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Who destroyed Great Library at Alexandria?
09-17-2016, 09:24 PM
Christians, Muslims, Jews: pick one.
I read somewhere that the library was attached to the temple of Serapsis which was destroyed by an unruly mob of Christians in 390 after Emperor Theodosius banned all religions besides Christianity.
Christians enjoyed shutting down philosophical schools, burning pagan texts and destroying pagan temples so it wouldn't surprise me if it was Christians.
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Who destroyed Great Library at Alexandria?
09-18-2016, 09:10 AM
Quote: (09-17-2016 03:54 PM)kiwi12 Wrote:
Today I had dispute with my sisters husband about who destroyed Great Library at Alexandria. I was certain that muslims destroyed it(i remember reading about it somewhere), but he tried to tell me that Romains did it. Later he sent me this article. I did some google searches and reading, and found that there indeed was several fires in library.
Maybe some more knowledgeable person can enlighten me?
Great question and I like to read more in this thread. In school they tell you (if you're lucky) that the library was destroyed. Few will tell you who did it, and even fewer will tell you why.
"Action still preserves for us a hope that we may stand erect." - Thucydides (from History of the Peloponnesian War)
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Who destroyed Great Library at Alexandria?
09-18-2016, 09:21 AM
Thomas the Rhymer has it. The library wasn't a singular building but many over the entire city. The city was sacked multiple times. By the time the muslims took over the place was on its last legs.
Fun fact about alexandria: they used to take books from merchants passing through. They made copies and gave them to the travelers while keeping the originals.