Sunday, June 20, 2004 The stories of such discoveries make
fascinating reading in their own right. In World War II, the
British were building a munitions dump at Tura, outside Cairo,
when native workers discovered a hidden cache of ancient
manuscripts, including hitherto unknown works of Didymus the
Blind. Roger Pearse has an interesting account of the discovery.
Only about 35 books survive of the 142 written by the ancient
Roman historian Livy. Throughout the centuries there have been
periodic and persistent rumors about the lost books of Livy
coming to light. There's a witty and erudite essay on this
subject by B.L. Ullman, entitled "The Post-Mortem Adventures of
Livy," in his Studies in the Italian Renaissance, 2nd edition
(Roma: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1973), pp. 53-77. The
most recent rumor was a false claim by Dr. Mario Di Martino
Fusco in 1924 that he had discovered a copy of the lost books of
Livy. The hoax was at first believed even by the eminent
classical scholar R.S. Conway, but was fina