HISTORICAL OUTLINE 19 



at Cyrene on the African coast, at Cyzicus on the 

 borders of the Sea of Marmora. 



From the fourth century B.C. onwards, Greece lost 

 her economic and political independence. The effect 

 of the conquests of Alexander was the transference of 

 scientific activity to Alexandria in Egypt, and in a 

 lesser degree, to Pergamum, in Asia Minor. When the 

 Roman Empire was definitely established in the first 

 century of the Christian era, Rome and Athens natur- 

 ally became the fostering centres of science, on the 

 same basis as Alexandria. Owing to the religious and 

 political revolution achieved by Constantine, the 

 Hellenized Orient recovered an independence and 

 vitality, which were lacking in the Latin Occident ; the 

 sciences, nevertheless, were in peril. It was the age of 

 decadence, or better still, as P. Tannery has put it, the 

 age of commentators. 1 



Accordingly, the development of the Greek and Roman 

 Sciences can be divided into three quite distinct periods : 



1. A Hellenic period (from its origin to the conquests 

 of Alexander, i.e. from 650 to 300 B.C.). 



2. An Alexandrian period (from the dynasty of the 

 Ptolemies, about 300 B.C. until the Christian era). 



3. A Greco-Roman period (from the Christian era 

 until towards the middle of the sixth century). 



1 25 Tannery, Science helUne, p. 7. 



