DOCSLIB.ORG

Gifts from the Greeks

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Gifts from the Greeks Gifts from the Greeks 1. Philosophy: The ancient Greeks were the first to try to explain the world around them without resorting to things like magic myth or religion. Philosophy starts with the great Greek thinkers such as Aristotle, and it is something that shapes our world to this day. 2. Astronomy: Some of the most important discoveries of Ancient Greece in the field of astrology can be summarized in: the naming of the different planets, planet deriving from Greek word that means wonderer; the idea that the Earth rotates around its axis; the idea that the Earth is part of a heliocentric system, which means that the Earth, along with all the other planets revolve around a static Sun; the first 3D model of the movement of the planets; the categorization of the stars, organizing them into constellations; and a highly accurate assumption about the circumference of the Earth based on the angle of shadows in different parts of the World. 3. Mathematics: Geometry and its rules were invented by Euclid. Euclidian geometry is the first we come in contact as we go to school. Almost all the basic knowledge that we have about mathematics is a result of the discoveries of Ancient Greece. 4. Botany: Aristotle was one of the first botanists in the world. He collected information about most of the plants that were known in the world at that time. One of his students, Theophrastus, who is also considered one of the inventors of this new field, categorized, and named all these plants. 5. Biology: This vast topic was studied by some of the greatest minds of Ancient Greece, including Aristotle, Hypocrites or Dioscorides. One main topic of debate was natural selection. 6. Zoology: Zoology is the study of animals, involves studying the different species of animals, the environment in which they live, and their organs. Aristotle was very persistent with his studies of the zoological sciences and made many contributions to how we study zoology today. He made observations on the anatomy of octopi, cuttlefish, crustaceans, and many other marine invertebrates that were remarkably accurate. These discoveries on anatomy could only have been made by dissecting the animals. Through dissection, Greek zoologists studied the structures and functions of anatomies of various animals. Some structures that were studied were bones and membranes. The legacy of the discoveries of Ancient Greece can be seen everywhere around us. Our modern society and our modern way of living couldn’t be possible without the great developments, in culture, politics, science and technology, made by the ancient Greeks. Democracy was also a Greek invention, and what it has flourished into in our times is a product of ancient Greek culture. Most of the greatest questions posed by some of the first philosophers of the world, like Aristotle, are still without answer today. Many western civilizations are a product of the way of life, the culture, and the ideas of Ancient Greece. The discoveries of Ancient Greece should be regarded as some of the most important achievements in human history. http://www.mysticmadness.com/discoveries-of-ancient-greece.html There were many ways to bring water into the city for people to use. Many great thinkers such as Archimedes, Hero, and Eupalinus discovered extraordinary ways to draw water more economically to the cities of Greece. Of all the many different inventions, there were three major inventions that made important contributions to the water supply of Greece. The three inventions are: Archimedes’ screw - Archimedes, one of the greatest thinkers of ancient Greece, developed this invention. It was used to lift water from a lower elevation to a higher elevation by means of a tube that is internally threaded. The threads on the inside collect water and as the tube rotates, the water is brought up and put into a storage tank. This massive device was run by human power. The person running the screw, usually a slave, held onto a rail at the top and used his own muscle power to propel the water upward. Aqueducts and bridging - The Greeks also used techniques such as aqueducts and bridging valleys. They used these devices because the Greeks thought that the water could only be moved if it was moving downward or on a straight path. So in order to keep the water flowing, they built aqueducts through mountains and built bridges over valleys. In the sixth century a Greek engineer by the name of Eupalinus of Megara built the aqueduct of Samos. Siphon Principle - Hero, a Greek who lived after 150 B.C. was the first hydraulic engineer. He modernized the obtaining of water through a method known as the siphon principle. The siphon principle allows the pipes that carry the water to follow the terrain of the land, and then the aqueduct and bridging techniques were no longer used as often. http://www.crystalinks.com/greekscience.html Aristotle – established the science of botany. Botany is the study of plant life. Thales of Miletus is regarded by many as the father of science, discovered the solstice and equinox. Theophrastus - classified and named plants. Theophrastus is often called the father of botany. Eratosthenes, a scientist of ancient Greece, made the first accurate measurement of the Earth's diameter. Hippodamus of Miletus – invented the system of planning public works. Public works were one of the greatest influences in Ancient Greece, helped boost the economy, and led to a more sanitary life style. Hippocrates - "the father of medicine," discovered there were scientific reasons for ailments. Pythagoras - A leading figure among the early Greek mathematicians is Pythagoras. The followers of Pythagoras are also able to prove that whatever the shape of a triangle, its three angles always add up to the sum of two right angles (180 degrees). Aristarchus - believes that the earth is in orbit round the sun (quite contrary to what is plain for anyone to see). Hipparchus - He lists about 850 stars, placing each in terms of its celestial latitude and longitude and recording its relative brightness on a scale of six, equinox (when day and night are of equal length). Ptolemy – was one of the greatest astronomers and geographers of ancient times. He was also known as Claudius Ptolemaeu. His system of astronomy was accepted until 1543. In this system, he placed the Earth at the center of the universe, and the stars on a rotating sphere. Between the Earth and stars, he placed the sun and planets which moved around a point close to the Earth. Some Websites to check out ~ http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Ssolsys.htm - Discovery of the Solar System http://airandspace.si.edu/etp/discovery/disc_ancient.html - Solar System, “Ancient Times” http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Inventions.htm - Ancient Greek Inventions http://greece.mrdonn.org/achievements.html - Achievements Gifts from the Greeks http://kids.librarypoint.org/node/2280/ - Early Astronomers http://www.worldbookonline.com/wb/Login?ed=wb&subacct=N8721 -- World Book Web http://online.infobaselearning.com/direct.aspx?pid=WE00&aid=103999 – Facts on File Science and Human Body http://auth.grolier.com/login/go_login_page.html?bffs=N -- Grolier Online Encyclopedias Some of Grolier's suggestions for good Greece sites: http://www.ancient-greece.org/ http://greece.mrdonn.org/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/ancient_greeks/ http://www.ancientgreece.co.uk/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/ancient_greeks/ http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/civil/greece/gr0000e.shtml http://www.artic.edu/cleo/index.html http://www.digonsite.com/drdig/greece/index.html http://www.livius.org/greece.html http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/greek/index.html http://www.mythweb.com/index.html http://www.fhw.gr/chronos/en/ http://www.mrdowling.com/701greece.html http://odysseus.culture.gr/index_en.html http://www.penn.museum/sites/Greek_World/index.html http://www.eduplace.com/kids/socsci/ca/books/bkf3/imaps/AC_12_389_citystates/AC_12_ 389_citystates.html http://www.pbs.org/empires/thegreeks/siteindex/f2_html.html http://www.penn.museum/sites/olympics/olympicintro.shtml .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Hippodamus of Miletus and the Character of the Athenian Dikastic Oath (Arist
    Hippodamus of Miletus and the Character of the Athenian Dikastic Oath (Arist. Pol. 2.8) Anders Dahl Sørensen 1. The debate over the Athenian dikastic oath Each year, those 6000 citizens of classical Athens who had been selected by lot to serve as citizen-judges (‘dikasts’) in the popular law courts swore an oath on the hill of Ardettos outside the city-walls, solemnly stating their commitment to a set of fun- damental principles that should guide their judicial decisions.1 The importance of this ‘dikastic oath’ for understanding the character of the Athenian legal system is not difficult to see. Given the crucial role of oaths in regulating human conduct in ancient societies, what the dikastic oath required the dikasts to do is likely to have shaped, not only the self-understanding, but also the judicial practice of the Athenian law courts. It is there- fore all the more unfortunate that the oath is not found in its entirety in any surviving ancient source.2 Max Fränkel’s classic reconstruction is elegant and has been widely accepted by scholars, but it is at bottom an intricate pastiche made up of bits and pieces drawn from a large number of citations of, and allusions to, the oath in Athenian law court speeches and in later 1 M. H. Hansen, Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes (Oxford/ Cam- bridge [Mass.] 1991) 181–183. 2 Scholars agree that the version cited in Dem. 24.149–151 is not authentic but probably an interpolated reconstruction by a later editor. See S. Johnstone, Disputes and Democracy.
