The Darkening Age: the Christian destruction of the Classical world – Catherine Nixey
Catherine Nixey in conversation with Hugh Linehan
The Darkening Age tells the story of how between the 2nd and 6th centuries AD the Christians of the late Roman Empire set out deliberately to destroy all the books, knowledge and temples of the ancient Roman and Greek worlds, killing pagan priests, burning libraries and erasing the wisdom of ages. All the great works that survived and prompted the Renaissance, had to be translated back into European languages many centuries later from Arabic libraries. The Darkening Age brilliantly illuminates a dark and murky period of ancient history.
Catherine Nixey is a critic and commissioning editor on the arts desk at The Times of London.
Hugh Linehan is Culture Editor of The Irish Times.
Recorded at The Printworks at Dublin Castle on 30 September 2017.