234 Outlines of European History Education The Uni- versity of Alexandria ; progress of science and philosophy homeland, he could go to the theater, could wander into the Odeon to listen to the music, or spend an agreeable hour in conversa- tion with the idlers around the gymnasium. At the same time he could watch the practice in the manly sports and the use of weapons, in which the youth were still well exercised, or, if so inclined as the after- noon wore on, he could listen to a lec- ture by a philosopher or an address by a rhetorician in one of the courts or halls of the gymnasium — all in Greek. To the elementary branches, like reading and writ- ing, which had been learned at the primary school, a young Greek might here add much. But if the youth wished to take up higher education seri- ously he might go to Athens, still a great center of learning and venerated by the whole ancient world for her noble history. The first university that was established by a government, however, was the institution which flourished in Alexandria under the patronage of the Ptolemies, known as the Museum, the home of the Muses. Here the greatest philosophers and Fig. 103. The Town Clock of Athens IN THE Hellenistic Age This tower, commonly called the " Tower of the Winds," now stands among modern houses but once looked out on the Athenian market place (p. 186). The arches at the left support part of an ancient channel which supplied the water for the operation of a water clock in the tower. Such clocks were something like hourglasses, the flowing water filling a given measure in a given time, like the sand in the hourglass. This tower was built in the last century B.C., when Athens was under the control of Rome (p. 263)
