A rchive Date
[ 22-05-2005 ]
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[ Philosophy ]
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[ Greek ]
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http://www.thewalters.org/archimedes/frame.html
Archimedes - A Timeline
Written by Dr. William Noel, Richard Leson, Dr. Reviel Netz, Lynn Wolfe and Joe McCourt
287 B.C. — Archimedes was born in Sicily. His father was an astronomer and mathematician named Phidias. Unfortunately, little else is known about Archimedes' early life. It is believed, however, that Archimedes' family was a rich and noble one, perhaps related in some way to Hiero, King of Syracuse.
About 269 B.C. — Archimedes traveled to Egypt to study at Alexandria, possibly the greatest city in the ancient world. It had been founded by Alexander the Great in 331 B.C. and was home of the famous Pharos lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. Alexandria was also, most notably, the home of Euclid, who lived from about 330 to 275 B.C. Euclid was a renowned mathematician and may best be remembered for his book, "The Elements" which was the most important geometry book in the world for over 2000 years. Archimedes undoubtedly studied this book along with others in the great library of Alexandria, which contained more than a million books in the form of scrolls of papyrus.
About 263 B.C. — Archimedes returned to Syracuse after his studies in Alexandria and settled down to a life of study and research. He would typically sit for hours pondering geometry diagrams drawn in the sand floor of his home or on papyrus scrolls. His experimentations soon made him indispensable to King Hiero, and ultimately, to the rest of the world.
Archimedes' abilities were put to good use by King Hiero. In one case, the hold of a huge boat made for the King had become full of water after a heavy rain. Not sure how to remove the water from the ship, King Hiero asked Archimedes for assistance. Archimedes created what is now know as the "Archimedes Screw". It is a machine consisting of a hollow tube containing a spiral that could be turned by a handle at one end. When the lower end of the tube was put into the hold and the handle turned, water was carried up the tube and over the side of the ship. The "Archimedes Screw" soon became popular in Egypt as a device for irrigating fields and in other forms, is still in use today.
King Hiero had commissioned a new royal crown for which he provided solid gold to the goldsmith. But when the crown arrived, King Hiero was suspicious that the goldsmith only used some of the gold, kept the rest for himself and added silver to make the crown the correct weight. Archimedes was asked to determine whether or not the crown was pure gold without harming it in the process. Archimedes was perplexed but found inspiration while taking a bath.
While noticing that the water overflowed from the tub when he lowered himself into it, he realized that he could measure the crown's density if he could determine the amount of water it displaced, or its "volume". Legend has it that Archimedes was so exuberant about his discovery that he ran down the streets of Syracuse naked shouting, "Eureka!" which meant "I've found it!" in Greek.
Archimedes found that the crown was indeed a fake proving that the goldsmith had cheated.
King Hiero relied on Archimedes' inventions for use in the military during a time when there was great competition for power in the Mediterranean region between Syracuse, Carthage and Rome. Putting his theories of levers and pulleys to work, Archimedes built other machines designed to defend Syracuse.
King Hiero died in the year 216 B.C. and was succeeded by his 15-year-old grandson Hieronymos. The new King formed an alliance with Hannibal, the ruler of Carthage, which alarmed the pro-Roman faction within Syracuse.
In 215 B.C. Hieronymos was assassinated in the Greek city of Leontini, ending his 13-month reign.
215 B.C. - After the assassination of Hieronymos, civil war erupted in Syracuse between the pro-Carthaginian and pro-Roman factions, during which most of Hiero's family was killed. The pro-Carthaginian faction was eventually victorious and two brothers of mixed Carthaginian-Syracusan descent, Hippokrates and Epikydes, took control of the city.
214 B.C. - Marcellus led the Roman army in an invasion of Syracuse but they were thwarted by the ingenuity of Archimedes. Among his many inventions were the huge curved mirrors placed on top of the city walls. When the Roman fleet was in sight the mirrors were turned to reflect the Sun's rays onto the ships. The heat was so great that many ships burst into flames. Other ships were destroyed by huge boulders thrown by the catapults designed by Archimedes.
