Page 40 - STOLEN LEGACY By George G. M. James

Here however, it should be remembered that the above statement of Sedgwick and Tyler is
misleading, since the Greeks did not carry a civilization of their own to Egypt, but on the
contrary found a very highly developed Egyptian culture, the survival of which was maintained
by the use of Egyptian Priests and Scholars as teachers.

D. A Military Policy of the Greeks to Commandeer Information from the Egyptians was put in
operation.

One of the military policies adopted by the Greek military authorities at Alexandria was the issue
of commands to the leading Egyptian Priests for information concerning the Egyptian history,
philosophy and religion. As a custom this is no less ancient than modern, since it is also a custom
in modern times for victorious armies to confer with the men of science of an invaded country, in
order to discover whether or not, there is anything new in the field of science, which they might
possess. We would recall how at the end of World War II, the American scientists conferred with
the Japanese scientists at Tokio. Accordingly, we are told that Ptolemy I Soter, in order to elicit
the secrets of Egyptian wisdom or mystery system, ordered Manetho, the High Priest of the
temple of Isis at Sebennytus in Lower Egypt, to write the philosophy, and the history of the
religion of the Egyptians.

Accordingly, Manetho published several volumes concerning these respective fields, and
Ptolemy issued an order prohibiting the translation of these books which had to be kept on
reserve in the Library, for instruction of the Greeks by the Egyptian Priests. Here it becomes
quite clear that the first professors of the Alexandrine School were the Egyptian Priests, and that
the Scholarchs and pupils of Aristotle's transferred school, received their training directly from
the Egyptian Priests. It is also well to note that the chief text books of the Alexandrine School
were Manetho's books.

We are told by Apollodorus from whom Syncellus drew his information, that Ptolemy II ordered
Eratosthenes, the Cyrenean (i.e., a black man and native of Cyrene) and librarian of the
Alexandrine Library, to write a chronology of the Theban Kings, and that Eratosthenes did so
with the aid of the Egyptian Hierophants at Thebes (Ancient Egypt by John Kendrick vol. II p.
81; Apollodorus; Syncellus; Clinton, Fasti Hellenici, sub anno).

Furthermore, it became the custom during the Greek and Roman occupation to use the services
of Egyptian Priests and Scholars, as professors at the Alexandrine School. We are told that
during the reign of Theodosius (378–395 A.D.), the Egyptian Professor Horapollo wrote a
system of the Egyptian hieroglyphics: The Hieroglyphica of Horapollo, which has been regarded
as the best that has come down to modern times. We are also told that this professor taught not
only at the Alexandrine School, but also at that of Constantinople. (John Kendrick's Ancient
Egypt Bk. I p. 242; Leeman's Amstelod, 1935 translated by Cory).

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Stolen Legacy: Greek Philosophy is Stolen Egyptian Philosophy by George G. M. James
The Journal of Pan African Studies 2009 eBook