    [Show full text]
  • Individuals Who Influenced Planning Before 1978 APA Identified 25 Individuals Who Significantly Influenced the Practice of Planning Before APA Was Established
    Individuals Who Influenced Planning Before 1978 APA identified 25 individuals who significantly influenced the practice of planning before APA was established. AICP already has designated more than half of them as National Planning Pioneers Hippodamus 5th century B.C. Hippodamus of Miletus was a Greek architect who introduced order and regularity into the planning of cities, which were intricate and confusing. For Pericles, he planned the arrangement of the harbor-town Peiraeus at Athens. When the Athenians founded Thurii in Italy, he accompanied the colony as architect. Later, in 408 B.C., he superintended the building of the new city of Rhodes. His schemes consisted of series of broad, straight streets, intersecting one another at right angles. Benjamin Banneker 1731-1806 Benjamin Banneker, one of the nation's best-known African American inventors, was born in Maryland, which was then a British colony. He was the grandson of a white indentured servant from England and a former slave. Always interested in mathematics and science, in 1753, Banneker was inspired to build his own clock out of wood based on his own designs and calculations. The clock kept accurate time until Banneker's house burned with all its contents in 1806. Banneker taught himself astronomy and advanced math from books and instruments borrowed from his neighbors, the Ellicotts, who shared his interest. He made astronomical and tide calculations and weather predictions for yearly almanacs, which he published from 1792 to 1797. Banneker's almanacs were compared favorably with Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard 's Almanac. He sent a copy of the manuscript for his almanac to Thomas Jefferson, along with a letter in which he challenged Jefferson's ideas about the inferiority of blacks.
    [Show full text]
  • Greek City Planning in Theory and Practice
    CHAPTER ONE Greek City Planning in Theory and Practice E'VQEV évao'réaag 55y; Nowat'Qoog Geoeuhég, shrew 3:1; ZXEft'p e'xa‘u; a’wé‘ycfiv h@mm’zwv, ciqui 3; 727950; g?tacra'z «6A2; mi 35‘ezluaro 07x02); mi W703»; mince 625V mi €3a'wcm7" éfofifag. From here godlike Nausithoés had removed [the Phaiakians] and led a migration, and settled in Scheria, far away from men who eat bread, and driven a wall about the city, and built the houses, and made the temples of the gods, and allotted the holdings. (Homer, Odyssey 6.7—10, trans. Lattimore) In this earliest reference to Greek colonization, the basic elements of founding a new polis are already in place: the uninhabited land, the construction of fortifications and the temples of the gods, the division and allotment of agri— cultural land, and the building ofhouses, presumably on lots assigned to the c010— nists like the farmland. In its essence, the process remained basically the same for a thousand years. The goal of this chapter is not to provide a history of Greek city planning.1 Rather, it will consider a few literary accounts and historical cities which develop issues concerning the relations between polis and household, issues which relate to the understanding of the archaeological remains at Olynthus. These issues in- clude the composite nature of the citizen body in new cities and the consequent need to unify a diverse population, the correspondence between physical organi— zation and social structure, and the importance of the distribution of land as a mechanism for achieving unity and order.
    [Show full text]
  • Notes on the Orientation of the Town-Planning of Nicopolis, the Capital of Old Epirus
    Notes on the orientation of the town-planning of Nicopolis, the capital of Old Epirus Amelia Carolina Sparavigna Dipartimento di Scienza Applicata e Tecnologia, Politecnico di Torino Here we will consider the town-planning of Nicopolis, that is the City of the Victory, founded by Augustus and capital of the Old Epirus. We will consider in particular the orientation of its main street, the decumanus. The varatio, that is the geometry based on right triangles used to determine the orientation of the town-planning, has a ratio of 1:3. No astronomical orientation seems to be evident for the town. It exists just a faint link to the beginning of the spring at Roman time, that is to the sunrise on 7 February. Torino 25 March 2020. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3727059 Nicopolis, the City of the Victory, also known as Actia Nicopolis, was the capital of the Roman province of Epirus Vetus. The city was founded by Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, to commemorate his victory at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC over Antony and Cleopatra. The town is located on the promontory of Epirus, close the harbour of the ancient town of Actium. This foundation of a town for the commemoration of a victory echoed a tradition dating back to Alexander the Great. Detailed information about Nicopolis are available in [1]. Here in the following, two passages from Suetonius and Cassio Dio on the foundation of the town. Suetonius: "He reduced Egypt to the form of a province, and then to make it more fruitful and better adapted to supply the city with grain, he set his soldiers at work cleaning out all the canals into which the Nile overflows, which in the course of many years had become choked with mud.
