science in the ancient world an encyclopedia

Science in the Ancient World An Encyclopedia Russell M. Lawson Santa Barbara, California Denver, Colorado Oxford, England © 2004 by Russell M. Lawson All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lawson, Russell M., 1957– Science in the ancient world : an encyclopedia / Russell M. Lawson. p. cm. (History of science series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-85109-534-9 (acid-free paper)–ISBN 1-85109-539-X (eBook) 1. Science,Ancient—History—Encyclopedias. I.Title. II. Series: ABC-CLIO’s history of science series. Q124.95.L39 2004 509.3'03—dc22 2004017715 07 06 05 04 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is available on the World Wide Web as an e-book.Visit abc-clio.com for details. ABC-CLIO, Inc. 130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911 Santa Barbara, California 93116-1911 This book is printed on acid-free paper . Manufactured in the United States of America A Academy, 1 Aelian, Claudius (floruit early third century CE), 2 Agathemerus (floruit first century CE), 3 Agriculture, 3 Alcmaeon (floruit early sixth century BCE), 6 Alexander of Macedon (356–323 BCE), 7 Alexandria, 9 Ammianus Marcellinus (325–395 CE), 11 Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (500–428 BCE), 13 Anaximander of Miletus (610–540 BCE), 15 Anaximenes of Miletus (585–525 BCE), 15 Apollonius of Perga (floruit 235 BCE), 16 Archelaus of Athens (floruit fifth century BCE), 17 Archimedes (287–212 BCE), 17 Aristarchus of Samos (310–230 BCE), 19 Aristotle (384–322 BCE), 20 Arrian (89–180 CE), 25 Asclepiades (floruit first century BCE), 26 Asclepius/Asclepiads, 27 Asia, East and South, 29 Astronomy, 30 Athenaeus (floruit early third century CE), 35 Athens, 35 Atoms, 39 Aurelius, Marcus (121–180 CE), 40 Aurelius Augustine (354–430 CE), 42 B Babylon, 45 Bronze Age (3500–800 BCE), 46 C Caesar, Julius (100–44 BCE), 51 Calendars and Dating Systems, 52 Cato, Marcus Porcius (Elder) (234–149 BCE), 55 Celsus (floruit 25 CE), 56 Cicero (106–43 BCE), 57 Columella (5 BCE–60 CE), 58 Commentators, 58 Contents Introduction, xi Science in the Ancient World: An Encyclopedia vii viii Contents Constantinople, 59 Constellations, 62 D Democritus (460–370 BCE), 63 Diogenes Laertius (floruit third century CE), 65 Diogenes of Apollonia (floruit late fifth century BCE), 65 Dreams, 66 E Easter, 69 Egypt, 69 Eleatic School, 72 Elements, 72 Empedocles (495–435 BCE), 73 Engineering and Technology, 74 Epictetus (55–135 CE), 76 Epicureanism, 76 Epicurus (341–271 BCE), 77 Erasistratus (275–194 BCE), 78 Eratosthenes (276–195 BCE), 78 Euclid (floruit 300 BCE), 79 Eudoxus of Cnidus (408–352 BCE), 81 Eunapius (floruit fifth century CE), 82 F Frontinus, Sextus Julius (floruit late first century and early second century CE), 83 G Galen (130–200 CE), 85 Gaza, 87 Geminus (floruit first century CE), 88 Geography/Geodesy, 88 Greek Archaic Age (800–500 BCE), 94 Greek Classical Age (500–323 BCE), 95 Greek Hellenistic Age (323–31 BCE), 98 H Hecataeus of Miletus (floruit 500 BCE), 101 Hellanicus of Lesbos (floruit fifth century BCE), 101 Hellenism, 102 Heraclides of Pontus (floruit fourth century BCE), 103 Heraclitus of Ephesus (540–480 BCE), 104 Hero (62–152 CE), 104 Herodotus of Halicarnassus (490–430 BCE), 105 Herophilus of Chalcedon (floruit third century BCE), 107 Hesiod (floruit late eighth century BCE), 107 Hipparchus (190–120 BCE), 109 Hippo of Croton (floruit late fifth century BCE), 109 Hippocrates (460–377 BCE), 109 History, 112 Homer (floruit eighth century BCE), 115 Hydraulics, 117 Hypatia of Alexandria (370–415 CE), 119 I Iamblichus (250–325 CE), 121 Ionians, 122 Iron Age, 123 Irrigation Techniques, 124 J Julian (331–363 CE), 127 L Later Roman Empire (180–565 CE), 129 Leucippus (floruit fifth century BCE), 131 Life Sciences, 132 Contents ix Logos, 134 Lucretius (floruit first century BCE), 135 Lyceum, 138 M Magi, 139 Magic, 140 Magna Graecia, 141 Marine Science, 142 Mathematics, 144 Maximus of Ephesus (floruit fourth century CE), 145 Medicine, 146 Mesopotamia (3500–550 BCE), 148 Meteorology, 152 Miletus, 153 Military Science, 155 Mountains, 158 Myth, 161 N Nearchus of Crete (ca. 360–312 BCE), 165 Neoplatonism, 167 New Testament, 169 O Old Testament (Hebrew Bible), 173 Oribasius (floruit fourth century