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Today I am highlighting important books in the subject of Ancient Science (next again will be Modern Philosophy and then the Origins of Christianity—and then I’ll circle back and start over!), which was my leading PhD major at Columbia University (the others being religion, historiography, and the decline of the Empire, which all feature here as well).
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To get a start on understanding ancient Western science, which spawned and evolved into modern science altogether, I strongly recommend beginning with Tracey Rihll’s Greek Science (2006), and then my two volumes on Science Education in the Early Roman Empire (2016) and The Scientist in the Early Roman Empire (2017), which also have audio versions (read by me). I use Scientist as the course text for my online class on Ancient Science & Technology.
Why these?
First is Tracey Rihll’s book simply titled Greek Science, which is a good, current, brief introduction to the subject. It’s an easy read and gets you up to speed on the basics. Rihll is one of the best historians of ancient science today, and a witty and enjoyable writer. The title reflects the fact that most ancient science was then always written in Greek (even by Romans), and so it does not limit itself to the Hellenistic period but covers the Roman period as well. I recommend it because it is short, sweeping, and readable. It doesn’t go into as much depth as others I’ll be recommending (here and in future months), but that’s what makes it suitable for a starter kit.
Second is my comparably brief Science Education in the Early Roman Empire. Originally a chapter in my Columbia University doctoral dissertation, this thoroughly treats the subject of who knew any science back then, and how much, and even who was literate and what sorts of things were taught in ancient schools even apart from science. No comparable book like this exists, surveying the entire ancient education system and its science content. I also discuss the evidence that early Christians did not like this aspect of ancient education and were inclined to drop its science content. But the main theme, of ancient education generally, makes this a valuable book even if you just want to know about ancient education and access to literacy and what kinds of things were taught in ancient schools altogether. This study summarizes and cites all the leading scholarship on that, making it a useful reference if you want to breadcrumb your way to investigating the subject further. And it contains some surprises, like Emperor Claudius’s attempt to use public media to school the masses in astronomical science so as to dissuade possible superstitious reactions to a coming eclipse, or the role science could play in ancient jury trials (where juries were indeed made up of the general, and thus generally illiterate, public), or how important musical science was in schools of the time (a thought strange to us today), more so even than “gym class” (though that had its place, too, just like now).
Third is my far more extensive The Scientist in the Early Roman Empire, which adapts and expands the rest of my Columbia University doctoral dissertation. There is no comparable single-volume work that surveys the entire gamut of Roman science—at all, much less as covers the subjects here thoroughly treated, which includes who ancient scientists were (what were they called, what social class did they come from, how many were there) and what people thought about them (including the hostility toward them common among the illiterate masses in general and Christians in particular), as well as discussions of ancient conceptions of (and pagan praise for) scientific progress, curiosity as a moral virtue, and empiricism as a standard of trust (over authoritarianism or scripturalism). All the usual myths are busted here (that slavery hindered scientific progress, that scientists didn’t work with their hands, that their technology remained primitive, and more). This basically cites and summarizes the entire gamut of professional literature on all these subjects up to its time. There is no more thorough survey to start with. Because I deliberately composed it to serve that role. It is chock full of references and surprising facts and stories, so is useful even just as a reference book, rife with breadcrumbs to explore anything it discusses in more detail. (Including one I will be correcting next week—the Weird Fruit Mystery—so stay tuned for that!)
