Democritus of Abdera
posited the existence of atoms. Aristotle accurately described the embryology
of the chick. Aristarchus put the sun at
the center of the planetary system. Yet
nothing like “science” existed before the Renaissance. When Eratosthenes measured
the circumference of the Earth by comparing shadows at noon on the summer
solstice, remarkable as it was, and enduring as it would prove to be, his work
was singular: neither a test, nor a disproof; neither a challenge, nor an
argument. It simply was. But what was
it?
St. Martin's Press, 2008. |
The Hellenistic world was
very much like our own time: held in tension by science and superstition,
commerce and war, ecumenism and parochialism.
Nicastro spans all of that because the known facts of the life and works
of Eratosthenes are so few. Much of the
book is given over to calculations in various ancient stade measures (whence the modern "stadium"). Like many
other technical reads for large audiences, the end notes are not
keyed within the text. Keep a bookmark there so that you can flip back and forth.
Coin from Cyrene c. 480-435. 3.34 gr. 1.5 cm. Zeus Ammon / Silphium. |
Eratosthenes came from Cyrene , a city in what is today Libya
near what is today Benghazi . He studied philosophy in Athens before being appointed to the Great
Library by Ptolemy III Euergetes. Nicastro underscores the
fact that contrary to our common opinions today, Athens was not a home to learning and philosophy
until after its Golden Age and eventual downfall in the Peloponnesian Wars.
Anaxagoras, Protagoras, and Socrates all had been tried for impiety. Nicastro also argues that Eratosthenes
probably did not travel to Siwa (Aswan )
to see the sun overhead. He might have
sent an underling from the Museum to do that.
A single fragment letter from Archimedes to Eratosthenes suggests a long
correspondence between the two.
But Eratosthenes was more
than a geometer. Just as most of Newton ’s writings were not about physics, so, too, did
Eratosthenes mostly write on grammar, poetry, and history. That was apparently the attraction for
Nicastro. “[He] received a BA in English from Cornell
University (1985), an MFA in
filmmaking from New York
University (1991), an
M.A. in archaeology and a Ph.D. in psychology from Cornell (1996 and 2003).”
(Wikipedia). It takes one to know one.
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