a must-read book: The Darkening Age
I recently discovered a superb book by Catherine Nixey: "The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World" (available on Amazon).
Much of the book is how much of classical culture (including libraries, such as the huge library at Alexandria, and also private book collections) was destroyed by Christian mobs, often egged on by local bishops. There were major writers (Democritus in particular) whose works have not survived at all. It makes you sad just to see the huge scope of what was lost.
One well-known incident is the murder of the female mathematician and philosopher Hypatia. A Christian mob ambushed her and killed her with sharpened clam shells.
When Pompeii and Herculaneum were destroyed by Vesuvius, a collection of scrolls was preserved, sort of. They were baked black, and tend to fall apart if anyone tries to unroll them. I suppose some of what was lost may eventually be recovered if investigators ever succeed in reading the carbonized scrolls. Experiments have shown that it is possible to read at least a few phrases of those books, but it would take a lot of work, and advanced technology to recover a whole book.
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