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.

Zuleika Rodgers is Director of the Herzog Centre in Trinity College Dublin’s Department of Near and Middle Eastern Studies.

The episode was recorded at Printworks, Dublin Castle, on 30th September 2017.

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