Topic: Scientists in history

[ancients]

Ancient Rome

Mercati was interested in natural history, mineralogy, palaeontology, medicine, and botany, and he produced a book on these subjects, the Metallotheca which was not published until 1717.

Amongst other things, Mercati collected prehistoric stone tools along with fossils and minerals.

What do you know, he thought there there were ancient people to, in 1593.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michele_Mercati
< restored the source link from the other thread >

[ancients]

Euclid of Alexandria

Euclid of Alexandria, was a Greek mathematician, often referred to as the "Father of Geometry." He was active in Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy I (323–283 BC). His Elements is one of the most influential works in the history of mathematics, serving as the main textbook for teaching mathematics (especially geometry) from the time of its publication until the late 19th or early 20th century.[1][2][3] In the Elements, Euclid deduced the principles of what is now called Euclidean geometry from a small set of axioms. Euclid also wrote works on perspective, conic sections, spherical geometry, number theory and rigor.

His version of geometry is the one you learned in high school. (Well at least were told about)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclid

[ancients]

Aristarchus of Samos

The first of the Greek philosphers and mathematicians to unravel the celestial plan and announce the discovery was Aristarchus of the isle of Samos. Others before him assumed that the Earth is a sphere and that it moves, but he was the first to formulate plainly the heliocentric theory, the scheme which has the Sun in the center. (310-230 B.C.)

You see, that is B.C.

This is what we are taught was figured out in the 1500's by Nicolaus Copernicus.

[ancients]

Ge Hong

Ge Hong (Chinese: 葛洪; pinyin: Gě Hóng; Wade-Giles: Ko Hung, 283–343), courtesy name Zhichuan (稚川), was a minor southern official during the Jìn Dynasty (263-420) of China, best known for his interest in Daoism, alchemy, and techniques of longevity. Yet religious and esoteric  writing represents only a portion of Ge's considerable literary output, which as a whole, spans a broad range of content and genres.

Although a prolific writer of many literary styles, most of Ge's early work, such as rhapsodies (fu), verse (shi), historical commentary, and biographies, are now lost. His surviving works consist of:

    * one volume of hagiographies, entitled Shenxian zhuan (Traditions of Divine Transcendents);
    * two volumes of essays and alchemical writing totaling seventy chapters, collectively entitled Baopuzi (抱朴子)   or "The Master Who Embraces Simplicity", Ge’s sobriquet.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ge_Hong#Early_official_career

[ancients]

Hero of Alexandria

Hero published a well recognized description of a steam-powered device called an aeolipile (hence sometimes called a "Hero engine"). Among his most famous inventions was a windwheel, constituting the earliest instance of wind harnessing on land.[3][4] He is said to have been a follower of the Atomists. Some of his ideas were derived from the works of Ctesibius.

Much of Hero's original writings and designs have been lost, but fortunately, some of his works were preserved in Arab manuscripts.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero_of_Alexandria

[phred]

 


      This is pure brilliance. 

      Some were in a positive environment, at least,
      for a while; others were in a hostile environment.

      ...... and I'll bet that they all were home-schooled.

[ancients]

The loss of Hero's writings is because The library of Alexandria was burned, maybe on purpose, maybe by mistake, by Caesar. Of course much more than that was lost, we have no idea how much. 

[phred]

 


    The Mysterious Fate

          of the Great Library of Alexandria


   

    What happened to the Royal Library of Alexandria?

    We can be certain it was there once, founded by
    Ptolomy II Soter, and we can be equally certain
    it is not there now.

    It formed part of the Museum which was located
    in the Bruchion or palace quarter of the city of
    Alexandria.

    This great ancient city, occupying a spit of land
    on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, had been
    founded by Alexander the Great in his flying visit
    to Egypt and became the capital of the last
    dynasty of Pharaohs descended from Alexander's
    general Ptolemy.

    The Great or more properly Royal Library formed
    a part of the Museum but whether or not it was
    a separate building is unclear.

   

    http://www.bede.org.uk/library.htm

[phred]

 


  continued ~


 

  Taken together we can conclude a number of things from these sources:

  . The earliest descriptions of the Alexandrine War, written by Caesar
    or his crony, deliberately cover up anything that reflects badly
    on the great man. Their silence about burning down the world's
    greatest library, even by accident, is not surprising.

  . The library as a separate building did not exist by the time
    of Strabo's visit in 20 BC.

  . The belief that Caesar had destroyed the library was widespread
    by the time his family no longer occupied the throne of the
    emperors in the late first century AD.

    Plutarch, Gellius and Seneca are all evidence for this.

 
    Although we cannot prove his guilt with first hand evidence,
    it seems justified to claim that the book stacks of the
    Royal Library were burnt down by Julius Caesar.

    Perhaps the reading rooms, which in any case were
    part of the Museum, survived but, as Seneca and
    all the other sources tell us, the books themselves
    perished.

