Distruction and Vandalism

[kenny]

Companions Hail.THe reference for vandalism and distruction of Persepolis we agree has been universally condemned and forever a black mark on Alexander,,, It could of course be said he was lead on.How does this act compare with the Romans burning the Library at Alexander and why did they do this,,, It really is one of histories most extreme cases of Vandalism the stuff that was lost is tragic.Why indeed did the pesky Romanns do this,,, they have been credited for building and contribution but I boubt any of that makes up for all the history lost in the fire,,, Persewpolis pails into significance in comparison,,, Persewpolis was only buildings.Alexandria held the anals of a great deal of humanity.Kenny

[jona]

Actually, I think that we are allowed to ask whether Persepolis was destroyed at all. I think that Persepolis could serve as a textbook-example of the mistakes we can make when we naively compare written sources with the archaeological record. It is simply too easy to add things up and immediately interpret the archaeological traces of a fire as the traces of a particular fire that happens to be mentioned in our sources. Fire was common in pre-modern cities.As to the case of Persepolis, we know for certain that part of the terrace was still in use after Alexander. Satrap Peucestas is mentioned somewhere as living in a palace; coins of Seleucus have been found on the terrace; and the apocryphal book 2 Maccabees mentions Persepolis as still-existing.Even more important, arson has only be proved for three buildings: the palace of Xerxes, the Apadana, and the Treasury. The palace of Darius, the Gate of All Nations, the Harem etc. were all comparatively well-preserved. In my view, these buildings were indeed intentionally destroyed by fire, and it is reasonable assume to connect this fire with Alexander. But it is not reasonable to assume that *all* buildings were destroyed.As to the Library of Alexandria, no one knows when it was destroyed. I once read that the fire during Caesar's Alexandrine War seems to have been in a dependance, not in the main building.Jona

[marcus]

It's certainly true that Caesar's fire probably didn't do much real damage to the library, and it really was an accident. Had Caesar not been in the middle of a desperate battle he would almost certainly have tried to put it out (he was, after all, an intellectual); on the other hand, had he not been in the middle of a desperate battle the fire wouldn't have started in the first place!Swings and roundabouts ...All the bestMarcus

[beausefaless]

Greetings folks,This is worth reading:
http://www.ehistory.com/world/articles/ ... .cfm?AID=9 Regards, Andrew

[alejandro]

Hi allCan I be a bit childish here?GÇ£Alexandria held the anals of a great deal of humanityGÇ¥Well, I think itGÇÖs funny that, at the same time, Alexandria had one of the biggest phallic monuments of the time, namely, the Lighthouse! (which, incidentally, was built in an island whose name sounds very similarly to GÇ£phallusGÇ¥: Pharos)Please note, IGÇÖm not trying to make you look foolish here Kenny. Plenty of typos happen all the time, but some are simply more amusing than others! In fact, not being an English speaker myself, I experienced many rather embarrasing (for me) but laughable (for those listening to me) mistakes that made me blush and then blush a bit moreGǪ (eg, since in Spanish we have only 5 vowels and they are very simple phonetically, itGÇÖs very difficult to understand the subtleties of English vowels, and so GÇ£factGÇ¥ and GÇ£f***edGÇ¥ sounded very similar to my ears for a loooooong time. You can only imagine the type of mistakes I made re: just these two wordsGǪ:)BestAlejandro

[jan]

Thank you, Jona. You are my friend. I appreciate your exquisite thinking and form of expression.

[jona]

Which reminds me of a visit to Seville and the moment I ordered a "co+¦o" instead of a "cono"...Jona

[alejandro]

I can imagine the bewildered face of the person serving you!BestAlejandro

[marcus]

What do the two words mean?

[jona]

A cono is the "horn" in which ice cream is served. The other one has something to do with female anatomy.Jona

[marcus]

I shall ask no more questions.I wondered whether I was going down a dangerous path when I asked. :-)That's a new word for my Spanish vocab, now, then.Marcus

[lucian]

I don't know about Persepolis, other than I just don't believe Alexander was the only one to blame in history for that destruction. As for the lighthouse, I believe it was an accident, something or another about a ship (or ships) catching fire near it (I don't know why). Besides the Romans were trying to defend Egypt at that time, not attack it. If it was maliciously burned, it was not by the Romans.

[marcus]

Well, whether the Romans were trying to defend Egypt is a bit generous, really. Caesar was actually defending his own force, and the palace, from the Alexandrian mob and Achillas' army (of Egyptians). So whether he was defending 'Egypt', or even Alexandria, is debatable, depending on whose viewpoint you take.But the burning of the library (whether part or all of it) was still an accident.:-)All the bestMarcus