Question for Christians/Muslims etc.

[Minimalist]

@Minimalist you had said:"Alexandria, Rome, Athens, Ephesos and Antioch were all centers of great learning.

I am wondering is it true that there was a great library in Alexandria?

And if so did it get burned down, or is that a hollywood myth?

Hey, Amph. I'm a little busy on another project at the moment. If you can hold on for a bit I think I'll be able to find you something.

The Great Library was no myth.

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Here you go, Amph.


http://www.fortunecity.com/emachines/e11...exand.html

t is true that the collection in the original library ranged over the whole extent of human knowledge as it existed in the ancient world.Manuscripts,written on papyrus,were stored in rolls,Callimachus,the Greek poet,is supposed to have come up with the first catalogue while sorting manuscripts there. Papyrus is,of course, extremely flammable,and the library was burnt down several times - first by Julius Caesar in 48BC,when he arrived to occupy the city and court Cleopatra.His friend Mark Anthony - who avenged Caesar's murder and then became infatuated by Cleopatra - is said to have rebuilt the library to impress Cleopatra by giving her 200,000 manuscripts (history does not record what she thought of the gift).

The Library survived intact for more than 200 years. Then,in AD270,the brutal emperor Aurelian arrived,sacked the city,which had revolted against his rule,and burnt down the library,destroying all the manuscripts in it. But the library- or at least a library - was rebuilt.A new collection of manuscripts was assembled.But at the end of the fourth century,a riot by fanatical Christians,who were angered by the presence of pagan learning,led to a new bonfire,this time just of the manuscripts,not the building that contained them. And "20 years afterwards",as Edward Gibbon wrote in "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" [Ref:Iotm64],"the appearance of the empty shelves excited the regret and indignation of every spectator whose mind was not totally darkened by religious prejudice".