1 The Birth of Science - MSRI

1.3 Science 9
first and fourth centuries A.D. 21 The scientific activity documented in the
fourth century A.D. is not original, being limited to compilations, commentaries
and rehashings of older works; among the commentators and
editors of that time we will be particularly interested in Pappus, whose
Collection brings together many otherwise unknown mathematical results,
and Theon of Alexandria, whose editions of Euclid’s Elements and Optics
have survived through the centuries. 22 The end of ancient science is sometimes
dated to 415, the year in which Hypatia, the daughter of Theon and
herself a mathematician who wrote commentaries on Apollonius, Ptolemy
and Diophantus, was lynched for religious reasons by a fanatical Christian
mob in Alexandria.
Because only a few works and fragments, often not exactly datable, re- page 31
main of the extraordinary wealth of Hellenistic science, we will try to describe
its essential characteristics without always following a timeline. 23
We will concentrate on the third and second centuries B.C., but when documents
from that period are lacking we will use later ones. However, in
using documents from the imperial period great caution is necessary, because,
as we shall see, scientific methodology had regressed profoundly.
When we discuss certain political and economic aspects of the scientific
revolution it will of course be essential to differentiate between the period
of independence of Hellenistic states and the Hellenistic tradition within
the Roman Empire.
1.3 Science
A coarsely encyclopedic organization of knowledge risks appearing to
validate the existence of a multitude of “sciences”, each equally worthy,
each characterized by its particular object of study: chemistry, ornithol-
21 The deciphering of cuneiform texts, however, has caused a drastic revision in our estimate
of Diophantus’ originality, since it shows that the methods he describes had long been in use in
Mesopotamia.
22 Heiberg identified Theon’s edition with the one transmitted in almost all our manuscripts of
the two works of Euclid, but this identification has been contested; see [Knorr: PsER], [Jones A.],
[Knorr: WTE].
23 Among the histories of ancient science it’s worth mentioning [Enriques, de Santillana], which
is still an interesting work, although many specific arguments are outdated. A useful compendium
containing an overview of the contents of extant works is [Heiberg: GMNA]. As anthologies of
sources we cite [Cohen, Drabkin] and [Irby-Massie, Keyser]. [Sarton] can still be useful for its bibliographical
references. For ancient science, and in fact for classical civilization in general, the encyclopedia
[Pauly, Wissowa] is often irreplaceable. For quick and trustworthy information about
individual scientists, ancient and modern, one can use [DSB]. We recall also [Farrington], [van der
Waerden: SA], and [Neugebauer: ESA]; the latter is not a history of the exact sciences in Antiquity
but a series of monographic lectures, the material about Mesopotamia being particularly interesting.
Revision: 1.15 Date: 2002/09/12 02:47:10