 

  http://www.bede.org.uk/library.htm

[phred]

 


  continued ~ 


 

  That scholarship continued in Alexandria after this time
  cannot be doubted but I can find no explicit mention
  of the Royal Library after Caesar's ill-fated visit.

  Indeed as Athenaeus of Naucratis (died after 200 AD)
  mournfully wrote in the Deipnosophistai ~

       "And concerning the number of books
        and the establishment of libraries and
        the collection in the Museum, why need
        I even speak when they are all the
        memory of men."

 

 http://www.bede.org.uk/library.htm

[ancients]

phred

Your data shows how the history is not clear, and often contradicting. Maybe the facts are not less known, just the opposing stories never got destroyed as usual. 

[phred]

 


       And to add to your observations ~

       Sometimes, considering human wars and nature's
       climatic disasters, I think we are most fortunate
       to have any historic sources at all.   

       This source does quote the original manuscripts,
       which is worthy.  Of course, all of the original
       documents were translated into English.  So
       there is that matter of trust, also.

       I think the author is quite correct is writing:

       " We can be certain it was there once, founded
         by Ptolomy II Soter, and we can be equally
         certain it is not there now. "

                            < smile >


       ... and that's about it for certainty.


                 
 

[ancients]

Politics made things clear right from the beginning.     

[ancients]

This is very incomplete. Here goes.

Caesar's conquest in 48 BCE
The writer Plutarch died between the years AD 119 and 127
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutarch



Aurelian
Aurelian, was Roman Emperor from 270 to 275
The rich province Egypt was also recovered by Aurelian. The Brucheion (Royal Quarter) in Alexandria was burned to the ground. This section of the city once contained the Library of Alexandria, although it is not known if the Library still existed in Aurelian's time. (It had already been damaged by fire during the visit of Julius Caesar to Alexandria.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurelian



Theophilus of Alexandria, (died 412) was Patriarch of Alexandria, Egypt from 385 to 412. He is regarded as a saint by the Coptic Orthodox Church.

In 391, Theophilus (according to Rufinus and Sozomen) discovered a hidden pagan temple. He and his followers mockingly displayed the pagan artifacts to the public which offended the pagans enough to provoke an attack on the Christians. The Christian faction counter-attacked, forcing the pagans to retreat to the Serapeum (That at the time may have housed part of the Great Library of Alexandria). A letter was sent by the emperor that Theophilus should grant the offending pagans pardon, but destroy the temple; according to Socrates Scholasticus, a contemporary of his, the latter aspect (the destruction of the temple) was added as a result of heavy solicitation for it by Theophilus.


Muslim conquest of Egypt
At the commencement of the Muslim conquest of Egypt, Egypt was part of the Byzantine Empire with its capital in Constantinople. However, it had been occupied just a decade before by the Persian Empire under Khosrau II (616 to 629 AD). Emperor Heraclius re-captured Egypt after a series of brilliant campaigns against the Sassanid Persians, only to once again lose it to the Rashidun army ten years later. Before the Muslim invasion of Egypt began, the Byzantine Empire had already lost the Levant and its Arab ally, the Ghassanid Kingdom, to the Muslims. This all left the Byzantine Empire dangerously exposed and vulnerable to the invaders.[



In terms of religion, Egypt was also alienated from the rest of the Byzantine Empire. The Chalcedonian Christianity of the Byzantines held to the doctrine of Christ having two natures, one divine and one human. In Egypt however, the christological position of Miaphysitism (Oriental Orthodox Christianity) prevailed, maintaining the doctrine of Christ having one united nature, where the Divinity and Humanity were inseparably united.

After Muslim take over of  Alexandria, they would have to be blamed for something.


It looks like it was burned at the time of Caesar. But new buildings might have been put up as new Libraries,
most of the old writings would have been gone, but some replaced from copies in existence. It was a great place to blame people for though.

[ancients]

Designer of the Hun Bow

The people

The Huns may have stimulated the Great Migration, a contributing factor in the collapse of the Roman Empire.[5] They formed a unified empire under Attila the Hun, who died in 453; their empire broke up  the next year. Their descendants, or successors with similar names, are recorded by neighbouring populations to the south, east, and west as having occupied parts of Eastern Europe and Central Asia roughly from the 4th century to the 6th century. Variants of the Hun name are recorded in the Caucasus until the early 8th century.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huns

The main purpose of the bow was to be used from horseback. The Huns needed a larger bow that would not interfere with riding. The asymmetrical shape allows for this larger size, without causing problems for the rider. The re-curve feature of the Hun bow allows for a larger and stronger draw, without needing the size and stance of a longbow. This enabled the rider to rapidly shoot arrows from the horse.

http://www.infolagoon.com/sports-recreation/archery/types/hun-bow.php

The bow was both composite materials And re-curved. Things thought to be modern.
We do not know who the engineer was. I do give him my respect.