1629: "The Sacking of the Libraries of Alexandria and Cleopatra"
About this episode
This episode discusses the destruction of the Libraries of Alexandria and the impact of war and political change on the preservation of knowledge.
Interesting Things with JC #1629: "The Sacking of the Libraries of Alexandria and Cleopatra" – Caesar burns ships in Alexandria’s harbor to block an enemy fleet, but the fire spreads into a city built to collect written knowledge. The damage does not end in one destruction, because war, political change, and attacks on later institutions keep breaking the system that held the libraries together until the record itself survives only in fragments. Thank you to Sofia from Greece for co-writing today's episode!
People in this episode
Host: JC
Topics covered
- libraries
- Alexandria
- historical events
- destruction of knowledge
- political change
Keywords
- Alexandria
- libraries
- Caesar
- destruction
- knowledge
- history
- politics
Mentioned in this episode
Places: Alexandria
More episodes of Interesting Things with JC
- 1635: "Nahanni: The River That Refused to Be Touched"
- 1634: "Chernobyl Explodes and Igor Khiryak Goes Back In"
- 1633: "Alfred Adler & Happiness"
- 1632: "Double Slit Experiment at the Quantum Level"
- 1631: "We Stopped Talking Without Noticing"
- 1630: "The 392 HEMI"
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