The Lost Library of Alexandria (TRIH ep 361)
300 BCE · Resource
Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook examine the reality and mythology of the Library of Alexandria. Opening with a pop-culture depiction in Assassin’s Creed Origins, they trace the deeper antecedents of libraries in the Near East, the Assyrian collections (notably Ashurbanipal) and Greek intellectual institutions such as Aristotle’s Lyceum and the Museion in Alexandria. They discuss Ptolemaic motivations for assembling texts—status, preservation of Greek literature and genuine scholarly aims—ci...
On these timelines: The Rest Is History (podcast), Resources: Combined
Around 300 BCE
- Qin Shi Huang unifies China (221 BCE)
- Han dynasty (202 BCE)
- Mahabharata (400 BCE)
- Aristotle (384 BCE)
- Maurya Empire (322 BCE)
- Plato's Republic written (375 BCE)
- Alexander the Great (356 BCE)
- Punic Wars (264 BCE)
- Euclid's Elements (300 BCE)
- Reign of Ashoka the Great (268 BCE)