I have been stewing over this for some time, it was the library of knowledge of the preclassical world!. Anyone have any idea!. Just asking for intelligent speculations!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
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Position:Home>History> Why did somebody destroy the great library at Alexandria?Question: Why did somebody destroy the great library at Alexandria!? I have been stewing over this for some time, it was the library of knowledge of the preclassical world!. Anyone have any idea!. Just asking for intelligent speculations!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Many people say that Christians destroyed the Library, but it had already been partially destroyed many times prior to that, and several times after!. Fire was of course both a natural occurence and deliberately set and not only by Theophilus!. There is also new evidence that a massive Mediterranean earthquake finally did in the Library (and the Lighthouse)!. During its time, it was the largest repository of knowledge in the known western world!. A new partial replica was created a few years ago--it has fire sprinklers!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Extremism!. the Library of Alexandria was not just a repository of knowledge, but it was the repository of pagan knowledge!. In a world that had turned christian, and where faith was far more important than knowledge, the Library represented all the "evils" of paganism!. By destroying the Libarary the arsonists hoped to eliminate the old knowledge, leaving on "christian" truths and literature to replace it!.Www@QuestionHome@Com I read an interesting article about that!. The guy was a historian at some college!. He said that the library didn't burn down, it wasn't destroyed all at once!. That is a fiction supplied by one of the writers who wrote about the Roman Empire--I don't remember who but it might have been Edward Gibbon who wrote The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, a very influential book on how we all see Rome today, but 200 years old now!. This guy said the library fell into disuse and disrepair!. It cost too much to keep up, and as the empire grew weaker and less centralized, it wasn't used as much!. There were fires, of course, several of them, but no one big fire that just destroyed the whole thing!.Www@QuestionHome@Com There are various theories that have been advanced but there is little evidence available to determine the correct scenario!. Ptolemy, of course, began its assembly!. There is a book on the subject that addresses the question to some degree although it isn't the main thrust!. I don't recall the various theories considered or which one is favored by the author!. The vanished library / Canfora, Luciano!. Berkeley : University of California Press, copyright 1987!. I do recall that some try to implicate Julius Caesar for reasons of tactical considerations!. "Yet another half-baked kerbside nugatory opinion for today!"Www@QuestionHome@Com It was destroyed at the behest of Christians who decided the material contained therein was sacrilegious!. It is as brutally, stupidly as simple as that!. It was one of the most outrageous things ever done, a tragedy of still unmeasured immensity!.Www@QuestionHome@Com It was destroyed by christians who considered it full of heretical booksWww@QuestionHome@Com Supposedly, it was destroyed by accidental fire!.Www@QuestionHome@Com |