The new atheists and The war on History

[VyckRo]

My assault on your thesis was by means of showing that major elements of Greek culture (shall we add Plato, Aristotle and the Presocratics, etc. by the likes of Boethius) were translated into Latin. The dying back you are describing comes later, during the Middle Ages, when learning of most every sort dies in the west, so I am not certain why you chose to articulate a thesis which suggests that Greek ideas died in particular, when truly, Greco-Roman ideas (along with those of many other cultures) died. There was a fear of knowledge during that time, and it took rather odd sets such as the Scotti Peregrini and others of their kind to keep the ideas alive until the Renaissance.

The main problem with Anicius Boëthius, is that it is very hard to decide if he belongs to the late antique, or instead to the Middle Ages. And that if we take the year of the fall of Rome 476, as the date for the beginning of the Middle Age. Because, against popular belief, the beginning and end of Middle Age, is not chiseled in stone, and historians are still discussing these issues. For example historian Henri Pirenne, argue that, the social structure of the empire survive another two centuries.( barbarian kings of the VI and VII century use Roman methods,and even arrogates to themselves titls inherited from the Empire, sea and land connections with Byzantium and Asia are still available, therefore, he concludes that the fall of Western Europe in barbarism,happens with the VIII century).
Then we should discuss the impact of his writings, on European society, during the Middle Ages (after that impact is no longer relevant, because translations have become available from multiple sources)
His most famous work for the Middle Ages was Consolation of Philosophy,and I have not deny that. But when I said, that for the west, only four works were known,I considered their degree of distribution. Likewise his other works, have known almost no distribution, until around the 14th century, and that means we hardly can include them in the Middle Age. This evident if we consider the date the fall of Constantinople (1453) as the end for the Middle Ages and not the Luther's reform. (1517)

Let's talk a little bit about numbers ...
From about 55,000 ancient Greek texts in existence today, approximately 40,000 were transmitted to the West thanks to the Byzantine Empire. Moreover, we have even translations from Oriental languages in to Greek. An example would be "The book of Sybtipas or, The story of the king, his son, and the seven wise men. known in the West as "The book of Sindibād; or, The story of the king, his son, the damsel, and the seven vazīrs", which according to some authors, would be a lost Hellenistic work on the Cyrus the Great, lost in the late antique, that would have survived in the Middle East, and India, and rediscovered by Melitene in the XI century in syriac.

---

I'm so glad we have a load of competent historians among our membership.

I've been gone for a while
Where are they?