DOCSLIB.ORG

The Histories, with an English Translation

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Histories, with an English Translation m 1 1 1 LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY 1 1 1 1 1 POLYBIUS I 1 1 1 THE HISTORIES 1 1 1 VOLUME I @ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 i 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 i Translated by 1 W. R. PATON 1 i i i l o! @ a l i 1 a I POLYBIUS (born ca. 208 BC) of Mega- in the lopolis Peloponnese (Morea), served the Achaean in League arms and diplomacy for many years, favouring alliance with Rome. From 168 to he in 1^1 was hostage Rome where he became a friend of Ae- milius Paulus his r and tw o sons, and espe- cially adopted Scipio Aemilianus whose campaigns he attended later. In late life he was a trusted mediator between Greece and r the Romans w hom he admired; helped in the discussions which preceded the final war with Carthage; and, after 146, was entrusted the Romans with details of byJ administration in Greece. He died at the age of 82 after a fall from his horse. The main of part Polybius' history covers the years 264-146 BC. It describes the rise of Rome to the destruction of Carthage and the domination of Greece by Rome. It is a great work, accurate, thoughtful, largely impartial, based on research, full of into insight customs, institutions, geogra- causes of phy, events and character of peo- ple; it is a vital achievement of first rate importance, despite the incomplete state in which all but the first five of the forty books have reached us. Polybius' overall theme is and how why the Romans spread their power as they did. The Loeb Classical edition Library of Poly- bius is in six volumes. NY PUBLIC LIBRARY THE BRANCH LIBRARIES .04 3 3333 14761 0030 1 vol. MM The Newark HSS Public Library Aator, Lenox and Tilden Foundations . The Branch Libraries MID-MANHATTAN LIBRARY MM 455 Fifth Avenue New York, N.Y. 10016 Books and non-print media may be returned to any branch of The New York Public Library. Music scores, orchestral sets and certain materials must be returned to branch from which borrowed. All materials must be returned by the last date stamped on the card. Fines are charged for overdue items. Form #0692 POLYBIUS THE HISTORIES WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY W. R. PATON VOLUME I HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS LONDON, ENGLAND First published 1922 Reprinted 1954, 1960, 1967, 1975, 1979, 1992, 1998 LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY is a registered trademark of the President and Fellows of Harvard College ISBN 0-674-99142-7 Printed in Great Britain by St Edmundsbury Press Ltd, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, on acid-free paper. Bound by Hunter 6- Foulis Ltd, Edinburgh, Scotland. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION vii THE HISTORIES Book I 2 Book II 240 INDEX 417 Quare historiae huius non postrema haec laus est, quod in parte versetur rerum Romanarum longe nobilissima, sive virorum virtutem spectes, sive publica instituta aut mores, sive gestorura raagnitudinem. Cum autem inter excellentis historiae condiciones doctissimi veterum hanc cum primis ponant, ut certi intervallo temporis circumscribatur, et a notabili principio ad notabilem finem perducatur, hanc historiae legem, ut quidem illis placet, a Polybio mirifice esse observatam invenimus. CASAUBON. vJ INTRODUCTION POLYBIUS was born about 208 B.C. at Megalopolis in Arcadia. His father, Lycortas, who spent the greater part of his life more especially the years 181-168 B.C. in the service of the Achaean League, was a friend of and supporter Philopoemen ; he went as ambassador to Rome in 189, to Ptolemy of in 186 and in 181 Epiphanes, king Egypt, again ; and he was Strategus of the League in 184. In his youth Polybius began to take part in public affairs. He seems to have served with the Romans in the of the in campaign 189 against Gauls Asia Minor ; he carried the urn of to burial in 183 Philopoemen ; he was associated with his father Lycortas in the to in 181 and he was embassy Egypt ; Hipparchus of the Achaean League for the year 169-8. Throughout the period (18 1-1 68) of political associa- tion with his father Polybius consistently maintained the view that the supremacy of Rome in Greece must be accepted, and that the Greek states must