CE), 175 P Paganism, 177 Palladius (floruit mid-fourth century BCE), 179 Peripatetic School, 179 Philo of Byzantium (260–180 BCE), 180 Philolaus (floruit fifth century BCE), 180 Philosophy, 181 Philostratus (170–250 CE), 182 Phoenicians, 183 Physical Sciences, 184 Plato (427–347 BCE), 187 Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE), 190 Pliny the Younger (61–113 CE), 193 Plotinus (205–270 CE), 194 Plutarch (46–120 CE), 195 Polybius (208–126 BCE), 199 Porphyry (234–305 CE), 200 Posidonius of Rhodes (135–50 BCE), 201 Prometheus, 201 Psychology, 203 Ptolemaeus, Claudius (100–170 CE), 208 Pythagoras (570–490 BCE), 209 Pytheas of Massilia (floruit late fourth century BCE), 211 R Roman Principate (31 BCE–180 CE), 213 Roman Roads and Bridges, 215 Rome, 217 S Seneca, Lucius Annaeus (5–65 CE), 221 Seven Sages, 222 Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, 223 Social Sciences, 224 Socrates (470–399 BCE), 227 Solon (640–560 BCE), 228 Stoicism, 229 Strabo (63 BCE–21 CE), 230 T Tacitus (56–117 CE), 233 Thales (625–545 BCE), 234 Themistius (317–388 CE), 235 xContents Theophrastus (370–286 BCE), 236 Thucydides (460–400 BCE), 237 Time, 238 V Varro (116–27 BCE), 243 Vesuvius, 243 Vitruvius (floruit 25 BCE), 245 W Wo men and Science, 247 X Xenophanes of Colophon (570–478 BCE), 249 Xenophon (430–355 BCE), 250 Chronology,255 Bibliography,261 Index, 269 About the Author, 291 Ancient science strove to understand the ori- gins and workings of nature and humanity. Science has encompassed many methods and varied disciplines over time, occupying human thought for millennia. The questions that scientists ask tend to remain constant even as the answers differ according to time and culture.The strange and sometimes sim- ple explanations that the ancient Greeks and Romans gave for natural phenomena appear less absurd to us when we consider that the answers of today may appear ridiculous to observers a thousand years from now.Among ancient scientists—from Mesopotamia, Persia, India, China, Egypt, Greece, and Rome—the Greeks were by far the leaders in scientific inquiry because they asked the most penetrating questions, many of which still elude complete answers. (See GREEK ARCHAIC AGE ; GREEK CLASSICAL AGE; GREEK HELLENISTIC AGE ; PHILOSOPHY.) There is a temptation to view the past according to the standards and precepts of the present.The historian encounters count- less similarities when comparing modern and ancient science.Clearly the building blocks of today’s science were formed two to three thousand years ago in the ancient Mediterranean region—in a preindustrial age before the dawn of Islam or Christianity, dur- ing a polytheistic, superstitious time. Magic and astrology were considered as legitimate as medicine and astronomy. (See MAGIC.) The earth was the center of a finite universe; the planets twinkled like gods watching from above; the moon governed the fertility of nature and woman. (See ASTRONOMY.) Fertility symbols and statuettes of priestesses and mother goddesses dot the archeological finds from the dozens of millennia BCE, reminding us of the power women once had in ancient societies before the coming of male gods reflecting male dominance. Rhea, Cybele, Artemis, Hera, Isis, and Ishtar were early fertility goddesses representing the uni- versal mother image who brought life, love, and death to her children, the humans. (See MYTH.) Ancient humans were animists who believed in a spiritual component to natural phenomena and pantheists who saw in nature something warm, maternal, and universal. They lived in an environment wholly alive— with the surrounding woods, mountains, and streams filled with life and spirit. Nature was an unpredictable extension of self. Humans sought to charm the spirits of nature that were mysterious, yet very familiar. Nature embraced early humans; it was all they knew. Humans joined into communities to seek the best means to yield life and happiness from the environment, which they were dependent upon yet in competition with for food and shelter. (See PAGANISM.) The most rudimentary form of scientific thought occurred at some vague point in the distant past when the ancient human began to sense his self in his surroundings, to see other humans as like himself, and to be aware of life—and of death. This awareness