Treccani History of Science
The science in ancient Greece and Rome
A3 – The science of the Heavens and Earth
Edited by Alan C. Bowen, A. Mark Smith
The pre-Ptolemaic science of the heavens
• 1. Celestial science from Aristotle to Ptolemy
• 2. “Saving the phenomena”: the slogan and the project
• 3. Geminus and the transmission of Babylonian planetary theories to the Hellenic and Roman world
• 4. Between explanation and prediction: eclipses in the Roman world
The science of the sphere and the origin of trigonometry
• 1. Early works
• 2. Menelaus and his Sphaerica
• 3. Spherics in the Almagest
• 4. Spherics after Ptolemy: Pappus and Theon of Alexandria
Astrology
• 1. Astrological theory
• 2. Astrology’s origins: Babylon and Greece
• 3. Popularizing astrology
• 4. From Greece to Rome
• 5. Scepticism about astrology
• 6. Ptolemy
• 7. Vettius Valens
• 8. Conclusion
Meteorology
• 1. Meteorology in antiquity
• 2. Pre-Aristotelian meteorological doctrines
• 3. Plato, Aristotle, and Theophrastus
• 4. Epicurean meteorology
• 5. Stoic meteorology
Geography
• 1. Science and observation in Ionia and Athens
• 2. Eratosthenes in Alexandria, the pioneer of geography
• 3. In Rhodes: Hipparchus and Posidonius
• 4. The Geography of Strabo
• 5. Latin geographers
• 6. Alexandrian Renaissance: Dionysius the Periegetes, Appian, and Ptolemy
Optics and light theory
• 1. General lines of development
• 2. Mathematical optics and visual-ray theory
Harmonics
• 1. Harmonic science in the 4th century
• 2. Philolaus
• 3. Archytas
• 4. The Sectio canonis
• 5. Aristoxenus
• 6. The Pythagoreans
• 7. Ptolemy
Mechanics
• 1. Creators, classification, and development of mechanics
• 2. Automata
• 3. Pneumatics
• 4. War machines
• 5. Clocks and watches
• 6. Problems concerning ancient mechanics
Engineering
• 1. Vitruvius
• 2. Frontinus
• 3. Metrology
Architecture
• 1. Greek architecture
• 2. Roman architecture
Ptolemy
• 1. Scientific investigation
• 2. The Almagest
• 3. Planetary Hypotheses
• 4. Astrology and geography
• 5. The Harmonica
• 6. Optics
• 7. The philosophy of Ptolemy
Astronomy after Ptolemy
• 1. Astronomical practice in documentary sources
• 2. The 3rd century: the reception of Ptolemy
• 3. The 4th century: Pappus, Theon, and Hypatia
• 4. From Proclus to Heraclius
Scepticism and criticism of scientific knowledge
• 1. Scepticism and medicine
• 2. The Pyrrhonism of Sextus
• 3. Aenesidemus against scientific aetiology
• 4. The assault on physics
• 5. The abstract sciences
• 6. Science and pseudo-science
• 7. Realism and anti-realism in astronomical theory
Science and institutions
• 1. Mathematics
• 2. Medicine
Philosophy of Nature in late antiquity
• 1. Natural philosophy in late antiquity
• 2. Scientific method and the pagan opposition to Christianity
• 3. Major topics in late antiquity natural philosophy
• 4. Non-philosophical accounts of Nature