Canopic Way
About
Alexander's architect Dinocrates laid out this street as the city's east-west spine when Alexandria was founded in 331 BCE. Colonnaded along its full length and roughly 30 meters wide, it ran from the Gate of the Sun to the Gate of the Moon, passing the Gymnasium, the Soma, and the theater. Strabo marveled at how straight and grand it was for a working thoroughfare. By 117 CE it had carried imperial processions and daily market traffic for over four centuries.
What happened here
It was put up to be argued with. Public monuments carry an inscription at eye height naming who paid, what for, and by whose authority, because being read is the whole return on the investment. People meet at them, give directions by them, and shelter under them. Children climb them. The bronze fittings are stolen often enough that they are re-attached with lead. On anniversaries the base is garlanded and the local council makes a short speech nobody listens to. Monuments also date the town for you: a run of them along one street shows which families were rising in which decade, and which ones stopped. When a family falls out of favour, the name is chiselled out and the stone is quietly reused.
Sources
Nearby
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →