sician and methods of surgery, cauterization, and sometimes
strong drugs. Th e fi rst Greek doctor in Rome was nicknamed
“the butcher” because of his use of such methods, and some
Romans, like Pliny the Elder (23–79 c.e.), criticized medi-
cine as un-Roman. Nonetheless, Greek medicine became
popular, and doctors in Rome and throughout the empire
were usually Greek.
In general, Roman reactions to Greek ideas, including
much of Greek science, were complicated. Many traditional
Romans thought that the infl uence of Greek culture might
weaken Roman society through its focus on inessential spec-
ulation and ways of life, unlike the conventional Roman em-
phasis on farming, the army, and the duties of political offi ce.
Many elite Romans, however, could speak Greek and were
interested in such ideas, and they adapted or developed them,
writing epic poetry, history, and drama of their own—all
forms of literature that the Greeks had invented. Similarly,
Greek works on science and philosophy found an elite Ro-man audience and some Roman practitioners. Th e Roman
politician and philosopher Seneca (4? b.c.e.–65 c.e.), tutor to
the future emperor Nero (r. 54–68 c.e.), wrote many works
related to his Stoic philosophy, including Natural Questions,
which explains and discusses such scientifi c problems as the
causes of rainbows and comets.social collapse and abandonment
Th ere was to some extent, as in Greek society, a social di-
vide between those working on science and philosophy as
a matter of intellectual interest and personal development
and those who practiced scientifi c specialties as a profession,
for which they received payment. Th is was closely related
to a common attitude, at least among the fi rst kind of in-
tellectuals, that scientifi c inquiries were greater if they did
not involve actual physical materials or things. “Pure” math-
ematics, for example, was thought to be superior to applied
math. Th is idea was held partly because the notion of the
general proof—one that applies to a class of objects and can
be logically proved in the abstract rather than having been
tested only for specifi c, concrete examples—was central to
the development of Greek geometry and became an ideal for
all intellectual enterprises. Th us, Pythagoras’s theorem is ex-
pressed thus: “Th e square of the hypotenuse is equal to the
sum of the squares on the other two sides.” It is not stated as
the numerical formula 52 = 32 + 4^2 , and so on for every actual
set of triangle lengths actually tested.
Th ere was also a common assumption that abstract
reasoning was more reliable than sense perception and ob-
servable data, even though the former obviously must rely
to some extent on the latter. Th e result is that “practical” or
productive forms of knowledge, including some applied sci-
ence, were seen as less true and certain than more abstract
inquiries, as well as being usually practiced by people of less
wealth and social status.
However, many people actually working in such fi elds
as engineering and medicine strongly resisted that their sub-
jects were evaluated at this lower status. Th e Roman Empire
Greek mechanist Hero of Alexandria claimed—possibly as
a joke—that mechanics was actually better at producing the
philosophical ideal of a tranquil life lived without fear or
worry than philosophy was because a city with good mecha-
nists and ballistics engineers would never be attacked. Th e
Greek physician Galen (129–ca. 99 c.e.), who was the personal
physician of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (r. 161–80
c.e.), tried to work out a set of logical and mathematical rules
for medicine, such as a theorem for the length of time it took
for a wound to heal based on its size and shape.
Many such practitioners, certainly those at the top of
their fi elds, were literate and well-educated men who argued
that their discipline was just as reliable and worthwhile as
philosophy or pure mathematics. Th e dividing line was far
from absolute. Many elite lay Romans read works on medi-
cine and mechanics, even if they did not regard them as suit-
able subjects for a gentleman to practice.Bust of Pseudo-Seneca, before 1626, by Peter Paul Rubens; this
drawing is of a Roman portrait bust thought to be the Roman Stoic
philosopher Seneca, who wrote several scientifi c treatises. (Copyright
the Metropolitan Museum of Art)942 science: Rome0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i942 942 10/10/07 2:30:30 PM