Comment by wrqvrwvq

15 hours ago

People say this without any evidence. This ai-post is just regurgitating hn-thread "received wisdom". The evidence for the existence of a library is thin and hard to piece together, but points to more than a myth. I appreciate that people want real proof of anything, but dumping an ai-slop summary is hardly doing any better than accepting the existence of a large library.

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wrqvrwvq

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bluGill  39 minutes ago

I have seen several real historians say the same thing. I'm not a historian myself, but when I see professors of history in various institutions saying something, I tend to suspect they actually have a consensus, although as others pointed out, maybe it's not a consensus and I would have no way of knowing.

I'm not doubting the library existed and it was destroyed possibly burned more than once but the common trope that Christians did it does not seem to be backed up by history.

adastra22  15 hours ago

The Library almost certainly existed. It is the destruction (by deliberate fire) that is probably myth.

  • z3phyr  12 hours ago

    Its destruction multiple times (in sieges and uncontrolled fires) is current historical consensus.

    • adastra22  6 hours ago

      The sieges and fires you are referring to were hundreds of years before the supposed destruction at the hands of Christian mobs (e.g. as depicted in the movie Agora or in Sagan’s Cosmos). The latter is unsupported.