conduct their affairs, whether singly or collectively, and preserve their freedom, without giving any offence, or cause of complaint, to the Roman republic. But there was much intriguing, in Greece and at this Rome, against policy of legal independence ; and the suspicions of the Romans were so far aroused Vll INTRODUCTION that they came to regard the independents with no less displeasure than the avowed enemies of the republic. Thus, though the Achaean League main- tained correctly enough this policy of a strict legality during the third war between Rome and Macedon (172-168), its leaders were quickly brought to account after the defeat of King Perseus at Pydna (168 B.C.), and no less than a thousand Achaeans were transported to Italy to be tried for their alleged opposition to the sovereignty of Rome. Of this company was Polybius we hear nothing more of his father Lycortas : he may have died about this time. Quartered in Italian cities, these Greeks waited for the trial which never came ; and at last in 151 B.C., when after sixteen years liberty was given to them to return home, there were less than three hundred of the thousand left to go back. Polybius was more fortunate than the rest. He had become acquainted with Aemilius Paulus and his two sons during the campaign against Perseus and afterwards in Macedonia, and now in 167 he was allowed to remain in Rome in the house of Aemilius, to act as tutor to the two boys. This was the beginning of that famous friendship between Polybius and the younger son, who became by adoption Publius Scipio Aemilianus. Panaetius, the Stoic philosopher, was also an inmate of Aemilius Paulus' house about this time, exercising perhaps in rivalry with Polybius a tutorial influence upon the sons. Polybius had access through Aemilius Paulus to the best of Roman society during those sixteen years of expatriation in Italy, and he made good use of his opportunities. He studied the history and institutions of Rome, doubtless with a view to viii INTRODUCTION the history that he meant to write himself; he observed Roman life and character, in the individual l and in the state ; he hunted the boar with the younger sportsmen. The Romans appreciated the ability and the versatility of Polybius, and in 14-9 B.C. less than two years after his return to Arcadia invited his assist- ance in the diplomatic discussions that preceded the last Punic War. And when Publius Scipio rejoined the army before Carthage in 147 as commander-in-chief, Polybius was in close attend- ance, to advise on questions of siege operations, or to conduct explorations on the coast of Africa in 's side ships officially supplied. He stood by Scipio and when while Carthage was burning (146 B.C.) ; that destruction was finished he returned to Greece, in time, if not to witness the sack of Corinth by Mummius, at any rate to modify the executions of the Romans and to rescue some of the treasures of art from destruction or deportation. And when the Roman commissioners withdrew from Greece, they left Polybius with authority to settle the details for the administration of each surviving city. Thus he came to be regarded as a public benefactor, for he had done his work well ; and statues were raised to him in Megalopolis, Mantinea, Tegea, Olympia, and elsewhere. Polybius lived for some twenty years after this work was done, but we know little or nothing about his employments. He may have joined Scipio during the siege of Numantia in Spain (134-132) : he visited Egypt again : his travels in Europe, Asia, and per- haps in Africa, may have been continued and 1 Cf. vi. 56, on the moral tone of the Romans. ix INTRODUCTION extended in this his period ; and literary work there in were, addition to the History, a Life of Philopoemen in three books, a Treatise on Tactics, and a History of the Numantine War must have occupied much of his time. A sportsman to the last, he met his death at eighty-two by an accidental fall from his horse as he was returning from the country. The project of writing a history of the age probably suggested itself to Polybius, and was certainly developed, during the years of his detention in Italy. Expatriation loosened the links with Greece, and tightened the connexion with Rome. His original scheme was to record the rise of Rome to supremacy over the Mediterranean states in the years 220-168 B.C., i.e. from the