March 29, 2024, 09:26:12 am
Welcome,
Guest
. Please
login
or
register
.
1 Hour
1 Day
Forever
Login with username, password and session length
News
: Hunt for Lost City of Atlantis
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3227295.stm
Home
Help
Arcade
Gallery
Links
Staff List
Calendar
Login
Register
Library of Alexandria (Original)
Atlantis Online
>
Forum
>
the Ancient World
>
the Library of Alexandria, Ancient Historians & Philosophers
>
Library of Alexandria (Original)
>
Message #74239
Pages:
1
2
3
4
[
5
]
6
7
8
9
10
11
...
27
Go Down
« previous
next »
Print
Author
Topic: Library of Alexandria (Original) (Read 10866 times)
0 Members and 227 Guests are viewing this topic.
Raven
Hero Member
Posts: 573
Re: Library of Alexandria (Original)
«
Reply #60
on:
April 01, 2008, 01:27:29 pm »
Helios
Member
Member # 2019
Member Rated:
posted 08-25-2004 11:02 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Christianity and Pagan Literature
Introduction
One thing that everyone thinks they know about early Christians is that they went around and burnt down libraries and anything else they felt
threatened by. For a 'fact' that is so widely believed, there is remarkably little evidence around. When challenged the best that most people
can do is mention the Christians who destroyed the Great Library of Alexandria but as I have established in this article, that is itself a myth.
That has not stopped authors like Carl Sagan in Cosmos and others who really ought to know better, from recycling it to make anti-Christian
points.
After finding the example most commonly given was untrue, I decided to launch an in-depth inquiry into the two related questions of what has
happened to the majority of the corpus of ancient writing and whether the Christian contribution to their preservation has been positive or
negative. This survey only covers the early church and the period through the Dark Ages so it does not examine the work of medieval
inquisitors or later church authorities. I hope to look at these areas at a later date but for the moment my conclusions are as follows:
Indiscriminate destruction of ancient literature by institutional Christianity never occurred;
There was no attempt to suppress pagan writing per se;
On a few occasions, pagan tracts specifically targeted against Christianity were condemned but others have been preserved;
Suppression of heretical Christian writing was widespread;
Magical and esoteric works were treated in exactly the same way as they were under the pagan Emperors which was not very
sympathetic;
With some exceptions, respect for pagan learning was widespread among Christians;
Survival of classical literature is almost entirely due to the efforts of Christian monks laboriously copying out texts by hand.
Burning down libraries
The idea of deliberating setting fire to a repository of knowledge appals us in a way that few other crimes can do. As demonstrated by the
astronomical sums paid at auction, we value art far more than human life. Tens of thousands of Afghans could die in war without anyone in
the West caring very much but, as the BBC reported, when the Taleban demolish a couple of ancient statues, there is world wide horror and
condemnation.
This attitude has meant that the false accusation that Edward Gibbon laid at the door of the Patriarch Theophilus in chapter 28 of his Decline
and Fall of the Roman Empire regarding the Great Library of Alexandria has been tremendously damaging to Christianity and is repeated
by every author with a bone to pick. But although we can establish that this library was not destroyed by a Christian mob, were there not
other ancient libraries that did suffer exactly that fate? The saying that there is no smoke without fire would seem to be exceedingly
appropriate in this case. I do not for a second claim to have analysed every ancient source but I have read a good deal and have only located
one example of deliberate destruction of an entire library recorded by the chroniclers.
The chronicler in question is John of Antioch about whom we know almost nothing. He was a Greek speaking Christian historian who may
have lived between the sixth and tenth centuries. All his works are lost and only fragments of his chronicle remain preserved in other places.
Among them is following passage from the great Byzantine encyclopaedia called the Suda in the article on the Emperor Jovian:
Emperor Hadrian had built a beautiful temple for the worship of his father Trajan which, on the orders of Emperor Julian, the
eunuch Theophilus had made into a library. Jovian, at the urging of his wife, burned the temple with all the books in it with his
concubines laughing and setting the fire.
