ABSTRACT
Alexander's general, Ptolemy son of Lagus, who became the first Macedonian king of Egypt, established the Mouseion at Alexandria as a research centre for literature and the sciences, and with it the famous library. Ptolemy and his advisers apparently decided to make Alexandria a Greek city, and a centre of Greek learning, literature, art, and science. To preserve and protect their Greekness, their Hellenic identity, the Ptolemies embarked on a policy of cultural 'apartheid', and the foundation of the Mouseion with its Library was an essential part. The Ptolemies' Hellenocentric cultural policy had consequences for Egyptian literature. The king's policy also had important consequences for the survival of Greek literature. A consequence of the Ptolemies' cultural defensiveness was the antiquarian nature of much of the research undertaken in the Mouseion.
