3rd century BC in Egypt

Macedonian Greek royal family which ruled the Ptolemaic Empire in Egypt

thumb|Imaginary depiction of the Library of Alexandria The Pinakes ( 'tables', plural of pinax) is a lost bibliographic work composed by Callimachus (310/305–240 BCE) that is popularly considered to be the first library catalog in the West; its contents were based upon the holdings of the Library of Alexandria during Callimachus's tenure there during the third century BCE.

thumb|A Literary fragment|fragment of the Aegyptiaca from [[Eusebius. Pages 2 and 3 of Manetho, with an English Translation, by W.G. Waddell (1940).]]

thumb|The tessarakonteres, 1858 illustration Tessarakonteres (, "forty-rowed"), or simply "forty", was a very large catamaran galley reportedly built in the Hellenistic period by Ptolemy IV Philopator of Egypt. It was described by a number of ancient sources, including a lost work by Callixenus of Rhodes and surviving texts by Athenaeus and Plutarch. According to these descriptions, supported by modern research by Lionel Casson, the enormous size of the vessel made it impractical and it was built only as a prestige vessel, rather than an effective warship. The name "forty" refers not to the nu