Who believes Ceasar's destruction of the libraries of Alexandria

[Archaea]

as one of the great tragedies of our culture?

Every time I think about it, I detest Rome. That is all.

[All-American]

I'll see your destruction of Alexandria by Rome and raise you the destruction of Rome by Christianity. If anything of significance endured to the modern era within the borders of the Roman Empire, from Spain and Britain in the West to Egypt and Byzantium in the East, it is because it was either adopted as or mistaken for a relic of Christianity. The library at Alexandria was a particularly painful loss, but the Romans, who syncretized the gods of other cultures with their own, were incredibly lenient by comparison with and much more concerned with preservation than the Christianity that preached exclusivity.

But then, you ought to hate the same Alexander who founded Alexandria for the destruction incurred upon the Persian Empire. Or upon Xerxes and Cyrus for the destruction their Persia incurred upon Babylonia. Who conquered the Assyrians, who conquered the hittites and Syrians . . .

The bottom line is, who knows what marvels of the ancient world could have survived. I suspect that a far greater portion of civilization lies in the rubble than we could ever imagine, much less perceive.

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by All-American

I'll see your destruction of Alexandria by Rome and raise you the destruction of Rome by Christianity. If anything of significance endured to the modern era within the borders of the Roman Empire, from Spain and Britain in the West to Egypt and Byzantium in the East, it is because it was either adopted as or mistaken for a relic of Christianity. The library at Alexandria was a particularly painful loss, but the Romans, who syncretized the gods of other cultures with their own, were incredibly lenient by comparison with and much more concerned with preservation than the Christianity that preached exclusivity.

But then, you ought to hate the same Alexander who founded Alexandria for the destruction incurred upon the Persian Empire. Or upon Xerxes and Cyrus for the destruction their Persia incurred upon Babylonia. Who conquered the Assyrians, who conquered the hittites and Syrians . . .

The bottom line is, who knows what marvels of the ancient world could have survived. I suspect that a far greater portion of civilization lies in the rubble than we could ever imagine, much less perceive.

The destruction of cultures is what I detest of the ancient wars. However, the purposeful destruction of that library or libraries just maddens me. Geeze didn't those conquerors know that we didn't care if they defeated the armies of their enemies, but we abhor collateral damage?

[Cali Coug]

The Spanish Conquistadors in the Americas is a tough one too. Imagine how much more we would know about those people if not for the wanton destruction by the Spaniards?

[MikeWaters]

that's why I hate the freaking Taliban.

[BarbaraGordon]

As I'm reading the heretic apocryphal works, I'm more and more pissed off that the church fathers found it necessary to destroy anything that was not included in the New Testament.

What we have is certainly only a fraction of what once existed, and even many of the books we have are only fragmentary.