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Ancient Greek and Roman Science: A Very Short Introduction
VERY SHORT INTRODUCTIONS are for anyone wanting a stimulating
and accessible way into a new subject. They are written by experts, and
have been translated into more than 45 different languages.
The series began in 1995, and now covers a wide variety of topics in
every d
iscipline. The VSI library currently contains over 700 volumes—a
Very Short Introduction to everything from Psychology and Philosophy of
Science to American History and Relativity—and continues to grow in
every subject area.
ANCIENT
GREEK AND
ROMAN SCIENCE
A Very Short Introduction
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP,
United Kingdom
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of
Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries
© Liba Taub 2023
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics
rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
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You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2022947357
ISBN 978–0–19–873699–8
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Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and
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For Niall
Contents
Acknowledgements xix
2 Expert poets 10
3 Inventing nature 20
6 A theory of everything 56
8 Roman nature 77
References 131
Index 145
Ancient Greek and Roman Science
xviii
Acknowledgements
The royal troops, after they were withdrawn, sallied forth and
vented their dastardly spleen on the dead bodies left in the streets.
They would not allow them decent burial; and when some of the
townsfolk, under covert of night, took the corpses into their houses
and prepared them for interment, the ruffians broke in and
sacrilegiously stripped off the dead-clothes, and carried away the
linen for sale. Even when at length women were tacitly permitted to
perform the last sad rites, they attacked them as they were
proceeding to the burial-ground, robbed them of their plaids, cut the
mortcloths, and obliged them to leave the coffins in the almshouse,
near the High Church, where they remained for several days, till the
military were called to other service.
Immediately on receiving intelligence of these transactions, the
council met and issued a vehement proclamation, denouncing the
insurgents as traitors, whose rebellion was aggravated by “their
having formerly tasted of the royal bounty!! and clemency,”
whereunto they owed their lives and fortunes, which had been
forfeited by their former rebellious practices, under the cloak of
religion—the ordinary colour and pretext of rebellion. Their
transactions at Rutherglen, &c. were declared to be open, manifest,
and horrid rebellion and high treason, for which the actors and their
adherents ought to be pursued as professed traitors; and they were
called upon to lay down their weapons and surrender their persons
within twenty-four hours, to the Earl of Linlithgow, commander-in-
chief, or other officer or magistrates, on pain of being holden and
proceeded against as incorrigible and desperate traitors, incapable
of mercy or pardon; while they were not assured of pardon if they
should surrender themselves upon these terms.
Two days after, another proclamation was sent forth, ordering the
militia to hold themselves to act with the regulars, as they should be
required by the council, which was quickly followed by a third
ordering all the heritors and freeholders to attend the king’s host—
those of the western shires excepted. Meanwhile Lord Ross
withdrew from Glasgow, and marching eastward was joined by the
Earl of Linlithgow at Larbert-moor, whence they sent despatches to
the council, entreating them to apply to his majesty for assistance
from England. The council wrote to Lauderdale for the required help,
and at the same time ordered the forces to cover Edinburgh. On the
7th of June they were cantoned in the vicinity.
During their encampment about Hamilton, the insurgents received
considerable accessions. Captain John Paton of Meadowhead,
arrived with a body of horse from Fenwick, Newmills, and Galston;
Mr John Welsh brought a considerable number from Carrick;[121] and
a considerable number of others assembled from various quarters
without any leaders, or at least without any whose names are
recorded. The whole party when at their highest, never exceeded
four thousand permanent, though they varied considerably at
different times owing to the numbers who came and went away
again, when they perceived the confusion that reigned, from a total
want of training, and of officers to train the men, scarcely one among
them having ever been in the army, which was wofully increased by
the melancholy dissensions and bitter disputations by which they
were agitated; for no person of influence, either gentlemen or men of
property, came among them.
121. When they entered Glasgow, they removed the heads of their friends which
were stuck up in and about that city.
Next day, the armies were within sight of each other. The king’s
troops spread upon Bothwell-moor, with their advanced guard in the
town; the Whigs stationed along Hamilton-moor, on the south side of
the river Clyde, with their advanced guard at the bridge—an old
narrow structure, the only pass by which they were assailable. Early
that morning, Mr David Hume, Mr Fergusson of Caitloch, and Mr
John Welsh went in disguise to Monmouth’s head-quarters. On
passing, they were politely saluted by Claverhouse and had ready
access to his Grace. When introduced, they stated their demands,
which were—that they might be allowed the free exercise of their
religion, and suffered to attend the ordinances dispensed by
Presbyterian ministers without molestation; that a free Parliament
and General Assembly might be called to settle the affairs of church
and state; and an indemnity offered to all who were or had been in
arms. The Duke, who heard them with great attention, replied that
the king had given him no instructions respecting these matters; he
therefore could not say any thing about them, only he assured the
delegates he would lay their requests before his majesty, and as he
thought them reasonable, had no doubt they would be granted; but
in the meanwhile, he could enter into no terms till they laid down
their arms and threw themselves entirely upon the royal mercy. He
then dismissed them, and gave them half an hour to return him an
answer from their friends whether they would consent to his
proposal. At the same time, he issued orders to put the troops in
motion.
