ORIGINS OF SCIENCE IN THE ANCIENT WORLD 37 



accurate and convenient instruments for the recording of 

 both time and of temperature. Another deficiency was in 

 the means and method of arithmetical computation. We 

 can appreciate the clumsiness of the Roman numerals in 

 this particular, but these were superior as a means of com- 

 putation to the numerals of the Greeks. Only one who has 

 followed the history of mathematics in relation to physical 

 science can appreciate the advances in knowledge which 

 have been made possible by the introduction of the decimal 

 point and the figure zero of our present Arabic numerals. 



Greek thought thus stamped itself upon the ancient 

 world, through Macedonian imperialism, despite the failure 

 of the Greek city-states to unite into a great nation. During 

 the three centuries which preceded the Christian Era, Hel- 

 lenic culture came to dominate the peoples of the entire 

 region about the middle and eastern Mediterranean, and 

 was influential even to Gibraltar and to the shores of the 

 Indian Ocean. This Hellenistic Age (323-23 b. c.) estab- 

 lished the cultural inheritance of the Roman Empire. The 

 learning of the Roman Period was the learning of Greece. 

 Having survived the attacks of the barbarians from the east, 

 Greece was overthrown politically by internal strife and by 

 the barbarism of early Rome. But she set her mark upon 

 her conqueror. Hellenic philosophy, at its best, had ban- 

 ished the fear of malevolent natural forces. The finer spirits 

 among the Greeks had lived in a harmony with the world 

 which we of the present can well afford to envy. Although 

 this harmony proved only a temporary solution of the prob- 

 lem, it is the hope of modern life that mankind will eventu- 

 ally establish, through science, a harmony which shall rest 

 upon a surer foundation. 



UTILIZATION OF SCIENCE BY ROME 



The racial sources of the original Romans are not so 

 clearly traceable as those of the Greeks. There seems 