beginning of the Second Punic War to the end of the Third Mace- donian War. He subsequently extended this scheme in order to include an account of events from the first of the outside expedition Romans Italy (i.e. from the beginning of the First Punic War, in 264 B.C., the point where the history of Timaeus had ended) to and continue the record to the year (146 B.C.) which witnessed the destruction of Carthage and of Corinth. In the end the History consisted of forty books, of which the first two were introductory (TrpoKaraa-Kcvfy, the next thirty dealt with the main subject, and the last eight with the corollary. Of the forty books the first five only are preserved complete : of the rest there are only sections and fragments numerous, it is true, but of varying length and importance gathered from epitomes and excerpts.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Macedonian Kings, Egyptian Pharaohs the Ptolemaic Family In
    Department of World Cultures University of Helsinki Helsinki Macedonian Kings, Egyptian Pharaohs The Ptolemaic Family in the Encomiastic Poems of Callimachus Iiro Laukola ACADEMIC DISSERTATION To be publicly discussed, by due permission of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Helsinki in auditorium XV, University Main Building, on the 23rd of September, 2016 at 12 o’clock. Helsinki 2016 © Iiro Laukola 2016 ISBN 978-951-51-2383-1 (paperback.) ISBN 978-951-51-2384-8 (PDF) Unigrafia Helsinki 2016 Abstract The interaction between Greek and Egyptian cultural concepts has been an intense yet controversial topic in studies about Ptolemaic Egypt. The present study partakes in this discussion with an analysis of the encomiastic poems of Callimachus of Cyrene (c. 305 – c. 240 BC). The success of the Ptolemaic Dynasty is crystallized in the juxtaposing of the different roles of a Greek ǴdzȅǻǽǷȏȄ and of an Egyptian Pharaoh, and this study gives a glimpse of this political and ideological endeavour through the poetry of Callimachus. The contribution of the present work is to situate Callimachus in the core of the Ptolemaic court. Callimachus was a proponent of the Ptolemaic rule. By reappraising the traditional Greek beliefs, he examined the bicultural rule of the Ptolemies in his encomiastic poems. This work critically examines six Callimachean hymns, namely to Zeus, to Apollo, to Artemis, to Delos, to Athena and to Demeter together with the Victory of Berenice, the Lock of Berenice and the Ektheosis of Arsinoe. Characterized by ambiguous imagery, the hymns inspect the ruptures in Greek thought during the Hellenistic age.
    [Show full text]
  • A Glimpse Into the Roman Finances of the Second Punic War Through
    Letter Geochemical Perspectives Letters the history of the western world. Carthage was a colony founded next to modern Tunis in the 8th century BC by Phoenician merchants. During the 3rd century BC its empire expanded westward into southern Spain and Sardinia, two major silver producers of the West Mediterranean. Meanwhile, Rome’s grip had tight- © 2016 European Association of Geochemistry ened over the central and southern Italian peninsula. The Punic Wars marked the beginning of Rome’s imperial expansion and ended the time of Carthage. A glimpse into the Roman finances The First Punic War (264 BC–241 BC), conducted by a network of alliances in Sicily, ended up with Rome prevailing over Carthage. A consequence of this of the Second Punic War conflict was the Mercenary War (240 BC–237 BC) between Carthage and its through silver isotopes unpaid mercenaries, which Rome helped to quell, again at great cost to Carthage. Hostilities between the two cities resumed in 219 BC when Hannibal seized the F. Albarède1,2*, J. Blichert-Toft1,2, M. Rivoal1, P. Telouk1 Spanish city of Saguntum, a Roman ally. At the outbreak of the Second Punic War, Hannibal crossed the Alps into the Po plain and inflicted devastating mili- tary defeats on the Roman legions in a quick sequence of major battles, the Trebia (December 218 BC), Lake Trasimene (June 217 BC), and Cannae (August 216 BC). As a measure of the extent of the disaster, it was claimed that more than 100,000 Abstract doi: 10.7185/geochemlet.1613 Roman soldiers and Italian allies lost their lives in these three battles, including The defeat of Hannibal’s armies at the culmination of the Second Punic War (218 BC–201 three consuls.
