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Anaximenes and his gnomonics (1)

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05 Scientific knowledge and scholarly lore
05 Scientific knowledge and scholarly lore



 		Keywords
presocratics
sundial
Period
1st century CE
Roman Empire 		Channel
Roman philosophers and scholars

Text
The gnomon was well known in Mesopotamia before it was introduced to Greece, the second tablet of Mul Apin contains a table of shadows derived from a gnomon.

Pliny the Elder, Naturalia Historia 2.78 (76):
This theory of shadows (of the sun) and the science called gnomonics was discovered by Anaximenes of Miletus, the pupil of Anaximander of whom we have spoken; the first exhibited at Sparta the time-piece (horologium) they call ‘Hunt-the-Shadow’.

Source (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Pliny the Elder, Naturalia Historia 2.78 (76)

Bibliography

Jones and Rackham 1938-1963, I 318-319Jones, W. H. S. and H. Rackham. Pliny, Natural History. 10 Vols. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, London: Heinemann 1938-1963.
Pingree 1998, 130Pingree, David. “Legacies in Astronomy and Celestial Omens.” In: S. Dalley (ed.). The Legacy of Mesopotamia. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1998, 125-137.

Amar Annus


URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0000173.php

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