142 A SHORT HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



the Roman people, while highly gifted in oratory, literature, and 

 history (as witness, for example, the works of Cicero, Virgil and 

 Tacitus), were not interested and therefore not successful in scien- 

 tific work. This is the more impressive when we reflect upon their 

 marvellous military genius, and their preeminence in world-wide 

 power, dominion and influence. In vain do we look for any Roman 

 scientist or philosopher of such originality or range as Aristotle or 

 Plato ; for any R.oman astronomer, like Aristarchus or Hipparchus 

 or Ptolemy; for any Roman mathematician or inventor, like 

 Archimedes; for any Roman natural philosopher, like Democ- 

 ritus ; for any Roman pioneer in medicine, like Hippocrates, 

 for Galen was Roman neither by birth nor education, but only 

 by adoption late in life. 



ROMAN ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE. There is how- 

 ever one marked feature of Roman civilization in which extraor- 

 dinary ability was displayed and peculiar excellence achieved 

 and in which the Romans were unquestionably far superior to all 

 their predecessors and, until very recent times, to all their suc- 

 cessors. This feature, which is one of the most characteristic, is 

 the Roman genius for both military and civil engineering. It is 

 only necessary to mention the surviving remains of Roman walls, 

 fortresses, roads, aqueducts, theatres, baths, and bridges. Never 

 before and never since has any empire built so many, so splendid, 

 and so enduring monuments for the service of its peoples in peace 

 and in war. The surface of southern Europe, western Asia and 

 northern Africa is still covered after the lapse of twenty centuries 

 with Roman remains which bid fair to resist decay and destruc- 

 tion for another two thousand years. Roman engineering is almost 

 as distinguished as is Roman law. The Emperor Constantine 

 in the fourth century wrote : " We need as many engineers as pos- 

 sible. As there is lack of them, invite to this study persons of about 

 18 years, who have already studied the necessary sciences. Re- 

 lieve the parents of taxes and grant the scholars sufficient means." 

 The land surveyors formed a well-organized gild, but they were 

 merely practitioners of a traditional art, perpetuating the errors 

 of their ancient Egyptian predecessors, not dreaming of new dis- 



