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Ludwig Edelstein and Michael Vickers
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Ludwig Edelstein and V. Nutton
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Wilbur R. Knorr and Alexander Jones
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Robert Browning and V. Nutton
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G. J. Toomer and Serafina Cuomo
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Stephen Hodkinson
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M. Stephen Spurr
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V. Nutton
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John Scarborough
Paul of *Aegina, physician, died after 642
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Alexander Souter
*Proclus describes him as the discoverer of the sections of the σπεῖρα (tore or anchor-ring).
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John Scarborough
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Heinrich von Staden
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G. J. Toomer
Philippus was thought by some (Diog. Laert. 3. 37) to have transcribed the Laws of his teacher *Plato (1) and to have written the Epinomis. He is probably the Philippus who composed an astronomical calendar (see
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J. T. Vallance
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Carl Huffman
Philolaus wrote one book which was probably the first by a Pythagorean (see
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G. J. Toomer and Serafina Cuomo
Philon wrote a mechanical Syntaxis in nine (?) books, of which survive: book 4, βελοποιικά, on catapults (see
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James Warren
Philonides of Laodicea-on-Sea, in Syria, was an Epicurean philosopher of the 2nd century
Philonides of Laodicea-on-Sea, in Syria, was an Epicurean philosopher of the 2nd century
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William David Ross
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J. T. Vallance
Physics today involves the investigation of the nature and behaviour of matter and energy, and it is often thus distinguished from chemistry and biology. The same term, derived from the Greek word for ‘nature’, ‘physis’, is used to describe a number of ancient inquiries, including peri physeos historia (the inquiry into nature), ‘ta physika’ (natural things) and physikē [sc. epistēmē], where no such distinction is implied. These ancient expressions are to some extent context-relative and they covered a range of interests far wider than that encompassed by modern physics. ‘Theory of Nature’ might be a reasonable general characterization of ancient physics. Notably, for some ancient authorities ‘physics’ explicitly excluded mathematics and even mathematical attempts at modelling nature. For early doctors physical inquiry was equivalent to what we might now call physiology; the cognate terms in English, ‘physic’ and ‘physician’, tend to relate, on the other hand, to the practice of what is now called pathology.