a lump of clay on a sunny windowsill). Mark the tip of its shadow every hour. Notice when the shadow is shortest: that is around midday. Shadows like this helped Eratosthenes measure the earth.
Remember it
Thus Alexandria became the home of learning.
SayCleopatra, the famous queen of Egypt, was one of the Ptolemies, a Greek family.
Afterwards
Your child draws the library of Alexandria with scrolls of papyrus on the shelves.
Answers to the book's problems
Narration hints: generals took parts (Egypt, Macedonia, Thrace, Syria), first as governors for Alexander's young son, then as kings; the body went first to Memphis, then to Alexandria; books were made of papyrus pith; the Bible translated into Greek, and the canal from the Nile to the Red Sea reopened.
Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.