The story goes that after
conquering Egypt, he desired to found a great and populous Grecian
city, to be called after his own name, and that after he had fixed
upon an excellent site, where in the opinion of the best architects, a
city surpassing anything previously existing could be built, he
dreamed that a man with long hair and venerable aspect appeared to
him, and recited the following verses:
"Hard by, an island in the stormy main
Lies close to Egypt, Pharos is its name."
As soon as he woke, he proceeded to Pharos, which then was an island
near the Canopic mouth of the Nile, though at the present day so much
earth has been deposited by the river that it is joined to the
mainland. When he saw the great advantages possessed by this place,
which is a long strip of land, stretching between the sea and a large
inland lake, with a large harbour at the end of it, he at once said
that Homer, besides his other admirable qualities, was a splendid
architect, and gave orders to his workmen to mark out a site for a
city suitable to such a situation. There was no chalk or white earth,
with which it is usual to mark the course of the walls, but they took
barley-groats, and marked out a semicircular line with them upon the
black earth, dividing it into equal segments by lines radiating from
the centre, so that it looked like a Macedonian cloak, of which the
walls formed the outer fringe.
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