Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Drabkin, Posidonius (ISIS 1643)
Drabkin, Posidonius (ISIS 1643)
Drabkin, Posidonius (ISIS 1643)
Author(s): I. E. Drabkin
Source: Isis, Vol. 34, No. 6 (Autumn, 1943), pp. 509-512
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/225895 .
Accessed: 09/05/2014 15:30
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
The University of Chicago Press and The History of Science Society are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,
preserve and extend access to Isis.
http://www.jstor.org
509
Now STRBo, whose temporal relation to CLEObe determined, tells us (p. 95 CA102) that POSIDONIusestimated the
circumference of the earth at about 180,000 stades.
STRBo speaks of this estimate as "one of the more
recent measurements, the one that makes the
earth smallest."
There has been much discussion of these two
divergent measurements ascribed to POSIDONIUS
and attempts have been made to explain the
discrepancy on the basis of (1) two different
measurements for the distance from Rhodes to
Alexandria, or (2) two different measurements of
the stade.
The first explanation supposes that the circumference of 240,000 stades is based on a measurement of 5000 stades for the distance from Rhodes
to Alexandria, while that of 180,000 stades is
based on a measurement of 3750 for this distance,
the difference in latitude being 7%O. Certainly
some color is lent to this line of explanation by the
words of CLEOMEDES quoted above: "but if this
distance is different, the circumference will also be
proportionately different."
There is, however, at least a prima facie difficulty with this explanation. The figure 3750, if it
is derived from ERATOSTHENES, is a deduction
from an observed difference in latitude of 5 %0 or
5 5/1 0, taken in conjunction with ERATOSTHENES'
measure of the circumference, 250,000 or 252,000
stades.8 POSIDONIUS would, in this case, be asserting a measurement of the circumference (180,000
MEDES cannot
SAUBON; cf. p.
3 STRABO,P. 125 CAS.: "The voyage from Rhodesto Alexandriawith the north wind is about 4000 stades, while the
voyage along the coast is twice as long. Now ERATOSTHENES
lThe question of the origin of the correctionto 252,000 tells us that this is a sailor'sestimate of the length of the
trip,somegivingthe aforesaidfigure,and othersnot hesitating
stades does not concernour present inquiry.
2Te wordsof CLEOMEDEsare not a direct quotationfrom to put the figureat 5000 stades. But he says that by using0
sundials he found the distance to be 3750 stades."
but seem to representthe latter's argument.
POSIDONIUs
I. E. Drabkin
510
SLIN
E ~~~A
511
STRABO,as we have seen, speaks of the Posi- and %0o of a right angle) but this would not condonian estimate of 180,000 stades as "making the stitute a bar to the present conjecture."1
earth smallest." Again, when CLEOMEDESsays,
It has been suggesed"2 that POSIDONIUS
may
in the passage quoted above, wrpo ?oyov TO'V have proposed or made use of a third figure for
he can only be referring to a differ- the circumference of the earth, 300,000 stades."3
8M7vT?a/rTOS,
ence in distance, not to a difference in standard. There is no direct evidence for this and the
Though this difficulty may not be fatal to the deduction depends on a combination of two
theory proposed, for confusions in metrology are propositions of POSIDONIUS: (1) the proposition
not uncommon in ancient authors, it certainly just referred to, that the orbit of the sun is 10,000
prevents us from accepting the theory with com- times the circumference of the earth (CLEOMEDES,
plete confidence.
pp. 144-146), and (2) the proposition that the
I believe that still another approach to the sun is, roughly, 500,000,000 stades distant from
problem is possible. While CLEOMEDEStells us the earth."4
how the estimate of 240,000 stades was arrived
These propositions taken together would inat, STRABOgives us no such information about volve a measure of approximately 50,000 stades
the figure 180,000. Now it has always been as- for the radius of the earth, and, by a
rough apsumed that the general method employed was the proximation common in
non-technical
work, a
same in both cases. But may not this very ascircumference
of
300,000
stades.
sumption, from which all the difficulties arise, be
But did POSIDONIusdeduce the measure of the
unnecessary?
