Empire of the Alexandrinas
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Paper-cut by Karolina Kotowska
Science

Empire of the Alexandrinas

An Alternative Literary History
Adam Węgłowski
Reading
time 7 minutes

In the 706th year since the founding of Rome, our world was changed beyond recognition: by a certain library, which was rescued by a famous volunteer fireman.

Julius Caesar’s Egyptian excursion almost ended in catastrophe. Battles broke out in Alexandria, and from the burning ships, the flames moved to the structure of the great, famous library. Already a good 200 years old, it contained the entirety of ancient knowledge and culture. It’s frightening just to think what dark ages would have fallen on the Earth if we had lost this invaluable collection of books.

We owe the rescue of this treasure to Julius Caesar himself. It was he, seeing that the building with tens of thousands of books was threatened, who ordered the Roman soldiers to halt their attack, and threw himself into the battle against the flames. While putting out the fire he was severely burned, losing his left thumb. It was then that he said the famous words:

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Children of the World, Unite!
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"Snap the Whip", Winslow Homer, 1872 r./MET (public domain)
Dreams and Visions

Children of the World, Unite!

An Alternative History of the Crusades
Adam Węgłowski

Just like every year, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem was filled with adults. But that day, the children from the Kingdom of Peace allowed them to come close to the ancient relics for which so many of their grown-up ancestors had senselessly spilled blood.

The rules are strict. We come in barefoot, like the participants in the Children’s Crusade in the 13th century, who under the leadership of the inspired young prophet Nicholas of Cologne, reached Jerusalem, and – changing the course of the history of the Near East – founded the Kingdom of Peace there. In addition to our shoes, we must also discard all attributes of adulthood: suits, ties, jackets, chains of pearls, fox stoles, document folders. No make-up; no mobile phones.

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