How have ancient texts [Herodotus etc] come to us?
Large numbers of Texts from the ancient world of Greece and Rome were collected and saved by Arab Scholars – it is very largely thanks to the Arabs that we have anything of the ancient world at all. However, not all was saved by the Arabs. At near the site of Pompeii there is the former library owned by an uncle of Julius Caesar. Although the scrolls were burnt beyond recogition following the erruption of Vesuvio which destroyed the city, some (if not all) of the scrolls from the library are slowly and painstakingly being opened up and read for the first time in nearly 2,000 years. http://www.bib-arch.org/reviews/review-p… This next link talks of unrolling scrolls of Pompeii – a difficult task but being managed. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/dis… lots more to learn.
