DescriptionA New York Times Notable Book - A New York Times Book Review Editors Choice Named a Book of the Year by the Telegraph, the Spectator, the Observer, and BBC History Magazine In Harran, the locals refused to convert. They were dismembered, their limbs hung along the towns main street. In Alexandria, zealots pulled the elderly philosopher-mathematician Hypatia from her chariot and flayed her to death with shards of broken pottery. Not long before, their fellow Christians had invaded the citys greatest temple, smashing its world-famous statues and destroying all that was left of Alexandrias Great Library. Today we refer to Christianitys conquest of the West as a triumph. But this victory entailed an orgy of destruction in which Jesuss followers attacked and suppressed classical culture, helping to pitch Western civilization into a thousand-year-long decline. In The Darkening Age, Catherine Nixey brilliantly resurrects this lost history, offering a wrenching account of the rise of Christianity and its terrible cost. A feast of tales of murder, vandalism and] willful destruction . . . Nixey has a great story to tell, and she tells it exceptionally well. -- Guardian A] bold, dazzling and provocative book. -- Peter Frankopan, best-selling author of The Silk RoadsAbout the AuthorCATHERINE NIXEY studied classics at Cambridge and taught the subject for several years before becoming a journalist on the arts desk at the Times (UK), where she still works.