«——[·Preface·] ——»
Every great era is a brilliant civilization, and ancient Rome and Greece, as one of the oldest civilizations, what did they create science? And what impact did it have on later humans?
In science, especially in practical life, modern man has shown great superiority over the most enlightened nations of antiquity, and in this great field modern geniuses shine with the light of the sun.
It is this that is the most remarkable testimony to the progress of society, and it is this that makes the races of Europe more outstanding than the energies of Greece and Rome combined in all other sectors.
In the magnificent inventions of the past three hundred years, almost every science, especially in physics, has brought about a tremendous change in human life.
In the analysis of compounds, in explaining the phenomena of heaven, in the miracles of steam and electricity, in mechanical equipment that reduces human labor or destroys human life, in astronomical research, in the miracles created by the genius of invention, in our ships, in our factories, in our wonderful instruments.
These and other miracles proved his ingenuity and boldness, and if the ancient Greeks and Romans saw it, they would be amazed.
The achievements of modern science have forever settled the progress of society, but all our major discoveries and inventions about this apparent superiority are either accidental or the result of generations of experiments, and there are a great deal of certainty.
If the Greeks had given their mental energy mechanical power, just as they had given artistic creation, they might have made fantastic inventions.
The world is also not at the stage of development, when this particular intellectual direction will be favored, and something will be exhausted by the Greeks and Romans.
Some future era may channel its energies into channels unknown to us, just as clocks and steam engines did to the Greeks.
This is the era of mechanisms and science, which have swept everything in front of them and are likely to exert their maximum capacity and development.
From now all sorts have shown that in the field of artistic excellence, in literary creation, in the art of government and legislation, and even in philosophical speculation, the ancients were our principals, some of whom were the greatest geniuses.
However, they made noble attempts in some areas, and they showed considerable genius, even if they did not achieve great practical success.
«——[·Research of the ancients in astronomy.]——»
Astronomy is one of them, and in terms of mathematical genius, in terms of the reasoning ability of astronomy, people like Eratotines, Aristachus, Hippacus, and Ptolemy are great figures.
Humans may be proud, and, if they had been helped by our modern accidental inventions, their fame might hardly surpass that of Kepler and Newton.
Ionian philosophers rarely ventured into the realm of true philosophy, but they were pioneers of thought and giants of their native power.
The ancient astronomers hardly based science on the truth, but they showed great ingenuity and discovered some great truths that were not denied in later eras.
They used the same methods used by modern astronomers to determine the circumference of the Earth, and they determined the position of stars through straight sky and red angle.
They knew the inclination of the ecliptic and determined the position of the Sun's apogee as well as its average motion, their calculations of the eccentricity of the Moon proved that they also had a rectilinear trigonometric and chord table.
They have a general understanding of parallax, and they can calculate lunar eclipses and use them to correct their lunar surface.
They understood spherical trigonometry and determined the motion of the sun and moon, including an accurate definition of the year, and a way to predict solar eclipses.
They determined that the Earth is a sphere and reduced the phenomenon of celestial bodies to the uniform motion of circular orbits, we have determined the exact shape of the Earth through physical geography, but the ancients acquired knowledge through astronomical reasoning.
The motion of the Sun, Moon, and five planets is reduced to circular orbits, as Hipax did, implying deeply concentrated thought and scientific abstraction.
The theory of eccentricity and recycling, which completes the explanation of all known phenomena, and the decomposition of the surface motion of celestial bodies into sets of circular motions, is a triumph of genius, a great victory.
Author's opinion:
This is equivalent to the process by which modern astronomers deal with the recents and improvements of this movement, but few names among the ancients were engraved on the roster of great astronomers, because the triumph of science itself was limited.
However, before the time of Aristachus, most speculation was rude and useless, and there is nothing more naïve than the ancients' view of the nature and movement of celestial bodies.
«——[Astronomy was born in Chaldea.] ——»
Astronomy may have been born in Chaldea as early as the time of Abraham, and the splendor of the sky, etched in the minds of those rude primitive races, is something we do not feel in all the triumphs of modern science.
The Chaldean shepherds observed their flocks at night, while they also noticed the movements of the planets and named brighter constellations.
Before religious rituals were established, before great superstitions appeared, before poetry was sung, before musical instruments were invented, those shepherds were anxious about the location of certain constellations.
Thus, astronomy is the oldest science of antiquity, although it has been imperfect for more than four thousand years.
The ancient Assyrians, Egyptians, and Greeks made few discoveries that modern astronomers valued, but they laid the foundation for science and have always regarded it as one of the noblest disciplines capable of stimulating human abilities.
«——[Discoveries created by the countries of the East.]——»
The vast horizons of Chaldea and the clear horizon provide exceptional observation facilities.
Its idyllic and contemplative inhabitants, untainted by the vices and superstitions of later times, were active and fresh in thought, brought back in the same order after a long cycle of eclipse observation – some say continued the 19th century – 223 months.
Once their cycles are established, they lay the foundation for the most noble of all sciences.
From Babylon to Aristotle, Calistine passed on all the observations of solar eclipses prior to Alexander's conquest, as well as clear knowledge about the movement of celestial bodies collected by the Chaldeans.