circumference
by using these propositions, or was
I should like to suggest that POSIDONIUSmay
the
measure
of
the circumference one of his asERATOSof
proposition
a
(1)
have combined
THENES well known to him, that the sun at the sumptions? May he, indeed, have used the propozenith casts no shadow over a circle 300 stades sitions referred to quite independently of each
in diameter (CLEOMEDES,pp. 98.5, 140.7, 144.24 other as informal examples in his teaching? I
ZIEGLER), with (2) an estimate of %0o of the cannot answer these questions, but the fact that
circumference, i.e. 36', as the apparent diameter the various possible combinations involve figures
of the sun. These data would give a terrestrial in conflict with others that are ascribed to PosiDONIUS would not, in itself, necessitate an outright
circumference of 180,000 stades (300X600).8
rejection of any of the possibilities. For PosiCLEOMEDEStells us (p. 144.24)9 that PosiDONIUS seems to me to have been at least as
DONIUSused the first proposition in combination
with an assumption that the sun's orbit was interested in giving examples of the methods of
10,000 times the earth's circumference, to arrive mathematical geography and perhaps suggesting
wide limits within which a true measure falls, as
at an estimate of 3,000,000 stades (300X10,000)
in seeking a definitive determination of that true
sun.
of
the
for the diameter
As for the second proposition, that concerned measure. It must be said, however, that the
with the sun's angular diameter, it is perhaps on ancient geographers were quite aware that their
the authority of POSIDONIUS'pupil, VARRo, that methods were at best approximative. The use of
MARTIANUSCAPELLAgives (VIII, p. 860) 36' as round numbers is but one indication of this.
In this connection it should be pointed out that
the apparent diameter of the moon.10 Better approximations had, indeed, been given by ARIS- shortly before the time of MARINUS and PTOLEMY
and ARCHIMEDES(between 1%64 there were current, apparently, estimates of the
1)
TARCHUS(%
11ARCHIMEDES,Sand Reckouner
I. 10, 16.
8 Accordingto my conjecture, AB in the figure is 300
12 F. HULTSCH, Poseidoniosiiber d. Grosse u. Entfernung
ACB= 36'. Solar parallax is neglected, as
stades and
regularlyin antiquity, the angular diameterof the sun as d. Sonne, Abh. Ges. Wiss. Gattingen,N.F. I.5 (1897), 11seen from the surfaceof the earth being used for the central 32. See also T. L. HEATH, Aristarchus,344-347.
"'This measurementwas current,as we have seen above,
angle.
I Te words of CLEOMEDES,C;,vOTrws Jp TO&s 4acZol,dPOLs
See W. KUBITSCHEK, art. "Erdin the time of ARCHIMEDES.
(27), would seemto indicatethat POSIDONIUS under- messung," R.E. Suppl. VI.33-35. There is no compelling
JX6rrcPJP
stood this figureas a datum of observationratherthan as a reason to follow BERGER in his ascriptionof the result to
See W. A. HEIDEL, The Frame of the Ancient
convenientlower limit for observabledifferencesof latitude, DICAEARCHUs.
derived from the Eratostheneanmeasureof a degree (700 Greek Maps, 113-117; 0. NEUGEBAUER,Amer. bourn.Phil.
of 20 for the angulardiameter LXII (1941), 344-347.
stades) and an approximation
14 More exactly 502,000,040."POSIDONius
holds that the
of the sun. ERATOSTHENESseemsto have taken 400 stades as
p. 87 CAS.). height to which mists and winds and clouds reach is no less
a generallimit of such observability(STRAmo,
than 40 stades from the earth's surface, that then the air
But see H. BERGER,op. cit., 410.
10For practicalpurposesthe angulardiametersof the sun becomespure, serene,and of undisturbedbrightness,that the
and moon were consideredequal (CLEOMEDES,P. 178.24). distance from the layer of clouds to the moon is 2,000,000
More precise determinationswere requiredfor astronomical stades, and from there to the sun 500,000,000 stades."
PLINY, Nat. Hist. II.85.
work (see PTOLEMY, ilmagest V. 14).
512
I. E. Drabkin
circumference of the earth that varied considerably. PLUTARCH refers to the estimate of the
earth's radius at 40,000 stades as a sort of mean
estimate." And we have seen that STRABO speaks
one.
chittagon
(IAA
'~~~~~~~~~
l
>
WEgPc
er
lul~~~l
(Paragri
(Psy ai)l
A'~~~k
appoximat routebeing agiven
Buthidau~~~F d:u
thai