    [Show full text]
  • Italicized Numbers Refer to the Pages with Related Illustrations. Plates Are Only Referred to in the Text
    Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-47071-1 — Roman Architecture and Urbanism Fikret Yegül , Diane Favro Index More Information INDEX - Italicized numbers refer to the pages with related illustrations. Plates are only referred to in the text. Achaea, 556 Alexandria, 376, 488, 490, 492, 690, 752 Anthony, Mark (Marcus Antonius), Actium, 557, 572 Kaisereion (Sebasteion), 191 192, 575 Adada, 603, 667 Pharos, 172, 174 Antioch-in-Pisidia agora with monumental steps, 667 tombs colonnaded street, 640 bouleterion, 667 Mustafa Pasha Complex, 490, nymphaeum plaza, 670, 672 temples, 637, 645 490 Sanctuary and temple of (Deified) theater, 667 Shatby Hypogeum A, 490 Augustus, 640 Adamklissi, Romania Alexandria Troas propylon, 640, 670 Trophy of Trajan (Tropaeum bath-gymnasium, 610 Southwest Gate, 670, 672 Traiano), 429, 435 Alinda, Caria Temple of Augustus-Men, 647, 648 aedicular architecture (Asiatic market hall (multi-storied stoa), 667 Antioch-on-the-Orontes, 159, 213, facades), 479, 558, 561, residences, 703 712–713 571, 673, 691, 754 Alonnes (Le Mans) baths, 725, 729 Aezane, Phyrgia baths, 474 Bath C, 725 Bath-Gymnasium, 687 Amman (Philadelphia) Bath E, 726 market, 666 colonnaded street, 715 colonnaded street, 728 Temple of Zeus/Cybele, 634, 640, nympheum, 769 Antiphelos (Kaş), Lycia 641, 705 theater, 721 theater, 681 theater-stadium, 682 Anarchic Period, 812 Antonine Wall, Scotland, 483–484 agrimensores (surveyors), 13, 34, 115, 616 Anazarvus, Cilicia Antoninus Pius, 399, 482, 581, 587, 644 Agrippa, Marcus, 120, 149, 161, 170, 175, amphitheater,
    [Show full text]
  • Knowledge and Preservation of Ancient Rhodes. from a Typological Analysis of Urban Fabric to a Practical Project for Urban Heritage Emma Maglio
    Knowledge and preservation of ancient Rhodes. From a typological analysis of urban fabric to a practical project for urban heritage Emma Maglio To cite this version: Emma Maglio. Knowledge and preservation of ancient Rhodes. From a typological analysis of urban fabric to a practical project for urban heritage. 16th SOMA - Identity and Connectivity. Proceedings of the 16th Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology, Florence, Italy, 1–3 March 2012, Mar 2012, Florence, Italy. pp.1233-1240. halshs-00979283 HAL Id: halshs-00979283 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00979283 Submitted on 15 Apr 2014 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. Knowledge and preservation of ancient Rhodes. From a typological analysis of urban fabric to a practical project for urban heritage Arch. Emma Maglio Introduction The town of Rhodes, as its whole island, shares with the Aegean lands a Mediterranean koinè, the result of the passage of some of the ancient world’s greatest civilizations like Greeks, Romans and Byzantines, but it retains its own cultural identity strictly related to its territorial and urban morphology. Archaeologists confirm that the island has been inhabited since the New Minoan age (1700-1400 BC) and that the area south of the present Rhodes has been inhabited since the Mycenaean period (1600-1200 BC), according to various obsidian and flint fragments found west of the town (sites of Ialyssos, Trianda and Asomatos) and south of it (near Koskinou).
