VMs: Re: Alexandria [was: Nabatean, was; Personal Guess]

["Jeff" <jeff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I stand (or sit) corrected :-)


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Barbara Barrett" <barbarabarrett@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: 12 August 2003 00:51
Subject: VMs: Alexandria [was: Nabatean, was; Personal Guess]


> Jeff Jotted;
> >... When Alexandria was burnt a lot of
> > written text went with it along with the accumulated knowledge.
> 
> Barbara Babbles;
> A misconception I'm afraid, and one I used to believe myself: it's
> "common
> knowledge" after all ;-). 
> 
> In Julius Caesar's assault on Alexandria only an annex of the famous
> library was
> burnt down. Later, Mark Anthony ordered the Library at Pergamon (sp?) to
> make copies of all their books and send them to Alexandria's library. In
> the end few, if any, volumes were "lost", due to the fire. The
> "destruction of the library" story originated as anti roman, or more
> specifically anti Octavian (later Caesar Agustus) propaganda, somehow
> over time the "chinese whispers" of common knowledge transferred this
> "crime" from
> Octavian's conquest to Julius's, probably because he did use fire to
> burn the harbour whereas
> Octavian didn't.
> 
> In later days the "loss" of Alexandria's books was attributed to the
> Arab
> conquerors of Egypt; legend has it that they burnt all the books saying
> of their contents that "If it is not in the Koran it is blasphemy, and
> if it is in the Koran it is superfluous". But this too was propaganda,
> although anti-islamic this time.
> 
> In fact the library remained intact until under the Arab Caliphs it was
> broken up and its contents distributed to the universities in Baghdad.
> Alas my source for this is still unpacked and I only recall the title;
> "Egypt After the Pharaohs". 
> 
> A much greater loss to human knowledge and history was the wholesale
> destruction of Phoenician libraries during the wars against them by both
> greeks and romans, particularly the destruction of the greatest
> of all Phoenician libraries at Carthage during the Punic wars.
> 
> Barbara
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