TIL how different history would be if the Library of Alexandria survived

I read a piece last week comparing two timelines: one where the Library of Alexandria was burned in 48 BC and one where it survived. The differences were huge. In the survival timeline, advanced math and astronomy get passed down 400 years earlier. We might have had steam engines by 800 AD. What really got me is the ripple effect on medicine and navigation. Has anyone else dug into specific inventions that would have come sooner?

3 comments

3 Comments

wesley_jones1mo ago

Honestly I'm still salty that I had to suffer through high school geometry when in the other timeline my ancestors would have already figured out automated ship navigation by the 1300s. Tbh the thing that gets me is the medical stuff - apparently the library had detailed Egyptian surgical techniques that could have skipped us straight past bleeding people with leeches. But ngl I probably would have still found a way to procrastinate and end up on this forum even if we had steam powered internet by 1400. The timeline where my procrastination habits are unchanged but we have flying cars by 1600 is honestly the most realistic scenario.

jade5171mo ago

Honestly “detailed Egyptian surgical techniques” sounds like a stretch tbh.

victor7791mo ago

That 48 BC date for the fire is mostly a myth from Plutarch, most historians today think the main library was still around for another few centuries after that.