Well, there is no need to fret. Consider that there has been an
unbroken chain of knowledge passed down from the earliest days
of Western Civilization. Despite our dramatically received tales
of loss and regain, instead it appears that there was never a
time that the classics weren't taught and learned in some form.
Epicurean values carried on in the Cenobitic monastic
communities and despite some sense of drama from Justinian I,
consider the rigor of the Ecumenical councils in general, the
techniques of the Greeks in logic and Rhetoric as well as other
schools carrried on. The engineering and sciences embodied by
Hero, the mathematics continued to be taught and knowledge
shared with the growing Islamic population, allowing for the
great arabic mathematicians to publish in the 11th century, and
even among the struggle of political power for Byzantium between
the Greeks and the Arabs, schools continued functioning,
knowledge continued to be shared between the cultures, books
translated. Sadly, the Latin West was considered somewhat of a
lost cause by this point as relations had soured considerably,
although some efforts to bring them back were attempted. This
narrative I'm giving, I'm not saying that "this is the correct
narrative as opposed to what is typically received": as you
know, the very nature of narrative is quite flexible, depending
on which facets one wishes to highlight. But it was an eye
opener to me in my 20s to learn that "history as I received it"
(the tale of inevitable progress against the darkness of
religious forces and flames) was not necessarily the correct
story but rather a bit of European chest-thumping. Quite a
surprise indeed.