    [Show full text]
  • Title Page Echoes of the Salpinx: the Trumpet in Ancient Greek Culture
    Title Page Echoes of the salpinx: the trumpet in ancient Greek culture. Carolyn Susan Bowyer. Royal Holloway, University of London. MPhil. 1 Declaration of Authorship I Carolyn Susan Bowyer hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Signed: ______________________ Date: ________________________ 2 Echoes of the salpinx : the trumpet in ancient Greek culture. Abstract The trumpet from the 5th century BC in ancient Greece, the salpinx, has been largely ignored in modern scholarship. My thesis begins with the origins and physical characteristics of the Greek trumpet, comparing trumpets from other ancient cultures. I then analyse the sounds made by the trumpet, and the emotions caused by these sounds, noting the growing sophistication of the language used by Greek authors. In particular, I highlight its distinctively Greek association with the human voice. I discuss the range of signals and instructions given by the trumpet on the battlefield, demonstrating a developing technical vocabulary in Greek historiography. In my final chapter, I examine the role of the trumpet in peacetime, playing its part in athletic competitions, sacrifice, ceremonies, entertainment and ritual. The thesis re-assesses and illustrates the significant and varied roles played by the trumpet in Greek culture. 3 Echoes of the salpinx : the trumpet in ancient Greek culture Title page page 1 Declaration of Authorship page 2 Abstract page 3 Table of Contents pages
    [Show full text]
  • The Carthaginians 6Th–2Nd Century BC
    The Carthaginians 6th–2nd Century BC ANDREA SALIMBETI ILLUSTRATED BY GIUSEPPE RAVA & RAFFAELE D’AMATO © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com Elite • 201 The Carthaginians 6th–2nd Century BC ANDREA SALIMBETI ILLUSTRATED BY GIUSEPPE RAVA & RAFFAELE D’AMATO Series editor Martin Windrow © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 4 )JTUPSJDBMCBDLHSPVOE HISTORICAL REPUTATION 9 $SVFMFYFDVUJPOT )VNBOTBDSJGJDF CHRONOLOGY 12 ORGANIZATION 16 $PNNBOE $JUJ[FONJMJUJB -JCZP1IPFOJDJBOT .FSDFOBSJFTBMMJFTBEWBOUBHFTBOEEBOHFSTPG SFMJBODFPONFSDFOBSJFTo/PSUI"GSJDBOTo*CFSJBOTo$FMUT /POJOGBOUSZUSPPQT$BWBMSZo$IBSJPUTo&MFQIBOUTo"SUJMMFSZ TACTICS 28 )FBWZBOEMJHIUJOGBOUSZ &WPMVUJPOPGNFSDFOBSZUBDUJDTJO1VOJDTFSWJDF*CFSJBODBWBMSZo$FMUT ARMS & EQUIPMENT 32 $BSUIBHJOJBO-JCZP1IPFOJDJBOJOGBOUSZBOEDBWBMSZ"SNPVS Shields 8FBQPOT /PSUI "GSJDBODBWBMSZBOEJOGBOUSZo*CFSJBOTUIF1P[P.PSPCVSJBMo#BMFBSJDTMJOHFSTo$FMUTo*OTJHOJB standards CLOTHING & PHYSICAL APPEARANCE 46 THE NAVY 48 SELECTED CAMPAIGNS & BATTLES 52 5IFDPORVFTUPG4BSEJOJB oc.#$ 5IFCBUUMFPG)JNFSB #$ 5IFNFSDFOBSZSFWPMU #$ SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 61 INDEX 64 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com THE CARTHAGINIANS 6th–2nd CENTURIES BC INTRODUCTION 5FSSBDPUUBNBMFIFBEGSPN Carthage was the greatest military power in the western Mediterranean $BSUIBHF UIDFOUVSZ#$5IJT world during the centuries of the Greek and Roman expansions, and used its SFBMJTUJDQPSUSBJUJNBHFPGB mighty fleet to build a commercial and territorial empire in North Africa, the $BSUIBHJOJBOOPCMFNBOPS Iberian Peninsula
    [Show full text]
  • The Truceless
    Command & Colors: Ancients — BONUS PACK #2 1 Command & Colors: Ancients TRUCELESS WAR UTICA: REBEL CAMP – 241 BC THE BATTLE OF UTICA – 240 BC • HIPPACRITAE – 240 BC HANNIBAL'S CAMP – 238 BC • LEPTIS – 238 BC GMT Games, LLC P.O. Box 1308, Hanford, CA 93232-1308 • www.GMTGames.com © 2006 GMT Games, LLC 2 Command & Colors: Ancients — TRUCELESS WAR UTICA: REBEL CAMP – 241 BC CARTHAGINIAN WM A AWMMC AE E E A AALALAL A L A LC LC M H M REBEL ARMY Historical Background War Council Rome’s victory in naval battle resulted in the final Carthaginian Carthagian Army Rebel Army (Use Roman blocks) defeat in the First Punic War. But Hamilcar Barca’s corps of • Leader: Hanno the Great • 5 Command Cards 20,000 mercenaries had remained undefeated on land. These • 5 Command Cards troops were shipped back to Carthage, and finding that their con- • Move First siderable back-pay was not immediately forthcoming, mutinied under the leadership of a Libyan, Mathos and a runaway Roman Victory slave, Spendius. Mathos was also able to raise a great rebellion 6 Banners amongst the Libyan tribes. The rebels placed two loyal cities, Special Rules Utica and Hippacritae, under siege. Both sides gain or lose Victory Banners for possession or loss of At the start of the rebellion there was no Carthaginian army to Camp hexes. The Rebels start with 2 victory banners for posses- oppose the rebels. The senate appointed Hanno the Great to raise sion of all 3 Camp hexes. Both sides gain/lose 1 Victory Banner and train a field army.