With the help of Archimedes' incredible machines, Syracuse was protected from the Roman army. One of these machines operated with great iron claws that could seize boats by the prow, draw them up into the air, and plunge them into the depths of the sea. Another projected huge wooden beams from the island's ramparts to gouge the hulls of enemy ships.
Unable to penetrate the devices which Archimedes had placed around the borders of Syracuse, Marcellus ultimately surrounded the city and prevented supplies from entering or leaving. The siege lasted over two years. Eventually, in 212 B.C., the Romans took advantage of an unguarded section of the city walls and invaded the city.
212 B.C. - During the siege of Syracuse, a Roman soldier burst through Archimedes' door and demanded that the great military genius accompany him to the quarters of General Marcellus. Not realizing that the city had been invaded, Archimedes refused, claiming he had yet to finish a mathematical problem that presently occupied his attention. The soldier, in anger, struck the 75-year-old Archimedes dead.
Marcellus was distressed upon hearing the news of the death, and ordered that Archimedes be buried with honor. His tombstone was, as he wished, engraved with the geometrical diagram showing a sphere inside a cylinder, to remind the world of his great discoveries.
4th Century A.D. - During his life, Archimedes wrote out his theories on papyrus scrolls. Succeeding generations preserved his works by copying and recopying them onto other scrolls. Somewhere, in the fourth century A.D., scribes began to copy onto parchment, then bind them between wooden boards. This was the earliest version of what's known today as the "book".
10th century A.D. - The Archimedes manuscript was copied onto parchment sheets and bound between wooden boards. Although manufactured more than a thousand years after the great mathematician's death, this book, which is now in the care of The Walters Art Gallery, is the earliest copy of Archimedes' treatises to survive.
12th century A.D. - Parchment was scarce and it was common practice to re-use old manuscripts for newer writings. Apparently, the Archimedes text was taken apart, most likely in Constantinople, for this purpose. A scribe disassembled the manuscript and scraped off as much of the Archimedes text as he could. He cut the leaves in half along the inner fold and turned the page leaves 90 degrees before folding them in half. This scribe ruled fresh lines and copied new religious text onto the parchment, creating what's known as a "Palimpsest", or a text on parchment which has been overwritten with other text.
12th - 19th Century A.D. - Once the manuscript had become a religious text, it was considered a sacred document and cared for in the Holy Land, between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. One of its homes was the monastery of Mar Saba, historically an intellectual and spiritual center for the Greek Church.
The book was most likely used as religious text by the monastery's inhabitants for at least 400 years.
Early 1800's - The palimpsest was moved from the monastery to the library of the Greek Patriarch in the Christian quarter of old Jerusalem. The book did not remain there long, however, as it continued to travel in the highest of religious circles. It is believed that the book travelled to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, because it ultimately ended up in the Church's daughter house, the Metochion in Constantinople—the city where the manuscript had first been created.
1846 - Biblical scholar Constantine Tischendorf visited the Metochion Of The Holy Sepulchre to study the library's substantial collection of manuscripts. At the time, he claimed to find nothing of particular interest, except for a palimpsest dealing with mathematics. Though he didn't quite understand the importance of his discovery, he must have sensed the book's value, because he acquired one of its leaves—now owned by the Cambridge University Library in England.
1907 - Danish philologist Johan Heiburg meticulously transcribed the manuscript using nothing but a magnifying glass. It's not known whether Heiberg suspected the palimpsest's true origins at first, but he ultimately realized that this ancient manuscript was indeed a previously unknown treatise by Archimedes, the great mathematician. His great achievement and extraordinary find made headlines in the New York Times on July 16, 1907.
October 29, 1998 - Christie's of New York held a much-publicized auction. The Archimedes Palimpsest was sold for two million dollars to an anonymous collector.
June 20 to September 5, 1999 - The Archimedes Palimpsest is on view at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, Maryland.
copyright 1999 The Walters Art Gallery - All Rights Reserved |
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