Hello his and herstorians,

I’m doing a research paper regarding some of the philosophical doctrines of the Ancient Greek thinker Heraclitus (535-475 BCE Western Anatolia). His only known work, On Nature, was (some how) lost over time, so that now we only have fragmentary remains of his original writings. I say some how because my research hasn’t resulted in any specific reasons or causes for the loss of his original work.

Scholars (like Kirk, Kahn, and Guthrie) believe that the book was written in the 400s BCE, and still around and available by the time of Plutarch (49-119AD) but after this evidence and explanations get real ambiguous, the only definitive answer I’ve found is from Kahn’s, the art and thought of Heraclitus, which shortly states

“Like all Greek prose before Herodotus and all philosophical writings before Plato, the original text of Heraclitus is lost. We are entirely dependent upon quotations, paraphrases, and reports in later literature that happens to have survived the collapse of ancient civilization and the destruction of its papyrus libraries”

This still seems ambiguous to me, so my question is what civilization collapse, or library burning could have been responsible for the loss? I think it would have to be sometime after the 1st or 2nd century AD since Plutarch could get a copy, but what happened after that caused its loss? The fall of Rome wouldn’t happen for another 3-4 hundred years so was it just collecting dust in that time? Or were there any non specific events sometime soon after that would have caused it? (Say, a Christian purge of pagan knowledge... or something, idk). Any help will be greatly appreciated and many thanks in advance friends!