I thought it odd that we don’t have corroboration from contemporary written sources … but it turns out the Hellenistic period has huge gaps in written historical documentation.
The Greeks would have never written about something like that. They wrote literature, philosophy, mathematics, etc., and a few histories dealing with major wars/events. Engineering, or any kind of applied theory, was considered unworthy of documentation. They wrote nothing of engineering unless it played a major role in a battle.
A good example is Archimedes. He devised various machines to test and illustrate geometric principles. He cared nothing about the machines themselves or what they could accomplish in any practical sense; he was testing theories, and only the theories mattered.
He would never have written about them, but he was not against putting them to use. At one point his relative, King Hiero II of Syracuse, asked him to apply his devices to practical uses. There happened to be a ship that was difficult to move from port, so Archimedes devised a massive pulley to pull it out. Impressed, Hiero commissioned him to design various apparatus to defend Syracuse from attack.
That attack eventually came, courtesy of Rome. The Romans, under Marcus Claudius Marcellus, found their ground troops under a constant barrage of stones and arrows. Meanwhile on the water, long poles thrust out from the city walls dropped huge weights on the Roman ships. There were also massive cranes that would hook ships by their prows, lift them into the air while the soldiers fell into the sea, then drop them. Some were pulled in, spun, and dashed against rocks. The Romans were forced to withdraw, with Marcellus marveling that he had nearly lost his army to a “mad geometrist.” The Romans then laid siege, and eventually penetrated the city during a festival day when the Syracusans were too drunk to respond with any coordination. Archimedes was accidentally killed, reportedly while working out a proof. Marcellus had wanted him alive, as you can imagine.
Anyway, back to the main point: even though these devices were spectacularly successful, Archimedes would never have dreamed of writing about them. He and all advanced Greeks considered engineering, whether for military or profiteering, to be ignoble. Geometry was of the Platonic world of ideal forms, any real-world application was a corruption.
One misstatement in the video concerned the use of gears. Gears were widely used in the ancient world from around the third century on. I think the surprise is that the Greeks had the manufacturing precision to make gears that small, as well as the apparent accuracy of the device.
You might wonder why, having mastered gears, pulleys, springs, and valves (Hero of Alexandria even invented a steam turbine in the form of a toy), the Greeks and Romans didn’t take the next step and develop machines for commercial use. Well, they mostly didn’t need machines: they had slave labor.
In a world of constantly recycled intellectual property and barfogenic superhero franchises, I would love to see Denis Villeneuve or Guillermo del Toro go to town with The Siege of Syracuse.
Great idea. I agree that with so much apparent desperation for new material, we should see more movies about battles from the ancient world. Troy might have botched the Iliad, but it was entertaining and a hit. The 300, however dumb, was a financially successful take on the Battle of Thermopylae. So much potential for a great movie with the siege of Syracuse. Just imagine what our masters of special effects could do with the Claw of Archimedes. Instead, our most recent big release on the ancient world was the moronic and pointless Gladiator 2. Which, incidentally, wasn’t too long after the moronic and pointless Napoleon. Someone needs to retire.
Absolutely mind-blowing.
That’s awesome.
I thought it odd that we don’t have corroboration from contemporary written sources … but it turns out the Hellenistic period has huge gaps in written historical documentation.
I blame the Latins and the Latin teachers.
The Greeks would have never written about something like that. They wrote literature, philosophy, mathematics, etc., and a few histories dealing with major wars/events. Engineering, or any kind of applied theory, was considered unworthy of documentation. They wrote nothing of engineering unless it played a major role in a battle.
A good example is Archimedes. He devised various machines to test and illustrate geometric principles. He cared nothing about the machines themselves or what they could accomplish in any practical sense; he was testing theories, and only the theories mattered.
He would never have written about them, but he was not against putting them to use. At one point his relative, King Hiero II of Syracuse, asked him to apply his devices to practical uses. There happened to be a ship that was difficult to move from port, so Archimedes devised a massive pulley to pull it out. Impressed, Hiero commissioned him to design various apparatus to defend Syracuse from attack.
That attack eventually came, courtesy of Rome. The Romans, under Marcus Claudius Marcellus, found their ground troops under a constant barrage of stones and arrows. Meanwhile on the water, long poles thrust out from the city walls dropped huge weights on the Roman ships. There were also massive cranes that would hook ships by their prows, lift them into the air while the soldiers fell into the sea, then drop them. Some were pulled in, spun, and dashed against rocks. The Romans were forced to withdraw, with Marcellus marveling that he had nearly lost his army to a “mad geometrist.” The Romans then laid siege, and eventually penetrated the city during a festival day when the Syracusans were too drunk to respond with any coordination. Archimedes was accidentally killed, reportedly while working out a proof. Marcellus had wanted him alive, as you can imagine.
Anyway, back to the main point: even though these devices were spectacularly successful, Archimedes would never have dreamed of writing about them. He and all advanced Greeks considered engineering, whether for military or profiteering, to be ignoble. Geometry was of the Platonic world of ideal forms, any real-world application was a corruption.
So, blame Plato.
If you want the full story, see Plutarch.
One misstatement in the video concerned the use of gears. Gears were widely used in the ancient world from around the third century on. I think the surprise is that the Greeks had the manufacturing precision to make gears that small, as well as the apparent accuracy of the device.
You might wonder why, having mastered gears, pulleys, springs, and valves (Hero of Alexandria even invented a steam turbine in the form of a toy), the Greeks and Romans didn’t take the next step and develop machines for commercial use. Well, they mostly didn’t need machines: they had slave labor.
I read the assigned material, thank you.
In a world of constantly recycled intellectual property and barfogenic superhero franchises, I would love to see Denis Villeneuve or Guillermo del Toro go to town with The Siege of Syracuse.
Great idea. I agree that with so much apparent desperation for new material, we should see more movies about battles from the ancient world. Troy might have botched the Iliad, but it was entertaining and a hit. The 300, however dumb, was a financially successful take on the Battle of Thermopylae. So much potential for a great movie with the siege of Syracuse. Just imagine what our masters of special effects could do with the Claw of Archimedes. Instead, our most recent big release on the ancient world was the moronic and pointless Gladiator 2. Which, incidentally, wasn’t too long after the moronic and pointless Napoleon. Someone needs to retire.