    [Show full text]
  • A Translator's Appraisal of Classical and Hellenistic Influences In
    Symposia Melitensia, 2021, Vol. 17, pp. 49-64 A Translator’s Appraisal of Classical and Hellenistic Influences in Flaubert’s Salammbô Paul Zahra [email protected] Abstract In the present autobiographical appraisal my aims are: to mention briefly the reasons why I translated Salammbô; to give the reader of this paper, by means of parallel extracts from the Maltese and English translated texts, a glimpse of the dazzling beauty of Flaubert’s epic prose descriptions; to make the student aware of what I, as a translator became aware of while translating Flaubert, showing how the latter succeeds in creating such an excellent masterpiece by means of intertextual classical references and other non-written materials (in particular the coins that were minted with the name of Gozo on them); and to demonstrate why the reader is set on a course to discover both the Classical and Hellenistic worlds together with antiquity’s command over Flaubert’s imagination. Biblical sources, which this paper will be slightly referring to, are another source abundantly used by Flaubert. Keywords: translation, epic, classical references, allegory, numismatics, Gozo My Salome is a mystic the sister of Salammbô a Saint Thérèse who worships the moon. – Oscar Wilde Introduction To my mind, there is no better way for anyone seeking to discover ancient Carthage through historical fiction other than to read Flaubert’s Salammbô. Unlike any other novel, set in ancient times, written before 1862 or ever since, Salammbô offers to the student of ancient history a unique opportunity to read historical fiction, authored by an exceptional novelist, who, above all, aimed not simply at telling the story of a particular episode of Rome’s greatest rival but actually at reconstructing Carthage from the remains of her own scattered ashes.
    [Show full text]
  • A Glimpse Into the Roman Finances of the Second Punic War Through
    Letter Geochemical Perspectives Letters the history of the western world. Carthage was a colony founded next to modern Tunis in the 8th century BC by Phoenician merchants. During the 3rd century BC its empire expanded westward into southern Spain and Sardinia, two major silver producers of the West Mediterranean. Meanwhile, Rome’s grip had tight- © 2016 European Association of Geochemistry ened over the central and southern Italian peninsula. The Punic Wars marked the beginning of Rome’s imperial expansion and ended the time of Carthage. A glimpse into the Roman finances The First Punic War (264 BC–241 BC), conducted by a network of alliances in Sicily, ended up with Rome prevailing over Carthage. A consequence of this of the Second Punic War conflict was the Mercenary War (240 BC–237 BC) between Carthage and its through silver isotopes unpaid mercenaries, which Rome helped to quell, again at great cost to Carthage. Hostilities between the two cities resumed in 219 BC when Hannibal seized the F. Albarède1,2*, J. Blichert-Toft1,2, M. Rivoal1, P. Telouk1 Spanish city of Saguntum, a Roman ally. At the outbreak of the Second Punic War, Hannibal crossed the Alps into the Po plain and inflicted devastating mili- tary defeats on the Roman legions in a quick sequence of major battles, the Trebia (December 218 BC), Lake Trasimene (June 217 BC), and Cannae (August 216 BC). As a measure of the extent of the disaster, it was claimed that more than 100,000 Abstract doi: 10.7185/geochemlet.1613 Roman soldiers and Italian allies lost their lives in these three battles, including The defeat of Hannibal’s armies at the culmination of the Second Punic War (218 BC–201 three consuls.