It's rude and simple, except for a spherical rotation on an inclined axis, and the poles always point to a specific star.
The Egyptians also recorded their observations, and it appears that they observed solar vision at least 1,600 years earlier.
The Egyptians, through the rise of Sirius, discovered that the year had three hundred and sixty-five days and a quarter of a day, which was their holy year, and three hundred and sixty-five days for the commoners.
They also observed the orbits of the planets, which could explain the phenomenon of space stations and degradation, and even asserted that they thought Mercury and Venus were moons of the sun.
Some believe that the obelisk they built was for the purpose of determining agate, to determine the inclination of the ecliptic, the height of the poles, and the length of the tropical year.
It is believed that even pyramids, through their position towards cardinal points on either side, proves their familiarity with a meridian.
China noted and recorded a series of solar eclipses, extended by 3,858 years, probably two thousand years earlier than Greece.
They determined that the inclination of the ecliptic 1000 years ago was 23 degrees 54'3-15", and the Indians, in a distant ancient world, depicted celestial phenomena with considerable precision and built tables used to determine the longitude of the sun and moon.
Bailey argues that astronomy was cultivated in Siam 312 years before Christ, which is hardly as accurate as modern science is based on the theory of gravity.
The Greeks divided the sky into constellations 14 centuries before the birth of Christ.
Thales, born in 640 BC, taught the circularity of the earth, the moon emitting reflected light, and he also predicted solar eclipses.
«——[Early Greek investigators.] ——»
But, after all, the Greeks were the only ones in ancient times who elevated astronomy to the dignity of science.
They admitted, however, that their earliest knowledge came from the priests of Babylon and Egypt, who claimed that they were the initiators of accurate astronomical observations.
Theodorus asserts that the Chaldeans used the temple of Belus, located in the center of Babylon, to survey the sky.
But neither the Babylonians nor the Egyptians were the first astronomers, and it made little sense, although these scholars made it a serious investigative question.
What we do know is that astronomy was cultivated by the Babylonians and Egyptians, and their achievements were very limited.
Early Greek philosophers went to Egypt and the East in search of knowledge, but found little to reciprocate their curiosity and diligence.
In addition to absurd ancient and esoteric wisdom that has not yet been revealed, they come close to the truth about solar years by observing equal equinoxes and solar years, as well as the coronal rise of specific stars.
Plato and Eudoxus spent thirteen years in Heliopolis to acquire the priest's scientific knowledge, but they learned nothing except more than three hundred and sixty-five days in the solar year.
Neither the priests of Babylon nor Egypt had great names, and no one gained personal fame.
The Chaldeans and Egyptian priests may have provided the Greeks with the raw material for observation, but only the latter possessed the scientific genius to transform the fact of poverty into a symmetrical system.
And some people from the ancient East, they linked astronomy and stellar divination, so that their history dates back 270,000 years.
In Daniel's day, there were soothsayers, magicians, exorcists, and translators of symbols.
Eastern astrology is based on the principle that a star or constellation presides over a person's birth, either foreshadowing his destiny or having a good or bad impact on his future life.
The star that looks at the child at birth is called a constellation, and the particular influence of each planet is determined by the professors of genetic art.
After that, Egyptian and Chaldean "superstitions" spread among the Greeks and Romans, and this is all the Western countries learned from those vaunted priests of occult science.
«——[Studies of the Greeks.] ——»
However, their research was very unsatisfactory until Hipaks' time.
Before Thales, primitive knowledge was almost non-existent, and Homeric poetry saw the earth as a circular plain, surrounded by heaven, a solid vault or hemisphere whose recesses were downward.
This absurd view was not believed until the time of Herodotus five centuries later, and it did not fully explode in the time of Aristotle.
The Sun, Moon, and stars are thought to move on the inner surface of the celestial hemisphere, while the oceans are thought to wrap the Earth into a large band where celestial bodies sink in their positions.
The Greeks even transformed the sun into a divine coachman, driving his fire horse across the steep heavens until he bathed them at night in the waves of the west.
Apollo became the god of the sun, just as Diana was the goddess of the moon.
But the early Greek inquirers, who did not attempt to explain how the sun returned from the west to the east, only noted the changes in the day, the alternation of day and night, the number of seasons and their regular order.
They find the main points of the compass by determining the aliquot and the recurrence of the sun, but they do not know the ecliptic—the great circle in the sky formed by the Sun's year, and its oblique angle compared to the equator.
Like the Egyptians and Babylonians, they determined the length of a year to be three hundred and sixty-five days, however, due to the lack of scientific instruments and the record of observations of celestial bodies, perfect accuracy was lacking.
The Greeks did not even have a common chronological era to specify the year, so Herodotus tells us that the Trojan War predates his time by 800 years.
He simply stated the time interval between the events and his own time, and he had some data on distant periods.
The author's opinion
Ancient Greece was a splendid country, with outstanding achievements in science and technology, and formed many more complete systems and doctrines.
Ancient Greek and Roman culture penetrated into all aspects of Western society and provided a steady stream of impetus for the progress of Western civilization.
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