Pliny's knowledge of astronomy has been disparaged for many centuries, beginning with Kepler whos... more Pliny's knowledge of astronomy has been disparaged for many centuries, beginning with Kepler whose negative assessment has been widely accepted: ... it certainly seems to me that the man [Pliny] did not sufficiently understand the accounts of astronomers and the words ofVitruvius. Rather, he ran through all the authors like one caught in a torrent, he muddled everything up, and swollen with a surfeit of knowledge he produced many half-digested things which he himself did not fully understand, leading both himself and the reader astray by the obscurity of his words.' Despite this severe judgement, Pliny (1st century A.D.) is an important source for our knowledge of Greco-Latin astronomy before Ptolemy (2nd century A.D.). In this paper we will address one short passage in Pliny's treatise that has not been satisfactorily interpreted. Setting this passage in its larger context, that is, the nature of prediction in Greco-Latin astronomy, would take us very far afield, so we leave that enterprise for another occasion. In Pliny's Historia naturalis, ii.53, there are briefremarks about the first Greeks and Romans to explain eclipses as natural phenomena, in which are mentioned Sulpicius Gallus (a Roman general who defeated the Macedonians at the battle ofPydna in-167), and Thales ofMiletus in connection with a solar eclipse in the year-583. 2 Pliny's terms for what Sulpicius Gallus and Thales did, derive from the verb praedicere, and they are usually translated by forms of the verb 'predict'. But this hardly seems appropriate in this passage [see Appendix]. For, if Sulpicius Gallus was asked in advance by Paulus to predict the eclipse to the troops, then Paulus already knew it was going to happen, in which case he had no need to engage SuIpicius Gallus in this task. Moreover, given that eclipses were feared as signs of disaster [cf Hist. nat. ii.54-55], it is unlikely that Pliny wants his readers to understand that the mere announcement of an eclipse in advance would, by itself, calm the troops' fears. Indeed, as Pliny indicates just before and after this passage, it is the knowledge of the causes of eclipses that frees one from fear. Accordingly, we maintain that Pliny uses forms ofpraedicere to signify giving the causes ofeclipses in natural (rather than supernatural) terms, that is, explaining that eclipses occur regularly due to the intervention of a body
Autolycus of Pitane was a mathematician, author of two treatises in sphaerics, On the Rotating Sp... more Autolycus of Pitane was a mathematician, author of two treatises in sphaerics, On the Rotating Sphere and On Risings and Settings. Keywords: history of science; medicine and technology; intellectual history; science
Aristarchus was a mathematician-astronomer (early third century bce), author of On the Sizes and ... more Aristarchus was a mathematician-astronomer (early third century bce), author of On the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moon and of a heliocentric theory. Keywords: history of science; medicine and technology; intellectual history; science
THE STANDARD HISTORY OF GREEK ASTRONOMY emphasizes the role of planetary theory in its earlier st... more THE STANDARD HISTORY OF GREEK ASTRONOMY emphasizes the role of planetary theory in its earlier stages, by supposing that the early astronomers aimed primarily to explain planetary phenomena. This view derives from a passage in Simplicius (sixth century AD), based on ...
The Beginnings of Greek Mathematics. By Arpad Szabo (translated by A. M. Ungar from Anfiinge der ... more The Beginnings of Greek Mathematics. By Arpad Szabo (translated by A. M. Ungar from Anfiinge der Griechischen Muthematik). Synthese Historical Library 17. Dordrecht/Boston (Reidel). 1978.353 pp. + index (5 pp.
The Congress will include plenary talks, symposia, panel discussions, communications, and exhibit... more The Congress will include plenary talks, symposia, panel discussions, communications, and exhibitions. The second announcement of the Congress-containing the main program structure, information about lodging, and membership forms-will be mailed in September 1987.
Our best source of dated astronomical observations that were known to the Greeks in antiquity is ... more Our best source of dated astronomical observations that were known to the Greeks in antiquity is Ptolemy's Afmagest (ca. AD 150) and, in the time before Hipparchus in the middle of the 2nd century BC,
The Hellenistic reception of Babylonian horoscopic astrology gave rise to the question of what th... more The Hellenistic reception of Babylonian horoscopic astrology gave rise to the question of what the planets really do and whether astrology is a science. This question in turn became one of defining the Greco-Latin science of astronomy, a project that took Aristotle's views as a starting-point. Thus, I concentrate on one aspect of the various definitions of astronomy proposed in
Peripatetic philosopher active ca. 100 ce (Martin 1849: 74–9), author of commentaries on Aristotl... more Peripatetic philosopher active ca. 100 ce (Martin 1849: 74–9), author of commentaries on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Categories, and Physics, as well as of a study On the Order of Aristotle's Works cited several times by Simplicius. Keywords: history of science; medicine and technology; intellectual history; science
The following remarks are addressed to AA Mosshammer's "Geometrical Proportion and the ... more The following remarks are addressed to AA Mosshammer's "Geometrical Proportion and the Chronological Method of Apollodorus," (TAPA 106 [1976] 291-306). Mosshammer seeks to establish that Apollodorus used the progression 25, 40, 64 as a theoretical adjunct to his ...