of self, of Introduction xi xii Introduction mortality, of birth, of the future, of the past, allowed ancient man to detach himself not only from nature but from the moment as well, to forge a weak notion of the past-pres- ent-future continuum of time, to gain a nas- cent historical perspective. Perhaps he did not know time, but he knew the passing of days and change of the seasons and the growth of the youth and decline of the aged. Indeed, existence was sufficiently precarious to accept only the here and now and avoid being over- whelmed by contemplation of the future. The transition from awareness to concep- tualization of life, self, and nature depended in part on advancements in the human com- munity. A secure existence with plentiful food guaranteed a growing anticipation of the future and reflection upon the past, a sense of belonging, of love and being loved. Food— that is, economic security—brought freedom to speculate on self and others, on the com- munity and those outside of it, on nature and survival, on controlling and being controlled. To explain existence, questions were asked and answers attempted and contemplated. The once vague sense of self became a clear sense of being. The intuitive recognition of the maternal spirit-world matured into a desire to understand it. Rudolph Otto (1968) called this object of awareness the numinous—the awesome, majestic, sublime Other, of which humans feel a part and are called upon to respond to and to know. (See MESOPOTAMIA.) Human science began in pursuit of under- standing the numinous and its manifestations. Science was initially not very different from religion. Ancient scientists were religious leaders, priests who doubled as scientists in searching for signs of the divine in nature. If the motions of the planets determine the future—the secrets of life and death—then the ancient thinker must turn to the study of the heavens for religious purposes. (See PAGANISM.) The first ornithologists were prognosticators who sought in the patterns of the flight of birds messages from the gods. Soothsayers gained familiarity with animal organs in the search for abnormal lobes and other intestinal aberrations. Early humans also turned to the study of flora for the best building materials and palatable food, such as grains for bread and edible roots and flowers. Flower petals, stalks, and roots, as well as tree bark, leaves, twigs, and roots, largely composed the ancient materia medica, the potions and teas used to relieve pain, stop bleeding, reduce symptoms, and calm the hysterical. (See LIFE SCIENCES.) In some ways ancient scientists would be scarcely recognizable to twenty-first-century scientists. The scientists described and por- trayed in this book were priests, government officials, kings, emperors, slaves, merchants, farmers, and aristocrats. They wrote history, biography, and essays. (See PLINY THE ELDER; PLUTARCH.) They were artists, explorers, poets, musicians, abstract thinkers, and sen- sualists. The demands upon scientific study then were different from those of today.The study of astrology was necessary to know one’s fate—the future. Astronomy and math- ematics were essential to forming calendars to fit the cycles of nature and seasons of the year. (See ASTRONOMY.) The ancient scientist was often seeking a practical result rather than pursuing scientific thought for its own sake. At the same time, the ancient scientist was something of a wise man, a community savant who was expected to know—or at least to have thought about or investigated— all things natural, spiritual, and human. The Greeks called such a thinker polymathes, a word that is the origin for our word “poly- math,” someone who is learned in many fields of knowledge. But ancient scientists also pursued some of the same goals as their modern counterparts. Modern physicists and chemists seek to know the basic particles that compose matter in the universe; ancient Stoics and Epicureans hypothesized the same particles and sought the same knowledge of the movement and patterns of atoms. (See AURELIUS, MARCUS; LUCRETIUS.) Albert Einstein, the theoretical physicist, wanted to know the mind of God, Introduction xiii the ultimate secrets of the universe, a search inaugurated two and three thousand years ago in the ancient Mediterranean