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

pro¯tos heu-
rete¯s formula prove of particular importance to us.
Thus, Diogenes Laertius (II, 1) cites Favorinus as saying that Anaximander
“was the first who invented the gnomon and set it up on a sundial (?) in Lace-
daemon …, in order to indicate the solstices and the equinoxes”.
86
Though the
pro¯tos heurete¯s formula was, indeed, used in the Physiko¯n doxai as well, par-
ticularly often in its astronomical division,
87
the invention of the gnomon and
its installation in Sparta is not a subject that Theophrastus was likely to treat.
Favorinus’
Miscellaneous History included a book on the first discoveries; it
mentioned, among others, Pythagoras and Archytas; he was familiar with the
biographical and scholarly tradition of Hellenistic authors that
could have pre-
served Eudemus’ evidence.
88
The tradition of the gnomon being installed in
Sparta does not seem to have been invented,
89
but we cannot be certain that Fa-
vorinus’ evidence (or, at least, a part of it) goes back to the
History of Astron-
omy. Herodotus, as we know, says that the gnomon and polos were borrowed
from Babylon (II, 109), which does not necessarily contradict Favorinus’
source. If Anaximander was, indeed, the first whom the Greek tradition associ-
ated with the gnomon, he still could have been named its
pro¯tos heurete¯s. On
the other hand, the story of the invention of the gnomon could hardly have fig-
ured in Anaximander’s book, so that even if Eudemus mentioned it, its authen-
ticity remains uncertain.
86
E0ren dè kaì gnømona prõto~ kaì Ésthsen ëpì tõn skioq2rwn ën Lakedaí-
moni, kaqá fhsi Fabwr$no~ ën PantodapÆ îstorí+, tropá~ te kaì ıshmería~
shmaínonta (12 A 1 = fr. 28 Mensching). For other variants, see: 12 A 2, 4. Men-
sching regarded Skióqhra as a toponym; see also Classen, C. J. Anaximandros, RE
Suppl. 12 (1970) 33; KRS, 103; Franciosi, F. Le origini scientifiche dell’ astronomia
greca, Rome 1990, 55. Cf. horologium quod appellant sciothericon Lacedaemone
ostendit (Plin.
HN II, 86 = 13 A 14a and below, n. 89).
87
See above, 161.
88
See above, 176 n. 39.
89
Guthrie,
op. cit., 75; Classen. Anaximandros, 33; Szabó, Maula, op. cit., 33ff.; Fran-
ciosi,
op. cit., 54f. See also the parallel version on Anaximander’ prediction of an
earthquake in Sparta (12 A 5a). Pliny’s story attributing the invention of the gnomon
and its installation in Sparta to Anaximenes (13 A 14a) reflects the typical confusion
between the two Milesians (Mensching,
op. cit., 114f.).

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Chapter 7: The history of astronomy
250
3. Physical and mathematical astronomies
The
Physiko¯n doxai must, naturally, have contained much more information on
Anaximander’s cosmology than did Eudemus’ selective history of astronomi-
cal discoveries. The evidence preserved in Aëtius confirms this relation, which
was characteristic of other physicists as well: the cosmos is infinite (
Dox., 327b
10), perishable (331.12), and consists of a mixture of cold and hot (340a 4);
heavenly bodies consist of fire enclosed by air (342b 7, 559. 25), the sun being
the highest of all, followed by the moon and stars (345a 7); the stars are carried
by circles and spheres (345a 22); the sun’s wheel, full of fire, is 27 (or 28) times
larger than the earth, and the sun itself is equal to the earth (348a 3, 351a 5,
560.4); solar eclipses occur when the opening in the rim of the wheel is stopped
up (354a 3); the moon is also a circle full of fire, 19 times larger than the earth
(355a 18); it gives off its own light (358a 6), and its eclipses have the same
cause as solar ones (359a 13, 560.3); the earth is cylindrical in shape, and its
depth is a third of its width; it stays in the center of the cosmos, held up by no-
thing (376.22, 559.22, 579.11). The detailed scheme used by Theophrastus to
describe the Presocratics’ cosmological doctrines included, along with purely
physical aspects, what Aristotle related to maqhmatik3 @strología. Eude-
mus, meanwhile, applied his scheme of the