Scholars believe that it is John of Antioch is being quoted. The Suda itself is full of snippets of information but it is treated with justifiable
caution by the scholars who have studied it. Certainly, it is very often wrong but usually not deliberately. Instead it just quotes earlier authors
uncritically and repeats their mistakes.
In favour of the verity of this story, John was from the city of Antioch where the alleged event happened and Jovian did visit there during the
few months of his reign. On the other hand, the problems with its credibility are extremely wide ranging.
1.The pagan historian Ammianus Marcellinus was actually with Jovian in Antioch and does not breath a word about any libraries (We
complains about their closure at other points in his narrative so was not uninterested in the question. We will return to other these
libraries later).
2.Although Jovian was a Christian he is recorded by the rhetor Themistius to have insisted on tolerance towards pagans.
3.The great pagan orator Libanius who lived in Antioch at the time and from whom we have speeches, lectures and no less than 1,500
letters, makes no mention of the library's destruction.
4.We have no other record of there being a temple of Trajan built by Hadrian in Antioch.
5.John was writing several hundred years after the library burning is supposed to have taken place but no one else mentions it. No
source for his story is given although some scholars like RC Blockley believe it may have come from Eunapius of Sardis who was a
near contemporary of Jovian and whom John of Antioch used as a source.
All the counter arguments depend on silence which demonstrates just how hard it is to prove a negative. On a personal note, the involvement
of Jovian's wife and concubines makes me feel the story is less convincing although the women could be later accretions. If we knew that
burning down libraries was the sort of thing that Jovian or other Christians actually did, we might have a case for believing it happened here
but as it is a single example it cannot be allowed to simply reinforce our prejudices. Still, this remains the only possible record of a library
being deliberately destroyed that I have been able to find in the sources and those who with an anti-Christian axe to grind should use this case
rather than Alexandria. Furthermore, it does illustrate that Christian writers were happy to report such things and repeat them from other
sources. Contrary to the allegations of many sceptics, the Christian scribes made no effort to censor this alleged misdeed of Jovian even
though he was a Christian emperor.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posts: 406 | From: Rhodes (an island near Cyprus) | Registered: Jun 2004
Report Spam
Logged
Pages:
1
2
3
4
[
5
]
6
7
8
9
10
11
...
27
Go Up
Print
« previous
next »
Jump to:
Please select a destination:
-----------------------------
Atlantis Online - Messages
-----------------------------
=> Messages
=> Administrative Messages
=> Commemorating Dates in History
=> Alerts & Warnings
=> Upcoming Events, Releases & Ads
=> Television: Shows & Events
-----------------------------
the Coffee Shop
-----------------------------
=> the Coffee Shop
=> Atlantis: Polls & News
=> Poltical Alerts
=> Causes & Activism
-----------------------------
Videos, Documentaries & Online Movies
-----------------------------
=> Ancient History & Lost Civilizations
=> Ghosts, UFOs & the Esoteric
=> Music, Entertainment & the Arts
=> Conspiracies & Suppressed Knowledge
=> Documentary & Videos
-----------------------------
Ages of the Earth
-----------------------------
=> The Early Earth, Geology & Fossils
=> Dinosaurs
=> Catastrophes & Mass Extinctions
=> Ice Age
=> Humanity's Origins & Civilization's First Steps
-----------------------------
Mythology & Heroic Sagas of Culture & Myth
-----------------------------
=> Mythology
=> Greek Mythology
=> Arthurian Myth
=> Quest for King Arthur
-----------------------------
Atlantis
-----------------------------
=> Atlantis & the Atlantic Ocean
=> Atlantis: Theories & Speculation
