Hello Professor,
I know this isn’t your field of study, but I was wondering if you might have any pointers about the research and excavation of the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum. Lately, the newest study using AI technology (and may I say: finally something AI might actually be useful for!) has popped up again in popular media, and it made me curious about the current state of the art. If I remember correctly, most of what has been deciphered so far leans heavily toward philosophical material (as a dear historian friend of mine likes to joke: damn philosophy! lol), but a few years ago there were some intriguing tidbits about possible fragments related to Alexander’s generals during the Successor Wars (I don't know how much was "sensationalist headlines for the media" vs reality).
If I'm not mistaken, the Villa has only been partially excavated, and I’m not sure whether archaeologists believe that most of the surviving papyri have already been recovered or not, nor if there are any active excavations going on. (Also… IIRC, because Pompeii and Herculaneum were destroyed in such different ways, papyri would have been preserved only in the latter, which makes me wonder how much might still be hiding under the modern town — especially since a great part of ancient Herculaneum is still buried.)
And wouldn’t it be funny if a town claiming Heracles as its founder ended up helping us shed some light on a monarchy claiming descent from the same guy :D
Yeah, this is not something I’m that up on, but I hear bits. And I agree, THIS is precisely the sort of thing AI is good for. While it seems a number of the scrolls are philosophical, and specifically stoic, at least one seems to reference the era of the Successors, not ATG himself or earlier Macedon.
Guessing what this might be is hard to say. It could simply be more of what we’ve already go, although even a more complete copy of Diodoros, books 18-20 would be welcome, as 20 is very fragmentary, and the others (including 17, on ATG) have some frustrating lacunae.
Other possibilities include Dionysius of Halikarnassos, although again, we already have much of his. But it would be a real treat if it was, say, Poseidonios, or Hieronymos of Kardia—the source on which Diodoros seems to have (primarily) depended for books 18-20. Oh, how fantastic if we could find the original source in order to tell how much (and what) Diodoros may have changed or abbreviated. The names popping up make it seem too late to be Ephoros, alas, or Theopompos. It could be Polybius, although I think he might start too late for the names mentioned. (I’d have to go and look.)
Anyway, if this Roman villa kept a lot of Stoic literature, Poseidonios is a real possibility. He was lauded in antiquity as an excellent historian, as well as a Stoic philosopher and scholar. We’d all be jumping for joy if we found Poseidonios!!!