region. Einstein would have liked Plato; Niels Bohr, the twen- tieth-century Danish physicist, would have found a friend in Aristotle. (See ARISTOTLE; PLATO.) What are the abstract patterns present in the universe? Mathematicians today and millennia ago have been united in the quest to find out, to set the rational mind of man upon the most complex and least concrete inquiry. (See ARCHIMEDES; EUCLID; PTOLEMAEUS, CLAUDIUS.) Psychologists today still work in the shadow of the great psychologists of the past, although the present concern to know the human mind and the nature of personality is a more secular pursuit than it once was. (See ARISTOTLE; THUCYDIDES.) Political scien- tists today still rely on the initial systematic inquiries into human government that Plato and Aristotle made in the fourth century BCE. Students at modern medical schools take the Hippocratic Oath, recognizing that although the techniques of medicine have changed from the days of Hippocrates and Galen the ultimate goals and humanitarian concerns have not. (See GALEN; HIPPOCRATES.) In short, the college arts and sciences curric- ula and professional scientific careers of today are not a recent development. Rather, the moderns in pursuit of knowledge of man and the universe continually ascend the intellectu- al and methodological building blocks con- structed during antiquity. The ancient Greeks did not have a word with the precise meaning of “science,” which today means a methodical, concrete, objec- tive, workmanlike, puzzle-solving approach to understanding natural phenomena. The Greek word with the closest meaning is epis- teme, to know. The Greek scientist was someone who knows. To the ancient mind, science involved much that we would iden- tify as artistic, abstract, subjective, mythical, and emotional. Especially in the last two centuries, modern science has elevated sci- ence to the unique plateau of objective knowledge. The scientist detaches himself from the environment, seeking in the here and now the means, intellectually and prag- matically, to reduce, dismantle, control, reconstruct life.The ancient scientist associ- ated with, and attempted to recapture, nature, which was an extension of self, something from the collective past experi- enced in the present moment. Science at present is secular and materialistic, seeking the transcendent—the origins and meaning of life—through the reconstruction of natu- ral history. Ancient science reveled in the spiritual, the oneness of life and being. Science and religion, reason and faith, were rarely discordant in the history of science until recent times. Today’s phrase “natural theology” implies that there is something religious in nature—and something natural in religion—both of which describe the ancient scientific mind-set precisely. The modern scientific mind-set is utilitar- ian, coercive, technical, and progressive; it embraces change, focusing on things rather than ideas. The ancient scientific mind-set was rather primitive,focusing on values, sen- timents, morality, unity, the static and changeless, the organic and alive. Science today is progressive and historicist, focusing on what is becoming through the movement of time. Science in antiquity focused on being, what is regardless of the passage of time. Finally, modern science is generally a profes- sional discipline practiced by scientists with terminal college degrees. It is well organized under prescribed methods, esoteric forms of communication, and agreed-upon theories. Modern scientists join together under the umbrella of a precise system of thought and methodology that explains clearly what the role of the scientist is in the accumulation and utilization of scientific knowledge over time.Ancient scientists were amateurs, poly- maths, and generalists who were rarely well organized and who adhered to general philo- sophical schools of thought that were inclu- sive to any well-educated, thoughtful indi- vidual. (See HERODOTUS OF HALICARNASSUS; PLUTARCH.) xiv Introduction Science in the Ancient World pays respect to the modern definition and practice of sci- ence while meeting the ancients on their own terms. Ancient philosophy and science were usually indistinguishable because of the worldview of the ancient thinker. Aristotle was a leading scientist of