=> Plato's Atlantis
=> the Scientific Atlantis
=> Geology & Atlantis
=> Atlantis & the New Age
=> Atlantis in the Media
-----------------------------
Satellite Discoveries & Alternate Archaeology
-----------------------------
=> Alternate Archaeology
=> Satellite Discoveries & Aerial Archaeology
=> the Bock Saga
-----------------------------
Maps, Explorers & Adventurers
-----------------------------
=> the Oceans
=> Islands
=> the Bahamas, Bermuda, Cuba & the West Indies
=> Explorers & Adventurers
=> Maps, Cartographers & Cartography
-----------------------------
Egypt & the Pyramids
-----------------------------
=> Gods of Egypt
=> Egypt & the Pyramids
=> the Giza Complex
=> the Dynasties of Egypt
=> Egypt: Latest Discoveries
-----------------------------
the Guanches, Basques, Berbers & Sea People
-----------------------------
=> Guanches, Basques & Berbers
=> Pirates, Phantom Islands & Stories of the Sea
=> the Sea People
-----------------------------
the Ancient World
-----------------------------
=> Neolithic Europe
=> Stonehenge & the Druids
=> the Library of Alexandria, Ancient Historians & Philosophers
=> Ancient Warfare
=> the Spartans
-----------------------------
the Dawn of Civilization
-----------------------------
=> Africa, the Cradle of Life
=> China & the Asian Empires
=> Eastern Mysticism, India, & the Ancient Far East
=> Zoroastrianism, Arabia & the Near East
=> the Sumerians
=> Ancient Asia Minor
=> Hawaii, Australia, Alaska & the Pacific Rim
-----------------------------
Ancient Mediterranean Cultures
-----------------------------
=> Minoan Crete
=> Phoenicians & Carthage
=> Mediterranean Islands
=> Israelities & the Kabbalah
=> Etruscans
=> Ancient Greece
=> Rome: Empire & Republic
-----------------------------
Ancient European Cultures
-----------------------------
=> The Picts & Celts
=> Ireland: History & Myths
=> Balkan History
=> Italy & Magna Graecia
=> the Vikings & Scandinavia
=> Germanic History
-----------------------------
Timelines of Ancient Europe
-----------------------------
=> History of Britain
=> Scotland: in History & Lore
=> Continental Europe: Past & Present
=> the Dark Ages
=> the Medieval World
=> The Renaissance
-----------------------------
the Ancient Americas
-----------------------------
=> the Ancient Americas
=> Peru: Mysteries & Prehistory
=> Mesoamerican & South American Cultures
===> Aztec
===> Incan
===> Olmec
===> Toltec & Teotihuacan
=> Mayan
=> Native American
=> Canada: Past & Present
-----------------------------
The Crusades, Templars & the Holy Grail
-----------------------------
=> the Crusades
=> the Knights Templar
=> The Holy Grail & Christian artifacts
=> The Sacred Feminine, the Cathars & Gnosticism
=> the Da Vinci Code
-----------------------------
Ancient Mysteries
-----------------------------
=> Philosophy
=> Ancient Mysteries
=> Lemuria, Mu & other sunken civilizations
=> Easter Island
=> Oak Island
-----------------------------
Archaeology & Anthropology
-----------------------------
=> Museums & Universities
=> Archaeology
=> Ancient Languages
=> Archaeological News
=> Underwater Archaeology
-----------------------------
Ancient Knowledge, Mysticism & Sacred Beliefs
-----------------------------
=> Ley Lines, Ancient Astronomy & Archeoastronomy
=> Prophecy, 2012, End Times & the End of the World
=> Sacred Symbols
=> The Ancient Arts: Astrology, Alchemy, the Tarot, Arcane Recondite Practices & the I Ching
-----------------------------
Search for the Sacred
-----------------------------
=> Angels & Angelology
=> Goddess Worship
=> Search for the Sacred
=> World Religions
=> the Urantia Book
=> Wicca, Witchcraft, Paganism & Ritual Magic
-----------------------------
Health & Healing
-----------------------------
=> Health, Healing & Medical News
=> Human Biology
=> Love & Relationships
=> Women's Studies
-----------------------------
Science & Technology
-----------------------------
=> Science, Physics & Technology
=> History of Science
=> Evolution vs. Intelligent Design
=> Human Genetics
-----------------------------
Earth Changes
-----------------------------