Pliny's knowledge of astronomy has been disparaged for many centuries, beginning with Kepler whos... more Pliny's knowledge of astronomy has been disparaged for many centuries, beginning with Kepler whose negative assessment has been widely accepted: ... it certainly seems to me that the man [Pliny] did not sufficiently understand the accounts of astronomers and the words ofVitruvius. Rather, he ran through all the authors like one caught in a torrent, he muddled everything up, and swollen with a surfeit of knowledge he produced many half-digested things which he himself did not fully understand, leading both himself and the reader astray by the obscurity of his words.' Despite this severe judgement, Pliny (1st century A.D.) is an important source for our knowledge of Greco-Latin astronomy before Ptolemy (2nd century A.D.). In this paper we will address one short passage in Pliny's treatise that has not been satisfactorily interpreted. Setting this passage in its larger context, that is, the nature of prediction in Greco-Latin astronomy, would take us very far afield, so we leave that enterprise for another occasion. In Pliny's Historia naturalis, ii.53, there are briefremarks about the first Greeks and Romans to explain eclipses as natural phenomena, in which are mentioned Sulpicius Gallus (a Roman general who defeated the Macedonians at the battle ofPydna in-167), and Thales ofMiletus in connection with a solar eclipse in the year-583. 2 Pliny's terms for what Sulpicius Gallus and Thales did, derive from the verb praedicere, and they are usually translated by forms of the verb 'predict'. But this hardly seems appropriate in this passage [see Appendix]. For, if Sulpicius Gallus was asked in advance by Paulus to predict the eclipse to the troops, then Paulus already knew it was going to happen, in which case he had no need to engage SuIpicius Gallus in this task. Moreover, given that eclipses were feared as signs of disaster [cf Hist. nat. ii.54-55], it is unlikely that Pliny wants his readers to understand that the mere announcement of an eclipse in advance would, by itself, calm the troops' fears. Indeed, as Pliny indicates just before and after this passage, it is the knowledge of the causes of eclipses that frees one from fear. Accordingly, we maintain that Pliny uses forms ofpraedicere to signify giving the causes ofeclipses in natural (rather than supernatural) terms, that is, explaining that eclipses occur regularly due to the intervention of a body
Autolycus of Pitane was a mathematician, author of two treatises in sphaerics, On the Rotating Sp... more Autolycus of Pitane was a mathematician, author of two treatises in sphaerics, On the Rotating Sphere and On Risings and Settings. Keywords: history of science; medicine and technology; intellectual history; science
Aristarchus was a mathematician-astronomer (early third century bce), author of On the Sizes and ... more Aristarchus was a mathematician-astronomer (early third century bce), author of On the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moon and of a heliocentric theory. Keywords: history of science; medicine and technology; intellectual history; science
THE STANDARD HISTORY OF GREEK ASTRONOMY emphasizes the role of planetary theory in its earlier st... more THE STANDARD HISTORY OF GREEK ASTRONOMY emphasizes the role of planetary theory in its earlier stages, by supposing that the early astronomers aimed primarily to explain planetary phenomena. This view derives from a passage in Simplicius (sixth century AD), based on ...
The Beginnings of Greek Mathematics. By Arpad Szabo (translated by A. M. Ungar from Anfiinge der ... more The Beginnings of Greek Mathematics. By Arpad Szabo (translated by A. M. Ungar from Anfiinge der Griechischen Muthematik). Synthese Historical Library 17. Dordrecht/Boston (Reidel). 1978.353 pp. + index (5 pp.
The Congress will include plenary talks, symposia, panel discussions, communications, and exhibit... more The Congress will include plenary talks, symposia, panel discussions, communications, and exhibitions. The second announcement of the Congress-containing the main program structure, information about lodging, and membership forms-will be mailed in September 1987.
Our best source of dated astronomical observations that were known to the Greeks in antiquity is ... more Our best source of dated astronomical observations that were known to the Greeks in antiquity is Ptolemy's Afmagest (ca. AD 150) and, in the time before Hipparchus in the middle of the 2nd century BC,
The Hellenistic reception of Babylonian horoscopic astrology gave rise to the question of what th... more The Hellenistic reception of Babylonian horoscopic astrology gave rise to the question of what the planets really do and whether astrology is a science. This question in turn became one of defining the Greco-Latin science of astronomy, a project that took Aristotle's views as a starting-point. Thus, I concentrate on one aspect of the various definitions of astronomy proposed in
Peripatetic philosopher active ca. 100 ce (Martin 1849: 74–9), author of commentaries on Aristotl... more Peripatetic philosopher active ca. 100 ce (Martin 1849: 74–9), author of commentaries on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Categories, and Physics, as well as of a study On the Order of Aristotle's Works cited several times by Simplicius. Keywords: history of science; medicine and technology; intellectual history; science
The following remarks are addressed to AA Mosshammer's "Geometrical Proportion and the ... more The following remarks are addressed to AA Mosshammer's "Geometrical Proportion and the Chronological Method of Apollodorus," (TAPA 106 [1976] 291-306). Mosshammer seeks to establish that Apollodorus used the progression 25, 40, 64 as a theoretical adjunct to his ...
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