Ancient Science and Modern Civilization

This little book reproduces the text of the three Montgomery Lectures on Contemporary Civilization which Professor Sarton delivered at the University of Nebraska, under the respective titles of “Euclid and his Time,” “Ptolemy and his Time,” and “The End of Greek Science and Culture.” ‘The, lectures present cross-sections of Hellenistic science at three contrasting stages of its development, the choice of such themes under the terms of the Lectureship being justified by the continuity of modern with ancient science. Euclid, standing at the. Beginning of the Alexandrian Renaissance, is a shadowy figure; but his cultural environment, the excellence of his “Elements” and the perennial interest of the “parallel postulate” afforded the lecturer no lack of themes for discussion. Ptolemy belongs to a different world, politically Roman though still intellectually Greek. His astrological Tetrabiblos (which remained authoritative even longer than his Almagest or his Geography) witnessed to the astral religion which (rather than Christianity) displaced the old mythology as the faith of the scientifically minded in late antiquity. The concluding lecture, covering the period circa 300 to 529, deals with the final mathematical achievements of Hellenism, with Byzantine medicine (in the person of Oribasios, physician to Julian the Apostate), and with the philosophic and religious background of the dying pagan world. Professor Sartan. sees a lesson for our own day in the eventual impoverishment which the Greek world suffered through the mutual persecutions of the Christian sects and the expulsion of the heretics. Even so, the treasure of Greek science was not lost to mankind, but returned from its immense mediaeval detour to help create modern civilization. A useful feature of this illuminating book is the inclusion of outlines of the literary traditions, and bibliographies of the chief printed editions, of the classic works of Euclid,
Ptolemy, Pappus and Oribasios.