=> Earth Changes
=> Global Warming
=> Botany & Plant Life
===> Plants of the Americas that Changed the World
=> Antarctica & the Arctic
-----------------------------
Space
-----------------------------
=> NASA
=> Mars, the Red Planet
=> Life on Other Worlds
=> the Universe
=> Images from Space
-----------------------------
UFOs, Aliens & Future Science
-----------------------------
=> UFO's
=> Aliens & Alien Abduction
=> UFO Evidence & in the Media
=> Alternate History & Multiverses
=> Future Science
=> Time Travel
-----------------------------
the Occult
-----------------------------
=> Ghosts & Apparitions
=> Communicating with the Dead
=> Paranormal Events, Reincarnation & Near Death Experiences
=> the Enchanted World
=> the Supernatural
=> the Occult
-----------------------------
the Unexplained
-----------------------------
=> Cryptozoology
=> Bigfoot Sightings
=> the Unexplained
=> the Hollow Earth, Crop Circles, Strange Structures & Devices
=> Vanishings & Unsolved Murders
-----------------------------
Science Fiction & Fantasy
-----------------------------
=> Lord of the Rings
=> Science Fiction
=> King Kong, Gigantopithecus & the Mountain Gorilla
=> Godzilla, King of Monsters
=> Comic Books
===> Comic Book Creators
===> Videogames & Toys
-----------------------------
Halloween & Seasonal
-----------------------------
=> Halloween
=> Seasonal
=> Monsters of Myth, Movies & Folklore
=> Ghost Stories
=> the Zombie Apocalypse
-----------------------------
Genres of Film & Literature
-----------------------------
=> Universal Horror
=> H. P. Lovecraft
=> Horror
=> Dark Shadows
=> Twin Peaks
=> Online Horror Movies Sci-Fi & TV Series
-----------------------------
Arts & Literature
-----------------------------
=> Online Books & Research Papers
=> Classical Literature & Book Reviews
=> Art History
=> Architecture
=> Sculpture & Statuary
=> the Great Masters
=> Music
-----------------------------
Media & Film
-----------------------------
=> Cinema
=> the History of Film
=> Marilyn Monroe
=> Actresses & Models
=> Entertainment News
-----------------------------
Modern Historical Mysteries
-----------------------------
=> American History
===> Presidents of the United States
=> the World Wars
===> the Great Depression
=> the Holocaust
=> the Middle East: Past & Present
=> Modern History
===> the Industrial Age
===> Civil Rights
=> Great Cities of the World
=> the Kennedys: Their History & Assasinations
=> New York City: Then & Now
-----------------------------
September 11th, 2001
-----------------------------
=> September 11th: Conspiracies, Cover-ups & Remembrance
=> The World Trade Center Remembered
===> Life of the Twin Towers
=> Modern Warfare
=> Environmental Disasters & Mass Tragedies
-----------------------------
Suppressed Knowledge
-----------------------------
=> New World Order
=> Conspiracies
=> Suppressed Knowledge
=> Media Matters
-----------------------------
Politics
-----------------------------
=> the Barack Obama Administration
=> Conservatives, Trump, & Republican Politics
=> Joe Biden, Democratic Politics & News
=> Tea Party, Constitution, Libertarian Parties & Ron Paul
=> Politics & News
-----------------------------
Current Events
-----------------------------
=> Current Events & Odd Stories
=> The World Today
=> Financial News & the Economy
===> The History of Labor
=> Breaking News
-----------------------------
General Category
-----------------------------
=> Opinions & Editorials
=> Cartoons, Humor & Comic Strips
=> Ecology, Pets & the Animal Kingdom
=> General & Miscellaneous
=> Sports
=> Computers & the Internet
-----------------------------
Art, Graphics & Creative Writing
-----------------------------
=> Fantasy Art & Graphics
=> Creative Writing
===> Horror Fiction
=> Poetry
=> Photography & Models
=> Earth Images
-----------------------------
Past Events
-----------------------------
=> Case for Bush Impeachment/War Crimes
===> Bush Administration Torture Scandal
=> Campaign 2008
=> Atlantis Online - Memorial & Biography
===> Atlantis Online - Old Posts
Powered by
EzPortal
Loading...