    [Show full text]
  • Urban Spaces and Central Places
    Originalveröffentlichung in: Susan E. Alcock, Robin Osborne (Hg.), Classical Archaeology (Blackwell Studies in Global Archaeology 10), Malden; Oxford; Carlton (Victoria) 2007, S. 164-181 5(a) Urban Spaces and Central Places The Greek World Tonio Holscher Urban Spaces: Conditions and Mirrors of Social Life In the fifth century B.C., public life within the city of Athens became so concen­ trated and intense that the Athenians were forced to change the fundamental structure and organization of their urban spaces (Holscher 1991; 2005). Popula­ tion estimations are controversial, but the assumption for Attica of around 200,000 inhabitants (including 30,000 male citizens), one-third of them living in Athens itself, should be approximately right. Forty times a year, that is every nine days on average, the people’s assembly was called together, with a quorum of 6,000 participants. The day before (normally) the council of the Boule with its 500 members from all parts of Attica came together in the Bouleuterion in the agora. All this must have caused many hundreds of male citizens to set out for the capital from the countryside in order to join their urban fellow-citizens early in the morning, all of them suspending their normal activities and gathering in the common assembly space. In the Tholos, a round building next to the Bouleu­ terion, 50 prytaneis, the executive committee of the council, were permanently on duty. In addition, there was the old council of the Areopagus with its approxi­ mately 150 members, although this group, with its powers restricted to trying homicide cases and some religious offenses, rarely met.
    [Show full text]
  • Utopias Bryanston 260718
    Ancient Utopias: imaginary cities in Greek political thought Dr Carol Atack Imaginary Cities 01/08/2018 Imaginary Cities 2 The idea of the politeia • The soul (psyche) of the polis is nothing other than its politeia, since it has as much power (dunamis) over it as the rational mind (phronesis) does over the body. • ἔστι γὰρ ψυχὴ πόλεως οὐδὲν ἔτερον ἢ πολιτεία, τοσαύτην ἔχουσα δύναμιν ὅσην περ ἐν σώματι φρόνησις. Isocrates, Areopagiticus 14 • It is evident that the city belongs to the class of things that exist by nature, and that man is by nature a political animal. • ἐκ τούτων οὖν φανερὸν ὅτι τῶν φύσει ἡ πόλις ἐστί, καὶ ὅτι ὁ ἄνθρωπος φύσει πολιτικὸν ζῷον Aristotle Politics 1.2.1253a1-3 01/08/2018 Imaginary Cities 3 Imaginary cities in the ancient Greek world • Dramatic cities – Cloud-Cuckoo Land, Aristophanes Birds – Thebes, Sophocles Antigone, Euripides Suppliant Women – Argos, Aeschylus, Suppliant Women • Philosophical cities – Kallipolis, Plato Republic – Magnesia, Plato Laws – Atlantis, Plato Timaeus/Critias • Practical cities – Unnamed proposed city, Hippodamus of Miletus – Aristotle, Politics books 7 and 8 • Re-imagined cities and places: – Ecbatana (under Deioces), Herodotus Histories – Sparta (under Lycurgus), Xenophon Constitution of the Spartans – Persia (under Cambyses and Cyrus), Xenophon Cyropaedia – Egypt (under Busiris), Isocrates Busiris Attic black-figure chous, c. 500-490 BCE, British Museum, London 01/08/2018 Imaginary Cities 4 Locations 01/08/2018 Imaginary Cities 5 Imaginary cities in the Iliad’s Shield of Achilles First of all he forged a shield that was huge and heavy… He made the earth upon it, and the sky, and the sea’s water, and the tireless sun, and the moon waxing into her fullness… On it he wrought in all their beauty two cities of mortal men.
    [Show full text]
  • This Lecture Provides an Introduction Into the Topic by Highlighting the Role of Navigable Water for Interconnected Port and City Development Around the World
    Lecture Abstract: This lecture provides an introduction into the topic by highlighting the role of navigable water for interconnected port and city development around the world. It addresses maritime networks, flows and connectivity between places and looks at power relationships. Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pharos_Alexandria_(Fischer_von_Erlach).jp g Public domain 1 Lecture Abstract: Commodity flows have connected far away regions across continents, with port cities serving as hubs and military stations. As trading goods changed over time, so did port city hubs and the networks they served. States, nations and empires used port cities to establish their maritime reach. There, sea- and land-based economic and power relationships played out and shaped port city architecture and its urban planning. Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pharos_Alexandria_(Fischer_von_Erlach).jp g Public domain 2 Lecture Abstract: The second lecture sheds light on ancient port cities in Mesopotamia and Egypt, along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and in East Asia. These cities prospered due to their role as trading hub for goods. 3 Hosting such trade hubs also meant important military and defense investments. Other networks of shipping existed in South East Asia, creating their own architectural patterns. 4 The Phoenicians (1st Millennia BC) were the first civilization to colonize across the Mediterranean, spreading amongst other things trade, shipbuilding, geography, navigation, the use of books and the very first alphabet. They built fortified port-cities many of which had artificial harbors carved out of land, or made of wood. Significant buildings included temples, warehouses and fortifications few of which remain.
