Science and Mathematics in Ancient Greek Culture

by Tuplin, C. J.; Rihll, T. E.; Wolpert, Lewis

• ISBN13: 9780198152484
• ISBN10: 0198152485
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-11-28
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Ancient Greece was the birthplace of science, which developed in the Hellenized culture of ancient Rome. This book, written by seventeen international experts, examines the role and achievement of science and mathematics in Greek antiquity through discussion of the linguistic, literary, political, religious, sociological, and technological factors which influenced scientific thought and practice.

Author Biography

C. J. Tuplin is Reader in Ancient History at the University of Liverpool T. E. Rihll is Lecturer in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Wales, Swansea

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Lewis Wolpert
List of Illustrations	xiii
List of Tables	xiv
Abbreviations	xv
Introduction: Greek Science in Context	1	(21)
T. E. Rihll
Words for Sounds	22	(14)
Andrew Barker
Ptolemy's Maps as an Introduction to Ancient Science	36	(20)
J. L. Berggren
Seismology and Vulcanology in Antiquity?	56	(20)
Harry M. Hine
The Art of the Commander and the Emergence of Predictive Astronomy	76	(36)
Alan C. Bowen
Euctemon's Parapegma	112	(21)
R. Hannah
Instruments of Alexandrian Astronomy: The Uses of the Equinoctial Rings	133	(17)
L. Taub
The Dioptra of Hero of Alexandria	150	(15)
J. J. Coulton
The Machine and the City: Hero of Alexandria's Belopoeica	165	(13)
S. Cuomo
The Limitations of Ancient Atomism	178	(18)
J. R. Milton
Greek Mathematicians: A Group Picture	196	(21)
R. Netz
Aristotle and Mathematics	217	(13)
Edward Hussey
Euclid's Elements 9. 14 and the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic	230	(12)
C. M. Taisbak
Ancient Medicine: Asclepius Transformed	242	(14)
V. Nutton
Galen on the Seat of the Intellect: Anatomical Experiment and Philosophical Tradition	256	(18)
Teun Tieleman
Practice Makes Perfect: Knowledge of Materials in Classical Athens	274	(32)
T. E. Rihll
J. V. Tucker
Distilling, Sublimation, and the Four Elements: The Aims and Achievements of the Earliest Greek Chemists	306	(17)
C. Anne Wilson
Notes on Contributors	323	(3)
Bibliography	326	(24)
Index Locorum	350	(16)
General Index	366