Greek Science - Greece and Rome - New Surveys in the Classics No. 29

This survey of ancient Greek science sets the ancients scientific ideas and practices firmly in their social and historical context. The first chapter clarifies the nature of science in Greek society. The author then surveys all the major fields: physics, mathematics, astronomy, geography, biology and medicine. Quotations from the primary sources (in translation) are given as case studies or worked examples in each field. Examples range from Archimedes, Vitruvius, Seneca and Aesop on specific gravity, to a Hippocratic treatment for haemorrhoids. The sources shed fascinating light on Greek and Roman society, as well as Greek science. There is an extensive bibliography of primary sources in English translation and of modern scholarship upon them....