antiquity, yet he was a leading philosopher as well. Hippocrates was the great student of medi- cine, yet much of his work was theoretical and speculative, not empirical, and focused on understanding rather than cures. Many ancient scientists were first and foremost soldiers and explorers who engaged in sci- ence on the side or out of utter necessity. (See ALEXANDER OF MACEDON; ARRIAN; CAE- SAR, JULIUS; NEARCHUS OF CRETE.) Lucretius, the Roman Epicurean, was a scientist who recorded his ideas in verse. Other ancient scientists were devoted to the study of magic and astrology. (See IAMBLICHUS; MAXIMUS OF EPHESUS .) Science and superstition often complemented each other in the ancient world. Moreover, ancient science was inclu- sive of all intellectual pursuits, not only the hard sciences. Historical inquiry, for exam- ple, was as valid an object of scientific inquiry as physics. (See POLYBIUS; TACITUS; THUCYDIDES.) The scope of this book is science in antiq- uity, which is a broad epoch in the history of humankind as generally accepted by scholars and teachers in the Western world. The chronological beginning of the ancient world, for purposes of this book, is the fourth millennium BCE (about 3500 BCE), when civilization emerged in ancient Iraq, which the Greeks called Mesopotamia, centered on the lower Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and in ancient Egypt, centered on the lower Nile River in North Africa. The ancient world comes to an end with the decline of the Roman Empire during the fifth and sixth cen- turies CE, roughly 500 CE.The first civiliza- tions in the history of humankind emerged during this four-thousand-year period. Science was a necessary condition for the development of civilization. The Oxford English Dictionary defines civi- lization as a “civilized condition or state; a developed or advanced state of human socie- ty.”This is sufficiently vague that a variety of more precise definitions have branched out from the original.All of them have some ref- erence to the Latin root of the word, civis— “citizen”—one who is part of a body politic. Hence “civilization” generally refers to a level of society wherein the citizen has certain rights and responsibilities incumbent upon his or her particular role in the community. Citizenship requires a settled existence, which itself relies on the domestication of agriculture and livestock; the accumulation of surplus wealth; domestic and international trade; a social structure based on the distri- bution of wealth; a political structure that administers and protects wealth; and a system of writing to record the production, con- sumption, and distribution of wealth. Citizens might be farmers, tradesmen, crafts- men, and scribes. This organized division of labor requires a glue to bond it together into a working whole.The glue, in ancient as well as in modern societies, has been professionals in political, social, cultural, and religious institutions who are themselves not produc- ers, but who administer production, distribu- tion, and storage of wealth; who are engaged in the educational, social, and cultural sys- tems built upon such wealth; and who express the collective thoughts and feelings of the citizenry through literature, art, music, and drama. Science supported the thoughts, struc- tures, and institutions of society in the ancient Near East, where civilization first began. Mesopotamian and Egyptian engi- neers built ziggurats and pyramids from huge blocks of stone arrayed with incredible preci- sion. Engineers in Mesopotamia designed and implemented a complicated network of canals and dikes for flood control and irriga- tion. (See ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY.) Agriculture appeared as early as 10,000 BCE along the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.The people who eventually immi- [...]