1 The Birth of Science - MSRI

86 4. Scientific Technology
4.1 Mechanical Engineering
Vitruvius lists twelve authors of works on mechanics: Archytas (whose
works have all perished), Archimedes (who, according to Plutarch, wrote
nothing on the subject), Ctesibius and Philo of Byzantium, whom we have
already discussed, and eight others we know nothing about. 3 Athenaeus
mentions a work on mechanics by one Moschus, not included in Vitruvius’
list; we know nothing else about him either. 4
The anonymous Laterculi Alexandrini, dating probably from the second
century B.C. and found on a papyrus, 4a includes rosters of men who had
reached the pinnacles of fame on various accounts: legislators, painters,
sculptors, architects and mechanikoi, or mechanical engineers. The choice
of categories demonstrates an interest in technology that has long been
denied in connection with all of the “classical world”. 5 The selection is
so stringent that only five sculptors are named: Phidias, Scopas, Praxiteles,
Myron and Polycleitus. 6 It’s obviously some kind of “hall of fame”
intended to enshrine the exponents of human genius, in the same vein as
the famous catalogs of seven wonders of the world. One of the engineers
listed is Abdaraxus, “who built the machines in Alexandria”. 7 These machines
must have been so famous at the time that the author of the Laterculi
judged any further specification superfluous. Yet the name Abdaraxus has
not reached us through any other source, nor have any clues that might
help us understand what machines are meant.
All of this suggests that our ignorance about Hellenistic mechanical en- page 123
gineering may reflect not indifference to the subject on the part of writers
from the third and second centuries B.C., but rather the selection process
of later ages — imperial, late ancient and early medieval — characterized
by a marked lack of interest in technology.
In spite of the almost absolute silence of our sources, we can tell from the
meager information available that, not surprisingly, the birth of mechanics
— the science of machines — was accompanied by a newly developed
of a cultural phenomenon (here scientific technology), there is still the problem of assessing its
relevance; but this too is a problem that cannot be solved solely through statistical surveys.
3
Vitruvius, De architectura, VII, praef., 14.
4
Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, XIV, 634b.
4a
See [Diels: LA], where the extant text (the papyrus is much damaged) is transcribed and discussed.
5
Fraser notes that the inclusion of mechanical engineers in this list “is of importance as showing
the rather unexpected interest taken in such engineers and as indicative perhaps of a new prestige
acquired by them” ([Fraser], vol. I, p. 426).
6
[Fraser], vol. I, p. 456.
7
Each entry on this list of engineers found in the Laterculi Alexandrini is followed by the respective
achievements in a nutshell. The whole passage is reproduced in [Fraser], vol. II, p. 617.
Revision: 1.14 Date: 2002/10/24 04:25:47