ABSTRACT
The Hellenistic science developed in Alexandria marked the high tide of the science of Classical Antiquity, for the storm clouds were already gathering over the Roman Empire, or at least that part of it that circled the Mediterranean. Those who like to assign precise dates to historical events mark September 4, 476 as the “fall” of the Roman Empire. In fact, this was the date when the last of the western Roman Emperors, the inappropriately named Romulus Augustus, was deposed by a Germanic general.
