I · The Founding · 331 BCE

Alexander founds Alexandria

Known · Attested: disputedKnown · AttestedThe foundingKnown · Attested: disputedBefore or after SiwaLegend · Told storyThe omens

Alexander has a city laid out on the limestone ridge between the sea and Lake Mareotis, opposite the island of Pharos, and Deinocrates of Rhodes plans its grid. Arrian and Plutarch put the founding before his journey to the oracle of Ammon at Siwa; Diodorus and Curtius put it after.

The evidence: The narratives that survive were written three centuries and more after the founding, though Arrian drew on Ptolemy's own lost history. The grid survives under the modern streets.

What the evidence supports: The founding is attested by every narrative; its order against the visit to Siwa is not settled. Homer's dream and the barley meal are omen stories told to make the founding fated.

The witnesses

Before or after Siwa?No witness of the founding survives. The narratives that do were written three centuries and more after it, and they disagree on whether Alexander laid out the city before or after his journey to the oracle of Ammon. The street grid itself is the one contemporary witness.
WitnessWrittenReferenceWhat it saysReadings
The event: 331 BCE
Ptolemy and AristobulusLost; known through a later writerc. 300 BCEHistories of Alexander (lost) lost Quoted by Arrian, Anabasis, preface 1–2.Their accounts are lost; Arrian says he followed them.none
DiodorusNames it, no numberc. 60–30 BCELibrary of History 17.49–52Has Alexander found the city on his way back from Siwa.none
VitruviusNames it, no numberc. 25 BCEOn Architecture 2 praef. 4Names Deinocrates as the architect of the city.none
StraboNames it, no numberc. 20 BCEGeography 17.1.6–10Describes the city and its grid as he walked it; gives no order of founding and journey.none
Curtius RufusNames it, no number1st century CEHistory of Alexander 4.7–4.8.2Has the founding after the visit to Siwa.none
PlutarchNames it, no numberc. 100 CEAlexander 26.3–27.1Tells Homer's dream and the barley meal, then the journey to Ammon: the founding first.none
ArrianNames it, no numberc. 130 CEAnabasis 3.1.5–3.2.2Puts the founding before the journey to Siwa, following Ptolemy and Aristobulus.none
Mahmoud el-FalakiExcavation1866Survey of the ancient streets 1866Traces the ancient grid under the modern city.none

Who and what

Told stories

Legend: told story

Homer's dream

Plutarch, citing Heracleides, tells that a grey-haired man stood beside Alexander in a dream and recited Homer's lines: "There is an island in the surging sea, in front of Egypt; Pharos they call it." Alexander rose, went to Pharos, and chose the ground for his city.

Told by Plutarch, citing Heracleides, c. 100–120 CE, some four centuries after the founding

What the evidence supports

Alexander founded the city in 331 BCE opposite the island of Pharos; every narrative says so. The dream is a story told to make the founding fated, and no earlier source has it.

Sources (3)
  • Plutarch, Alexander 26.5–7
  • Homer, Odyssey 4.354–355
  • P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria, 3 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972)
The Hall of Told Stories
Legend: told story

The barley meal

Curtius, Plutarch and Arrian tell that the surveyors had no chalk and marked out the city's lines in barley meal; birds came down and ate it, and the seers said the city would feed many peoples.

Told by Curtius Rufus, Plutarch and Arrian, 1st–2nd century CE, some four centuries after the founding

What the evidence supports

The city's grid is real and survives under the modern streets. The omen is a story of the kind told of many foundations.

Sources (3)
  • Curtius Rufus 4.8.6
  • Plutarch, Alexander 26.8–10
  • Arrian, Anabasis 3.2.1–2
The Hall of Told Stories

In the show

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Sources (8)
  • Arrian, Anabasis 3.1.5–3.2.2
  • Plutarch, Alexander 26.3–27.1
  • Diodorus Siculus 17.49–52
  • Curtius Rufus 4.7–4.8.2
  • Strabo, Geography 17.1.6
  • Vitruvius, On Architecture 2 praef. 4
  • P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria, 3 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972)
  • J. McKenzie, The Architecture of Alexandria and Egypt, c. 300 BC to AD 700 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007)