The Song of Urania

In this episode we examine the work of two Roman astrologers to see how Roman astrology worked in practice: Marcus Manilius, who wrote Astronomica, and Firmicus Maternus, who wrote the Matheseos.

As Rome expanded to the East, the cultural influence of the Greeks deepened, and this included a strong interest in astrology. Despite resistance from conservative Romans, by the Imperial Era, astrol…

This month the full moon falls on Three Kings' Day, traditionally a day that celebrates the adoration of the magi, so we investigate the famous Star of Bethlehem story. Through the centuries there ha…

Rome, the great empire of the Mediterranean, is not known for its astronomy. But while it lagged behind other civilizations, it is a mistake to think that they were entirely uninterested in the subje…

During the half millennium of the Roman Era in Ancient Greece, only two astronomers made any major advances. At the beginning of the Roman Era, Posidonius measured the size of the Earth and discovere…

In the year 1900 a team of sea sponge divers stumbled upon a shipwreck from the late Hellenistic Era. Among the statues, coins, and jewellery, the salvage crew pulled out a small box covered in moss.…

After briefly examining the astronomy of Timocharis and Aristyllus, who developed the first known stellar catalog, we turn our attention to Hipparchus, who I claim was the greatest astronomer of anci…

In the Hellenistic Era the astronomer Apollonius of Perga (maybe) developed the model of epicycles and deferents that was to dominate Western astronomy for more than 1500 years. Around the same time,…

At the dawn of the Hellenistic Age, two Greek astronomers developed radical new cosmologies. Heraclides of Pontica proposed that the Earth rotated on its axis and that Mercury and Venus revolved arou…

Two of Plato's students were notable astronomers. We looked at one of them, Eudoxus, in the last two episodes. In this episode we turn to Plato's other student, Aristotle. Aristotle embellished Eudox…

We turn back the clock and see how a variety of Greek astronomers over the centuries contributed to the Greek calendar, and how Greek politicians ignored their developments. Then we see how the disco…

In working on the problem of doubling the cube, Plato's friend Archytas devised an ingenious solution that involved a three dimensional curve determined by the intersection of a torus with a cylinder…

Before leaving the world of the Pre-Socratics, we look briefly at the astronomy of Oenopides, which had a more observational character than many of his contemporaries. Then we turn to Plato, the firs…

Two philosophers, Leucippus and Democritus, attempted to synthesize the monist theories of the earlier natural philosophers with the pluralist theories of Empedocles and Anaxagoras. To do this, they…

After the Median invasion, the Ionian philosopher Xenophanes, a student of the Anaximander, was forced to flee to Elea in Magna Graecia and brought the philosophy of the Ionians to the Eleans. His st…

We turn to the enigmatic, charismatic philosopher Pythagoras and the following that he inspired. Though Pythagoras is today associated with the Pythagorean theorem, he developed a school whose secret…

Miletus became a wealthy Greek city during the Archaic Period and developed a thriving intellectual culture which included many of the most important pre-Socratic astronomers. We looked at Thales in …

Thales was the first of the Greek astronomers and became known as one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Over the centuries many astronomical discoveries were attributed to him, but what was the reality a…

We outline the early development of Greek civilization after the Late Bronze Age Collapse and how the unique geography of Greece influenced its culture, and ultimately, its astronomy. Then we explore…