    [Show full text]
  • Have You Ever Wondered How It Was That Hannibal Led an Army Of
    Hamilcar had left his corps of mercenaries under the general Gisgo, commandant of the garrison at the Have you ever wondered how it was that Hannibal led an port of Lilybaeum. The mercenary army of mercenaries for two decades and never faced a force was composed of assorted serious rebellion or major desertion? His army was often soldiers of fortune, including Liby- ans, Iberians, Celts, Ligurians, hungry, always pushed hard by the Romans and usually Balearics, Greeks, and Roman and faced appalling conditions. Yet his soldiers of fortune Italian deserters, as well as smaller invariably remained loyal. Many historians credit this bands from all around the Mediterra- nean world. These hardened profes- phenomena to Hannibal's charismatic leadership and his sionals had defeated Rome's legions concern for the welfare of his men. But there was a darker time and again, and were returning side. Hannibal's army had been created and trained by his not as a defeated army, but as a victorious corps forced to withdraw father, Hamilcar Barca. And every mercenary in that army only because of a naval defeat. soon learned the tales of the Truceless War. The long shadow of Hamilcar's ruthless suppression of that rebellion Gisgo wisely dispatched the merce- naries back to Carthage in small lingered in the collective memory of Hannibal's army. groups, so that each mercenary band These hard bitten soldiers of fortune had learned and could be paid off and sent back to accepted this fact - you just don't cross a Barca. their homeland before the next arrived.
    [Show full text]
  • Burying a Sage: the Heroon of Thales in the Agora of Miletos Alexander Herda
    Burying a sage: the heroon of Thales in the agora of Miletos Alexander Herda To cite this version: Alexander Herda. Burying a sage: the heroon of Thales in the agora of Miletos: With remarks on some other excavated Heroa and on cults and graves of the mythical founders of the city. 2èmes Rencontres d’archéologie de l’IFEA : Le Mort dans la ville Pratiques, contextes et impacts des inhumations intra- muros en Anatolie, du début de l’Age du Bronze à l’époque romaine., Nov 2011, Istanbul, Turkey. pp.67-122. halshs-00808217 HAL Id: halshs-00808217 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00808217 Submitted on 5 Apr 2013 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. BURYING A SAGE: THE HEROON OF THALES IN THE AGORA OF MILETOS With remarks on some other excavated Heroa and on cults and graves of the mythical founders of the city* Alexander Herda Rotdornstr. 1, 12161 Berlin [email protected] for Josene Schmitz 19.3.1919 - 9.4.2003) Abstract This article adresses the heroon of Thales in the agora of Miletos, so far only literarily attested (§§ IV, VII).
    [Show full text]
  • Antikythera Mechanism and the Ancient World
    Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Archaeology Volume 2016, Article ID 8760513, 19 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/8760513 Research Article Antikythera Mechanism and the Ancient World A. N. Safronov1,2 1 A.M. Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, 3 Pyzhyovskiy Pereulok, Moscow 119017, Russia 2The Nuclear Safety Institute of the Russian Academy of Science, 52 Bolshaya Tulskaya Street, Moscow 115191, Russia Correspondence should be addressed to A. N. Safronov; safronov [email protected] Received 4 October 2015; Revised 15 December 2015; Accepted 16 December 2015 Academic Editor: I. Liritzis Copyright © 2016 A. N. Safronov. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. In this historical review, the opinions of Ancient Greece philosophers, astronomers, and poets such as Thales Milesian, Pythagoras, Plato, Eudoxus, Aristotle, Archimedes, Cicero, Diogenes Laertius, Iamblichus, Plutarch, Homer,andAratus about the planet position calculations and about the possibility of predictions of natural phenomena are analyzed. The planet positions were predicted before Eudoxus (probably before Philolaus) by a spindle of Ananke and after Eudoxus by Antikythera mechanism. Following Pythagoras and Plato, it is established that the regular seismoacoustic observations were performed. In the Ancient World in the Mediterranean area, there was an extensive network of acoustic stations (∼10 pcs), which were located in close proximity to the geologic faults. Also, itisshownthattheshipthatwascarryingAntikytheramechanism(A-Ship)wasbuiltin244BCinSyracusewithdirectparticipation of Archimedes and Archias from Corinthian. Later, the A-Ship was a part of the Roman Republic safety system.
    [Show full text]