We all know the tragic, mythic story of the library of Alexandria, filled with priceless, critical knowledge of the ancient world, destroyed at the hands of Julius Caesar and his Roman invaders. Or was it Muslim hoards?
The truth is probably far more mundane, that the library went, not with a bang, but a whimper. Or, as Kaz Rowe puts it in this 33-minute look into the murky history of this mythic institution: "The library likely died slowly, quietly, over time, both from the wounds of numerous invasions and attacks (that must have damaged the collection at least a bit), as well as the slow decay of social and monetary support."
