Thursday, February 09, 2023

A lost history of the Diadochoi being recovered?

ALGORITHM WATCH: AI is deciphering a 2,000-year-old 'lost book' describing life after Alexander the Great. When Mount Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79, it carbonized a book on rulers who followed Alexander the Great. Now, machine learning is deciphering the "lost book" (Owen Jarus, Live Science). HT Rogue Classicism.
Only small parts of the heavily damaged text can be read right now. "It contains the names of a number of Macedonian dynasts and generals of Alexander," Janko said, noting that it also includes "several mentions of Alexander himself." After Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C., his empire fell apart. The text mentions the Macedonian generals Seleucus, who came to rule a large amount of territory in the Middle East, and Cassander, who ruled Greece after Alexander's death.

The lost book is from the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum, a city that was destroyed alongside Pompeii when Mount Vesuvius erupted after the turn of the first millennium. ...

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE and its destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum, start here and follow the links. For the works of the Philosopher Philodemus and other works recovered from the carbonized library at Herculaneum, see here and here and links. For posts on the work of Dr. Brent Seales on recovering the text of the Herculaneum scrolls and other ancient documents, see here and links.

For many posts on Alexander the Great and his connection with ancient Jewish traditions, notably in the Alexander Romance, see here and links. Some posts on the Diadochoi (Alexander's generals who took over after him) and their successors are collected here.

Cross-file under Lost Books.

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