... Erasistratus, and Serapion One of the great thinkers of the ancient world, Claudius Ptolemaeus, the astronomer, geographer, and mathematician, lived and worked in Alexandria Such scholars made Alexandria the leading center of thought in the ancient world, eclipsing even Athens, Antioch, Rome, and Constantinople As the years passed, even as the Roman Empire began to have problems and decline, Alexandria continued... beyond to the European and African coasts of the Atlantic Ocean They also came to know the Red Sea and the east African coast of the Indian Ocean (See MARINE SCIENCE; PHOENICIANS.) Meanwhile, during the second millennium BCE, the Hebrews were developing a dynamic civilization in Palestine Influenced by the Mesopotamian and Egyptian cultures, xvi Introduction the Hebrews developed an astonishing culture... According to Aelian, many animals have human characteristics Some nurture and raise infant humans (one thinks of the she-wolf raising Romulus and Remus) Others come to the aid of humans, as when the dolphin saved Arion Animals such as dolphins, mares, and stingrays enjoy human music; others enjoy dancing Indian elephants take pleasure in the scent of flowers, drink wine, and are grateful when the forerunners... Plato, and Neoplatonists such as Plotinus and Porphyry He also studied ancient texts on medicine and astronomy Meanwhile Muslim students of Greek philosophy and science in Western Asia, North Africa, and Spain studied and commented upon ancient literature and retained numerous writings from the ancient world unknown to the Latin West The beginnings of Muslim interest in Greek science occurred during the. .. were themselves not scientifically inclined They recognized, however, the Greek achievement in thought and adopted Greek philosophy and learning, which became truly Greco-Roman (See HELLENISM; ROMAN PRINCIPATE.) Ancient thinkers themselves recognized that the transition that occurred in the Mediterranean world from the third to the seventh centuries CE was the end of one epoch and the beginning of another... approach to the divine (and to every other form of human inquiry) was much more sophisticated than the young Alexander had hitherto experienced The philosopher helped Alexander to see that besides Homeric valor and beliefs are the values of civilized culture and the understanding of the divine by means of the intellect rather than blind superstition Aristotle opened up Alexander’s mind to the infinite possibilities... London: Penguin Books, 1987 Agriculture Perhaps the greatest of all human revolutions in science was the invention and development of agriculture nearly twelve thousand years ago in western Asia The domestication of plants the process of planting the seed; waiting for germination; cultivating the plant; harvesting the mature grain, vegetable, or fruit; collecting the seed; and then planting again as before—ushered... solutions to intricate and esoteric problems of interest to a very few Hence Science in the AncientWorld focuses heavily on the individual scientist— his or her life, discoveries, methods, tools, and writings .The primary sources for ancient science are the writings of individual scientists, the works of ancient historians, and the observations of philosophical commentators The best way to study ancient science. .. Timaeus and Phaedo, initiated the examination of the self, the psyche, the study of which excited many subsequent Greek thinkers, such as the Academics, Neoplatonists, and Christians (See PSYCHOLOGY.) During the Roman period in the Mediterranean there were more important accomplishments in ancient science Alexandria became the leading scientific center, from which Euclid, Eratosthenes, Ptolemy, and Hypatia... Hypatia introduced their ideas to the world (See ALEXANDRIA; HELLENISM.) Science became truly an international inquiry, with research centers and scholars working in southern Europe, western Asia, and North Africa Greeks working at Alexandria, Constantinople, and Athens dominated scientific achievements Few Romans became involved in science; those who did were interested more in applied than in theoretical . geography before the Greeks .The Phoenicians explored the entire extent of the Mediterranean and beyond to the European and African coasts of the Atlantic Ocean.They also came to know the Red Sea and the east. phi- losophy and science in Western Asia, North Africa, and Spain studied and commented upon ancient literature and retained numer- ous writings from the ancient world unknown to the Latin West. The beginnings of. World. The decline and transition of the Roman Empire during the fourth and fifth centuries CE served to bring forward ancient thought to the scattered kingdoms of Western Europe and the Byzantine