Posted on 08/09/2006 6:58:13 AM PDT by steve-b
True or false?
Eight hundred years ago, a monk did his best to erase a copy of some of Archimedes' most important work, putting some prayers on the parchment instead, and the words of the great Greek mathematician were then gone forever.
False.
At Stanford University in California, some scientists are using X-ray technology to make the older ink shine through the later scribbling, thereby recovering a remarkable piece of history and doing something else to boot. They are giving us an illustration among many of how a civilization made great in part by the Greeks of antiquity remains great to this day, and is worthy not only of preservation, but of an appreciative shout — "Eureka!"
"Eureka" — meaning, "I have found it" — is what Archimedes (287 BC-212 BC) supposedly yelped as he ran naked through the streets of Syracuse. The discovery of the moment, made as he lowered his body into a tub for a bath, was that the water displaced was proportionate to the substance put into it, a principle of unending practical and theoretical value.
Known as the founder of integral calculus and mathematical physics, Archimedes is considered one of the two or three greatest mathematicians ever. We are told he discovered pi and a new way to find square roots.
He developed a numerical system to facilitate calculations in large numbers. He was the inventor of the water screw to raise water and helped win battles through his invention of such weapons as a catapult that could fling 500-pound rocks at the enemy. With levers and pulleys of his contrivance, he could yank ships out of water, and he reputedly once said he could move the Earth if given a place to stand.
The Greek contribution to the best of Western civilization is very nearly incalculable, not just in math and the sciences, as exemplified in the work of Archimedes, but in moral philosophy and political thought, in ideas of how we should go about living our lives rationally.
We've all studied the other major influences — the ancient Hebrews, the Romans, parts of the high Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, modernity.
From all of this and more, we have evolved free, open societies governed by the rule of law, widespread health and longevity unimaginable in previous epochs, systems of education available to everyone, opportunities of every possible kind and a technology very nearly miraculous in its reach.
Other civilizations have obviously had their day in the sun, including that of Middle East Muslims, whose accomplishments were once writ large.
But as the scholar Bernard Lewis has written, something went wrong, something brought this civilization to a standstill, made it into something dark and dreary compared to the sunshine in the West.
From this fact has come fierce resentment and young men looking for a meaning they cannot find in dry-bones, autocratic, impoverished lands.
From this has come the suicidal terrorism of the true, fascistic believer.
Meanwhile, our civilization, while veering down many wrong paths, has veered up many right paths, as is shown in one small way by the use of a hair-sized X-ray beam that may help to disclose Archimedes' thoughts on flotation, gravity and other issues. There's a lesson here about something that comes to us from distances both long and short in time and space and that we may take for granted, but is presently under serious challenge.
What we must do is move this challenge to inconsequentiality. To do that, we must stand on deep respect for the best in our heritage and a determination to preserve it and fight for it as necessary.
I enjoy reading and studying ancient Greek and Roman History. The more that I learn about the Greeks and Romans, the more I understand how much our culture inherited from them. True, Christianity came from the Hebrews, but Christianity grew and was nurtured by the Greco-Roman culture. Emperior Constantine converted to Christianity and Christianity became the official religion of the Empire creating Christendom.
The foundation of our culture, its legal, social, religious, philosophical, lingual and cultural nature is based on the Greco-Roman.
The Greek and Roman legal system provided that a man was innocent until proven guilty. Jury trial with legal counsel were the standard. The law was considered important, even during the Empire and some nasty Emperors.
Socrates preferred death to escape from his sentence, because it would not be honorable to disrespect the rule of law. The Greek and Roman culture found that individuals were important. This was strengthened by Christianity.
The strength of the Hellenic and Roman states were based on the rule of law and a strong military culture. This military culture called for military service by its citizens (in Roman Empire, new citizens were created by joining the Legions, eventually in the late Empire, the militay was not connected to the Roman citizenry, since most of the military were not originally Roman). The military culture focused on its soldiers working as members of a well oiled machine. Routinely, Greeks and Romans defeated forces when vastly outnumbered based on their well trained and unified legions.
Our military culture comes from the strong British military culture that is exemplified by similar principles. Good training, initial initiative but operating as a well oiled unit. Also, it expects to win, not surrender like some in this world.
One interesting fact pointed out in a recent History Chanel special on Athens. The ancients had a "draft system" of political service.
Since it was a direct democracy of the property owners, everyone was expected to serve at some time in their life.
