CLAS321

How did ancient Greek and Roman scientific practices differ from and resemble our own? How do we as historians recognize when someone is conducting scientific inquiry? What were the social and cultural contexts of scientific production in the ancient world? With a focus on the scientific practices and products of ancient Greeks and Romans from around the fifth century BCE to the second century CE, we investigate how several scientific disciplines -- including medicine, astronomy, and biology --developed under the influence of ancient social and cultural contexts, and how ancient literatures, in turn, were shaped by those working in scientific fields of inquiry. In addressing these questions special attention will be paid to the methods employed by the available sources of ancient scientists and the modes of demonstration, argumentation, and rhetoric employed in scientific texts. Readings of primary materials will be supplemented with selections of secondary scholarship.