Flame of Miletus: The Birth of Science in Ancient Greece (and How it Changed the World)

by John Freely

Overview

Miletus: one of the wealthiest and most important towns in ancient Greece. It was here, on the Aegean coast of Asia Minor, in the 6th century BC, that the great traditions of Greek science and philosophy sparked into life, setting in motion a chain of knowledge that would change the world, forever.

This is the extraordinary story of Greek science from its earliest beginnings through its development in classical Athens and Hellenistic Alexandria and its subsequent diffusion to the wider world. Most histories of Greek science end with the collapse of the Graeco-Roman world in late antiquity and the closing of all classical schools of "pagan" philosophy in A.D. 529. But acclaimed historian John Freely here continues the story to tell of how the elements of Greek scientific and philosophical learning were adopted by the Islamic world and the transmission of Graeco-Islamic science to western Europe, as well as the preservation of Hellenic culture in Byzantium and its profound influence on the European renaissance and our modern world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781788312455
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	08/30/2018
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

John Freely (1926-2017) was born in New York and joined the US Navy at the age of seventeen, serving with a commando unit in Burma and China during the last years of World War II. He has lived in New York, Boston, London, Athens and Istanbul and has written over thirty travel books and guides, most of them about Greece and Turkey.

Table of Contents

List of Plates Preface
• Map
• Ionian Enlightenment
• Harmony and Logos
• The One and the Atom
• The School of Hellas
• The Grove of Apollo
• Aristotle's Successors
• The Geometrization of Nature
• Measuring Heaven and Earth
• Moving the World
• Mathematics, Astronomy and Geography
• Ingenious Devices
• The Art of Healing
• Spheres within Spheres
• Classical Twilight
• From Byzantium and Islam to Western Europe
• The Renaissance: Byzantium to Italy
• The Scientific Revolution: Greek Science Reborn
• Eureka! Greek Science Rediscovered
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index

Editorial Reviews

This is a magnificent book, covering an extraordinary range of topics and a vast sweep of time. John Freely has lived, written, and taught in Greece, Turkey, and Italy for a lifetime, and this experience has given him the rare ability to tell complex stories in a lucid and engaging manner. This is a book everyone should have.

John Camp

"This is a magnificent book, covering an extraordinary range of topics and a vast sweep of time. John Freely has lived, written, and taught in Greece, Turkey, and Italy for a lifetime, and this experience has given him the rare ability to tell complex stories in a lucid and engaging manner. This is a book everyone should have." – John Camp, Professor of Archaeology, ASCS, Athens Stavros Niarchos Foundation Professor of Classics, Randolph-Macon College

From the Publisher