Leonid Zhmud The Origin of the History of Science in Classical Antiquity

His-
tory of Geometry and the History of Astronomy start with Thales, who was re-
44
Diels.
Dox., 232; Runia, D. The Placita ascribed to doctors in Aëtius’ doxography
on physics,
AHM, 189–250, 248f. Cf. Mansfeld, J. Doxography and dialectic: The
Sitz im Leben of the ‘Placita’, ANRW II 36.4 (1990) 3058f.
45
The founder of mechanics and optics must have been Archytas: Krafft.
Mechanik,
3f, 144ff.; Schneider,
op. cit., 227; Schürmann, op. cit., 33, 48ff.; Cambiano. Archi-
mede meccanico; Burnyeat, M. Archytas and optics,
Science in context 18 (2005)
35–53. Aristotle and his contemporaries mention both disciplines (see above, 47
n. 11), Aristotle devoted to them two special treatises, Mhcanikón and the lost ’Op-
tikón (fr. 380 Rose). The list of Philip’s works includes two writings on optics (Las-
serre.
Léodamas, 20 T 1). Euclid’s Optics must have been based on these works.
46
In the
Elements of Harmonics, he stated that the Pythagoreans “used arguments quite
extraneous to the subject, dismissing perception as inaccurate and inventing theor-
etical explanations, and saying that it is in ratios of numbers and relative speeds that
the high and the low come about” (I, 41.17f., transl. by A. Barker). See Bélis, A.
Aristoxène de Tarente et Aristote: Le traité d’harmonique, Paris 1986; Barker, A.
Aristoxenus’ harmonics and Aristotle’s theory of science,
Science and philosophy,
188–226.
47
See e.g.
APo 75b 16, 76a 10, a 24, 78b 38, 79a 1; Top. 107a 16; Met. 997b 21. McKi-
rahan,
op. cit., 220; Barker. Aristoxenus’ harmonics, 190f. On the whole, Pseudo-
Aristotelian
Problems follows the Pythagorean viewpoint (Barker. GMW II, 85ff.).
48
The only fragment from Eudemus’
History of Arithmetic (fr. 142) is related rather to
mathematical harmonics than to arithmetic. See below 5.2, 6.1.

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Chapter 4: The historiographical project of the Lyceum
130
garded as the progenitor of both sciences, and finish with Eudemus’ own con-
temporaries, the students of Eudoxus. In the
History of Geometry, and probably
in the
History of Astronomy as well, Eudemus mentions the Oriental prede-
cessors of these sciences. The
 History of Arithmetic must have been written on
the same principles, though the only preserved fragment does not give any con-
clusive evidence on the matter.
Aristotle’s ‘theology’, expounded in book L of the Metaphysics, culminates
in the doctrine of the divine Unmoved Mover that sets in motion the whole sys-
tem of celestial bodies. Aristotle regarded the subject of this science to be the
first principles of the divine (tò qe$on), eternal, motionless, immutable, and
separable from matter (
Met. 1026a 15f.).
49
At first sight, this definition of theol-
ogy made writing its history problematic. Nevertheless, Aristotle does not fail
to find predecessors of this science, as well. His tendency to regard his theories
as the development of earlier ones and his readiness to use even traditional wis-
dom to the degree that it did not contradict his own views made him appeal even
to incipient, imperfect forms of theology, which he found in the early mythical
cosmogonies and theogonies. Usually he called their authors qeológoi.
50
The
incomplete and even wrong answers the theologians offered to questions of the
principles of the divine became the subject of Eudemus’
History of Theology.
51
This book was a chronologically organized outline of the specific principles of
the divine introduced by Greek and ‘barbarian’ theologians. First came Or-
pheus, who introduced Night as the first principle; he was followed by Homer,
Hesiod, Acusilaus, Epimenides, and Pherecydes.
52
The principles of the Baby-
lonians, Persian Magi, Sydonians, and Egyptians were treated separately.
49
Elders, L.