[SedVictaCatoni]

It is not an exaggeration to say that this would be the most gigantic cultural treasure ever found, if the missing library could be excavated.

The article illustrates it well: we have only seven plays by Sophocles, including mighty pillars of Western culture like Oedipus Rex and Antigone. God only knows what might be in the missing 113 plays!

I think every classicist has their "if only we could find" list, and most of the stuff might potentially be in the Villa of the Papyri. I know one classicist who spent years trying to reconstruct what might have been in the Memoirs of Sulla. Actually finding and being able to read a copy would be stunning.

[CondorFlight]

"God only knows what might be in the missing 113 plays!"

Probably the BEST of the plays by these authors were the ones that were copied over and over (and over and over. . .), so that the rest are probably of lesser value.

BUT, that said, this may be the best deal since we started looked at mumified Ibis birds in Egypt. (The wrappings were made in late antiquity of shreds of books, among other things. From there we have some Greek plays, the earliest scrap of the gospel of John, and much else.)

How about finding a copy of Claudius' History of Carthage? Or a history of the Etruscans? (Much of what we "know" is only guesswork)

Or. . . ?

[Antoninus]

I think every classicist has their "if only we could find" list, and most of the stuff might potentially be in the Villa of the Papyri. I know one classicist who spent years trying to reconstruct what might have been in the Memoirs of Sulla. Actually finding and being able to read a copy would be stunning.

The missing books of Livy, for starters. Plus, any of the archaic Republican Roman writers. We have so little of their work.