(I know the Odyssey is a story, but it’s a historical work, right? Feel free to remove if it’s a bad fit for this comm)

  • @Impound4017@sh.itjust.works
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    317 hours ago

    Correct me if I’m wrong, but It’s my understanding that no one such burning ever occurred at the library of Alexandria. Instead, it burned in part (though how large these parts were is probably impossible to know, simply that none of them warranted the wholesale closure of the library) on several occasions, with the true death blow seemingly being the simple fact that by the time of the 200s AD, Alexandria was not nearly so important a city as it used to be, and so funding dried up.

    • @PugJesus@lemmy.worldM
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      316 hours ago

      While the library of Alexandria burned multiple times (each time losing thousands of texts and damaging textual transmission) it was likely wholly destroyed by the end of the 3rd century AD during the constant civil wars and revolts of the period.