Don't run away with the idea that the Turks invented the book, Jackie. The Greeks did that.
[bow] Tell me more, if you've time.

Well, Pergamon was one of the Greek colonies that were planted all over the Med. basin during the classical and not-so-classical period. I think Pergamon was one of Alexander's efforts, but I could be wrong. LIU if you're interested. It grew larger than most and in fact appears to have been the administrative centre for the area. The Romans took it over during the second century BC and so in time it became your actual Graeco-Roman ruin. They had the library there until Antonius sold it down the river. Well over the sea, anyway. Being Greeks, the city's leaders were a pretty unscrupulous lot, by and large, and it is likely that the locals preferred the Romans as bosses, The Romans would pretty much leave you alone if you paid your taxes, nodded to the capitolinum from time to time and weren't likely to rebel.

The use of vellum as books rather than scrolls wouldn't have been a big leap for Greek minds, always on the lookout for novelty and innovation. It would, on the other hand, have been less likely to occur to a Roman. The Romans preferred the known to the unknown, by and large, and didn't adopt engineering/mechanical change easily. If their granddaddies rolled vellum up like it was papyrus, then, by Jupiter, they'd roll the damned stuff up, too. That's serious gravitas, man! If they had been inventive, it's quite likely they would have come up with gunpowder. Then where would we be? Speaking some debased form of Latin or some Latin-like language. Like English.

And that's it, really. All I know, I mean.


The idiot also known as Capfka ...