    [Show full text]
  • The Architecture of the Hera I Temple of Paestum: an Archaeological Comparative Study
    The architecture of the Hera I temple of Paestum An archaeological comparative study Jolan van der Stelt Cover photo: Hera I temple at Paestum (Norbert Nagel/Wikimedia Commons, License: CC BY-SA 3.0) The architecture of the Hera I temple of Paestum An archaeological comparative study Jolan van der Stelt, S1237047 Bachelor thesis Classical Archaeology Supervisor: Dr. M. E. J. J. van Aerde Leiden University, Faculty of Archaeology Leiden, 15 December 2017, Final version 2 Table of content 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 4 1.1 Research question .......................................................................................................................... 4 1.2 Greek colonisation and Magna Graecia ........................................................................................ 4 1.3 A historical overview of Poseidonia/Paestum ............................................................................... 7 1.4 The excavations of the Paestum area ............................................................................................. 8 1.5 Surroundings and site context ....................................................................................................... 8 1.6 The temples of Paestum .............................................................................................................. 10 2. The first Hera temple at Paestum .................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • 9780521792974 Index.Pdf
    Cambridge University Press 0521792975 - Surveying Instruments of Greece and Rome M. J. T. Lewis Index More information INDEX Note: page references to figures are in italic. Abdaraxos Ammonius , , Acrocorinth , , , amphitheatres Adrastus , , , , Anaximander Aegina , , Andrias Aflimun (Philo) , , , Anna Comnena , , , Africanus, Julius , –, –, , , Anonymus Byzantinus –, –, – –, , – Agatharchides , Antikythera mechanism , , , Agesistratus Antioch in Pisidia aqueduct agrimensor , , , , Antioch on Orontes aqueduct , akaina Apollodorus of Athens , , –, Alatri aqueduct , , , Albano, lake emissary , , , , Apollodorus of Damascus , , Apollonius of Perge , , Alexander of Aphrodisias , , , Apollonius, engineer Apuleius Alexandreion aqueduct aqueducts , , , , Alexandria , , arcades on , astronomy at , , bridges on , , –, , latitude of , , , , , builders of , , mechanics at , , , cascades on , Museum of , , discharge of science at , , gradients on , –, –, , surveying at , , , – passim, –, algebra , , –, , inverted siphons on , , , , alidade , , , , –, , alignment by dead reckoning –, pipelines on –, , , , , – by extrapolation , reverse gradients on , , , by geometrical construction –, , , –, – surveying of , –, , , by interpolation , , –, –, – passim by successive approximation –, surveying errors on –, –, – alpharion , and see under name of city served Alps , , , Aquileia sundial © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 0521792975 - Surveying Instruments of Greece and
    [Show full text]
  • The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Warfare
    THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF GREEK AND ROMAN WARFARE Warfare was the single biggest preoccupation of historians in antiquity. In recent decades fresh textual interpretations, numerous new archaeological discoveries and a much broader analytical focus emphasizing social, economic, political and cul- tural approaches have transformed our understanding of ancient warfare. Volume i of this two-volume History reflects these developments and provides a systematic account, written by a distinguished cast of contributors, of the various themes underlying the warfare of the Greek world from the archaic to the Hellenistic period and of early and middle Republican Rome. For each broad period devel- opments in troop-types, equipment, strategy and tactics are discussed. These are placed in the broader context of developments in international relations and the relationship of warfare to both the state and wider society. Numerous illustrations, a glossary and chronology, and information about the ancient authors mentioned supplement the text. This will become the primary reference work for specialists and non-specialists alike. philip sabin is Professor of Strategic Studies in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. His main academic interest concerns the analytical modelling of conflict, and he is the author of Lost Battles: Reconstructing the Great Clashes of the Ancient World (2007) and coeditor (with Tim Cornell and Boris Rankov) of The Second Punic War: A Reappraisal (1996). He teaches and writes about the strategy and tactics of warfare from ancient times to the twenty-first century. hans van wees is Professor of Ancient History at University College London. He is the author of Status Warriors: War, Violence and Society in Homer and History (1992) and Greek Warfare: Myths and Realities (2004) and editor of War and Violence in Ancient Greece (2000).
    [Show full text]