Perhaps the Representative form of democracy should adopt a similar draft system. The volunteer politicians certainly could be improved upon.
I thought it was Irish monks who saved civilization by copying Greek and Roman scrolls during the Dark Ages. I guess it depends on which book you read.
The Irish Monks thing is true, but exaggerated. Also, the contribution of Muslim academics during the Middle Ages is exaggerated. Actually, the Byzantine Empire (the Eastern Roman Empire) did not fall until 1453 and preserved much of the Ancient texts.
Which they brought with them to Western Europe while fleeing the Byzantine Empire after it fell to the Ottomans. ;)
Yup, that would have been Greek Commander in Chief Petros Mavromichalis, one of the founders of the modern Greek state.
"In 1821 a number of American philhellenes started a lobbying campaign in the United Stales for the support of the Greek War of Independence, a campaign that captured the imagination of many influential political and civil leaders in America.
On May 25, 1821, Petros Mavromichalis, on behalf of the Messinian Congress sent a letter to the then Secretary of Stale John Quincy Adams that was published in the American newspapers asking for moral support, "Your virtues, Americans, are close to ours, although a broad sea separates us", wrote among other Mavromichalis. "We feel you closer than our neighboring countries and we consider you as friends, co-patriots and brothers...."
President James Monroe in his annual address to Congress said; "A strong hope is entertained that the Greeks will recover their independence and assume their equal station among the nations of the earth." Unfortunately, on December 2, 1823, president Monroe announced the "Monroe Doctrine" which in essence excluded the United States from getting involved in European affairs and considered the then existing European governments as "de facto legitimate."
On December 8, 1823, Congressman from Massachusetts Daniel Webster made a motion in Congress for the appropriation of money to send an American envoy to Greece and for the support of the Greek struggle for independence. ... Henry Clay, a Congressman from Kentucky, supported Webster's motion and in a moving oratorical speech on January 20, 1824, asked Congress to officially recognize the Greek War of Independence and send an envoy to Greece to examine and report on the situation. He stressed the fact that the entire American nation was showing sympathy and support for Greece and urged Congress to suppress any fears and apprehensions and to help a Christian nation. .... Unfortunately, due to strong opposition from members of Congress that adhered to the principles of the "Monroe Doctrine," the Webster motion was defeated."
http://www.ahepafamily.org/d5/Grk%20Inde-mar02.htm
However, the speeches of the great philhellenes, Webster and Clay, were widely publicized to the American people and even though Congress could not come through, the American public did, with an whopping total of around $200,000 (an extraordinary amount for those days) that came in mostly through donations from the American civilizan population; infact when Congressman Edward Livingston from Louisiana introduced a motion in Congress for the appropriation of $50,000 to purchase supplies for help with the war in Greece, his motion was defeated, but again through private initiatives and fundraising activities again mostly though contrubution by the private citizen, they were able to raise $80,000, $30,000 more then they asked from Congress, LoL!! which was collected in a combination of cash, food items and other in-kind aid. ;)
What idiocy.
The parchment was merely recycled. Parchment was expensive. There was no intent to erase anything.
"...According to a story in Herodotus, the nature of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, and the advantages and inconveniences of each, were as well understood at the time of the neighing of the horse of Darius, as they are at this hour."
John Adams: A DEFENCE OF THE CONSTITUTIONS OF GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
If anything that nature is understood less well today than in 1787 from disuse of the classics.
Archimedes' derivation of the formula for the volume of a cone was essentially integration. The factor of 1/3 is from the integral of pi r squared dr.
He used infinitesimal reasoning in a recognizable fashion, but always in an ad hoc geometrical argument, so he had a technique, but not a generalized method.
THANKS!
and thanks for the links!
I am actually seeing some of it now.
You have a slice of the generation x which is hungry to learn about the classics which were denied to them via the public schools.
What is truly amazing is how much of the classics are just plain relevant today.
Even with the current war on terror.
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Thomas Cahill, the author of "How the Irish Saved Civilization," also wrote "The Gifts of the Jews" and "Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter." I think he's found a pretty good formula for publishing success -- find an ethnic group that a lot of Americans are proud to belong to, and tap into a ready-made audience.
The Pope addressed this issue in his speech the muzzies have denounced. It is the marriage of the Greek logos with the good news of the Gospel that has produced the Christian idea of a loving and rational God, which is an idea the Muslims have not acquired.
Well said
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