66 SCIENCE IN GRECO-ROMAN ANTIQUITY 



capable of understanding them ; thanks to the muni- 

 ficence of princes, they had at their disposal the neces- 

 sary resources for their work, and the wise administra- 

 tion of the kingdom secured to them the peace of mind 

 needful for their meditations. Such peace and material 

 independence could not be offered by the little demo- 

 cratic states of Greece, always a prey to revolutions. 

 The Ptolemaic dynasty is especially noteworthy for 

 its intelligent initiative in establishing Alexandria as 

 the new and indisputable centre of Hellenic culture. 

 The founder of this dynasty summoned to him 

 Demetrius of Phalerus and Strato of Lampsacus, both 

 representatives of science and the Aristotelian tradition; 

 but it was his son Ptolemy II (Philadelphus), who, 

 like the American millionaires of to-day, founded a 

 museum where savants were generously supported on 

 the sole condition of furthering science. He also 

 established two great libraries of which Aristotle's 

 works formed the nucleus, and which 50 years after 

 their foundation, contained more than 600,000 manu- 

 scripts. In addition to this there was an active trade 

 in manuscripts, favoured by the fact that Egypt 

 possessed the monopoly of papyrus. Thanks to these 

 exceptional conditions, Alexandria quickly became the 

 refuge of students and professors, and even kept in 

 touch with foreign savants. Thus the sciences in all 

 departments made rapid progress, and reached their 

 zenith in the third century B.C. 



1. MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS, AND MECHANICS 



The mathematics of this period are represented by 

 three great names, which dominate antiquity : Euclid, 

 Archimedes, and Apollonius. Of Euclid (330-270 

 b.c.) we know little except that he was called by 

 Ptolemy Soter to teach mathematics in Alexandria. 

 It was there that he wrote the Elements which made 

 him famous, and which, translated almost literally, 



