ROME: VITRUVIUS 35 



the Etruscans. The history of astronomy has nothing 

 to record of scientific accomplishment on the part of 

 the Romans. They reckoned time by months, and in 

 the earlier period kept a rude tally of the years by 

 driving nails into a statue of Janus, the ancient 

 sun-god. As we shall see, they were unable to regu- 

 late the calendar. Again, so far were they from con- 

 tributing to the development of medicine that they 

 had no physicians for the six hundred years preced- 

 ing the coming of Greek science. A medical slave 

 acted as overseer of the family health, and disease 

 was combated in primitive fashion by prayers and 

 offerings to various gods, who were supposed to fur- 

 nish general health or to influence the functions of 

 the different parts of the body. So rude was the na- 

 tive culture of the Romans that it is doubtful whether 

 they had any schools before the advent of Greek learn- 

 ing. The girls were trained by their mothers, the 

 boys either by their fathers or by some master to 

 whom they were apprenticed. 



The Greeks were conquered by the Romans in 

 146 B.C., but before that time Roman life and insti- 

 tutions had been touched by Hellenic culture. Cato 

 the Censor (who died in 149 B.C.) and other con- 

 servatives tried in vain to resist the invasion of 

 Greek science, philosophy, and refinement. After the 

 conquest of Greece the master became pupil, and 

 the conqueror was taken captive. The Romans, 

 however, never rose to preeminence in science or the 

 fine arts. A further development in technology cor- 

 responded more closely to their national needs, and 

 in this field they came undoubtedly to surpass the 

 Greeks. Bridges, ships, military roads, war-engines, 



