Science, Technology, and Medicine

The art of converting astronomical data (i.e. the positions of the celestial bodies) into predictions of outcomes in human affairs. Astrology developed in the Hellenistic age, essentially as an import from Babylon, which equally furnished many of its astronomical parameters. *Alexandria (1) was its major centre. By the 1st cent. bce, it had emerged as a sophisticated technical art, commanding widespread credence and respect. So it remained until the late empire, when its incompatibility with *Christianity led to its formal suppression (though not extinction).

There are several branches of astrology, of which the most important is genethlialogy, the art of foretelling an individual's life from the positions of the stars (i.e. sun, moon, planets, and fixed stars) at birth or conception; see constellations. The basic astronomical data for calculating a ‘nativity’ (i.e. a horoscope) are (a) the positions of the seven known planets (including sun and moon) relative to one another (their ‘aspects’) and to the twelve signs of the zodiac, and (b) the position of the circle of the zodiac (and thus of the planets moving round it) relative to a second circle of twelve ‘places’ (mod. ‘houses’) whose cardinal points (‘centres’) are the rising- and setting-points on the horizon and the zenith and nadir. The whole may be likened to a complex clock whose seven hands (the planets) turn counter-clockwise at various mean speeds (from the moon's month to Saturn's almost 30 years) against a dial whose twelve hours are the signs of the zodiac; simultaneously, the dial and its hands together rotate clockwise (in a 24-hour period corresponding to the apparent daily revolution of the heavens) against a second, fixed dial which is the local frame of reference for the nativity, itself divided into twelve sectors (the ‘places’) with the rising and setting points at 9 and 3 o'clock and the zenith and nadir at about 12 and 6. The astrologer reads this clock at the time of birth and then assigns meanings, in terms of the ‘native's’ destiny, character, and occupation, to the various positions and relationships in the ‘nativity’. In antiquity, as now, astronomical tables rather than direct observation were used.

Astronomer (fl. late 4th cent. bce), author of two works on elementary spherical astronomy, among the earliest Greek mathematical treatises that have come down to us entire: (1) On the Moving Sphere (Περὶ κινουμένης σφαίρας) treats of the poles and principal circles of the sphere. Many of its propositions are also used in the Phaenomena of *Euclid, but the priority cannot be determined. (2) On Risings and Settings (Περὶ ἀνατολῶν καὶ δύσεων), dealing with risings, settings, and visibility periods of stars, is in two books, which are in fact different versions of the same work. In a lost work (Simpl. in Cael. 504 f.) Autolycus criticized the system of concentric spheres of *Eudoxus (1) on the ground that it did not account for the differences in the apparent sizes of some heavenly bodies at different times, and attempted to remedy this.

Baccheius Geron wrote an informative Introduction to the Art of Music in question-and-answer form, giving pithy harmonic and rhythmic analyses, mainly Aristoxenian (see aristoxenus) but with later additions and modernized perspectives.

Balbus wrote a surveying treatise on measurements and geometrical shapes. He undertook military surveying during the Dacian campaigns of an emperor, either *Domitian or *Trajan. See gromatici.

In Homer’s world, bathing in warm water was a reward reserved for heroes. Ordinary Greeks bathed at home or in public baths characterized by circular chambers with hip-baths and rudimentary heating systems. Public bathing as a daily habit, a hygienic, medicinal, recreational, and luxurious experience belonged to the Romans. The origins of Roman baths can be traced in the simpler Greek baths and the bathing facilities of the Greek gymnasium and palaestra, as well as the farm traditions of rural Italy. The earliest Roman baths (balneae), which show the mastery of floor and wall heating, and a planning system based on controlled and graded heating of spaces, emerged in Latium and Campania by the early 2nd century bce. There is little doubt that bathing as an ultimate luxurious experience was epitomized by the imperial thermae first developed in Rome and spread to the provinces. These grand bathing palaces combined exercise, bathing, recreation, and quasi-intellectual activities in vast, park-like precincts, as best exemplified by the Thermae of Caracalla in Rome. The tradition of public bathing and baths passed on to Early Christian, Byzantine, and Medieval Islamic societies across Asia Minor and the eastern Mediterranean.

RE, from Mendes in Egypt, contemporary of *Callimachus (3) (3rd cent. bce.), a writer on *magic and *pharmacology. A work of his entitled On Sympathies and Antipathies was somehow attributed to *Democritus of Abdera, and as a consequence Bolus is sometimes referred to as pseudo-Democritus. Only fragments of his works survive; one apparently contained a materia medica in which drugs were divided into artificial and natural substances (Χειρόκμητα and Φυσικὰ δυναμερά). He also wrote a work On Marvels (θαυμάσια) and was the first in a considerable tradition of *paradoxographers. The Suda reports the existence of two men called Bolus, one a philosopher and follower of Democritus, and the other a Pythagorean from Mendes, but they are now thought to be identical.

Alexandrian physician (later 3rd cent. BCE?), member of the ‘school’ of *Herophilus. He ascribed great value to semiotics, i.e. to the careful study of symptomatic signs (τὰ σημεῖα τὰ συμπίπτοντα) that ‘signify’ (σημαίνει) each affection (πάθος) and its cause (αἰτία), as a basis both for prognosis and for treatment. By contrast, he devalued attempts to question patients in order to ascertain antecedent causes (ἡγούμεναι προφάσεις) represented by the patient's regimen, lifestyle, or general physical condition. Famous for his treatise on the toxic effects of certain fragrant wreaths, he also wrote on various botanical drug ingredients, at times using idiosyncratic nomenclature. See botany. Like many Herophileans, he contributed to the interpretation of Hippocratic works (including Epid. 6 and perhaps Prognostic), not hesitating to ridicule exegetical precursors, including the founding father of his own school, Herophilus. Such criticisms illustrate the dynamic, pluralistic, agonal relations that prevailed in Hellenistic medicine, even among adherents of the same medical ‘school’.

Callippus (RE 22), astronomer (fl. 330 BCE), went with Polemarchus (pupil of *Eudoxus (1)) from *Cyzicus to Athens, where he associated with Aristotle. He corrected Eudoxus’ theory of concentric spheres (Simplic. in Cael. 493, 5–8), by adding two more spheres in each case for the sun and moon, and one more for each of the planets (see Arist. Metaph. 1073^b 32–8; Simplic. in Cael. 497, 17–24). He proposed a year-length of 365¼ days, on which he based the 76-year cycle named after him, containing 27,759 days and 940 months (of which 28 were intercalary), as an improvement on *Meton's 19-year cycle (Geminus 8. 57–60); the first ‘Callippic Cycle’ began in 330–329 bce. Callippus also composed the first parapēgma (astronomical calendar) to demonstrate clearly the inequality of the seasons.