When the commissioners reported the Duke’s demand, that they
should lay down their arms previous to terms being offered, Mr
Hamilton, who had now assumed the command, laughed at it, and
said, “Aye! and hang next.” No answer was therefore returned. As
soon as the half hour’s truce expired, Lord Livingston advanced at
the head of the foot-guards with the cannon to force the bridge. He
was firmly received by a small determined band under Ure of
Shargarton and Major Learmont, who drove them back twice, and
would even have taken the cannon had they been properly
supported, but their ammunition failed; and when they sent to the
commander for a fresh supply, or a reinforcement of men better
provided, they received orders to retire upon the main body, which,
having no other alternative, they did, and with heavy hearts left their
vantage ground, and with it every chance of success.[124] The royal
army then passed the bridge, and drew up upon the bank with their
artillery in front, to which the patriots had nothing to oppose but one
field-piece and two large uncouth unmounted muskets; yet did they
force Lord Livingston to halt, till the cannon having been opened
upon the left, threw the undisciplined horse of the countrymen into
disorder, and the route immediately became universal.[125]
124. The honour of this defence is claimed by Russell for Hackston of Rathillet,
who also had a command; but it is universally allowed that the nominal
General, Hamilton, was among the first to flee.
125. Although we may lament the dreadful and bloody years which followed this
victory, and hold up to merited execration the persecuting prelates, yet,
perhaps, the descendants of the persecuted have reason to bless God that
the ultra-covenanters did not gain that day. It would have given the chief
power into the hands of Robert Hamilton, who commanded upon that
occasion; and what use he would have made of it may be fairly conjectured
from the following vindication of his conduct in murdering in cold blood a
prisoner after the battle of Drumclog. It is contained in a letter from him
addressed to “the anti-popish, anti-prelatic, anti-sectarian, true Presbyterian
remnant of the church of Scotland,” dated December 7, 1685:—“As for that
accusation they bring against me of killing the poor man (as they call him) at
Drumclog, I may easily guess that my accusers can be no other but some of
the house of Saul or Shemei, or some such risen again to espouse that poor
gentleman’s (Saul) his quarrel against honest Samuel, for his offering to kill
that poor man, Agag, after the king’s giving him quarters. But I being called
to command that day, gave out the word that no quarter should be given; and
returning from pursuing Claverhouse, one or two of these fellows were
standing in the midst of our friends, and some were debating for quarters,
some against it. None could blame me to decide the controversy; and I bless
the Lord for it to this day!! There were five more that, without my knowledge,
got quarters, who were brought to me after we were a mile from the place as
having got quarters—which I reckoned among the first steppings aside; and
seeing that spirit amongst us at that time, I then told it to some that were with
me (to my best remembrance it was honest old John Nisbet) that I feared the
Lord would not honour us to do much for him. I shall only say this—I desire
to bless his holy name that, since ever he helped me to set my face to his
work, I never had nor would take a favour from enemies, either on right or left
hand, and desired to give as few.”—Faithful Contendings, p. 201 et seq.
Few fell in the fight, but the pursuit was cruel and bloody; upwards
of four hundred were cut down, and twelve hundred who were on the
moor, were forced to surrender at discretion. The slaughter would
have been greater had not Monmouth, in spite of the advice of some
of the other Generals, ordered the vanquished to be spared, when
the yeomanry cavalry especially were executing cruel vengeance on
the unresisting fugitives. Among the prisoners were Messrs King and
Kid, ministers, who were, however, only preserved by his humanity
from military violence, that they might afterwards satiate the cruelty
of their clerical enemies by a more disgraceful execution, if dying in
any manner for the cause of truth can be called disgraceful. The
treatment of the captives by the inferior officers, to whose charge
they were committed, was unnecessarily vindictive and severe. They
were stripped nearly naked, and made to lie flat on the ground, nor
suffered to change their position; and when some of them ventured
to raise themselves to implore a draught of water, they were instantly
shot. They were afterwards tied two and two and driven to
Edinburgh, to be placed at the council’s disposal.
Nor was the cruelty confined to those taken in battle, numbers of
unarmed men, who were merely coming to hear sermon at the
camp, were murdered on the road by the soldiery; and one atrocious
case stands painfully conspicuous. Arthur Inglis of Cambusnethan,
while quietly reading his bible in a furrow, was observed by a party
who were patrolling the country in search of delinquents, and being
actually discovered in this treasonable fact, one of the soldiers fired
at the traitor; but missing, the good man startled a little, looked round
for a moment, and then, without appearing to be alarmed, resumed
his reading, when another of the miscreants, by order of his viler
commander, clave his skull, and left him dead on the spot! The
numbers who were thus wantonly massacred, are variously stated;
but if we take the lowest, two hundred—considering the then state of
the population—it shows, in sufficiently strong colours, a barbarous
waste of life, and the danger of committing such extravagant powers
into the hands of an unbridled soldiery.
Yet terrible as these military executions were, they were mild and
merciful compared with the legal atrocities which followed. As after
Pentland no faith was kept with the prisoners, who were treated—as
men who fail in struggling for their rights always are—more like wild,
noxious animals than fellow-creatures of the human form; a lesson to
patriots and to the oppressed when they rise against their tyrants:—
better perish on the high places of the field than submit to languish
out a few mournful years beneath the tender mercies of the victors.
While being driven to the capital, the captive patriots were exposed
to every indignity the ingenious malignity of their persecutors could
invent, especially being made, as they passed along, a gazing-stock
to the crowd, who taunted them with such questions, as—where is
your prophet Welsh who told you ye should win the day? where are
your covenants that were never to fail? or such sarcasms, as—aye!
this is your testimony—this is standing up for the gude auld cause!
see if it will stand up for you! When they arrived in the capital, the
council ordered the magistrates to place them in the Greyfriar’s
churchyard, with a sufficient number of sentinels over them, to guard
them night and day; especially during the night, they were to be
rigorously watched to prevent escape; and such was their
determination to enforce vigilance, that the officers were ordered to
keep exact rolls of the sentinels, and if any of the prisoners were
amissing, they were to throw dice and answer body for body. For
nearly five months were the greater part of the sufferers kept in this
open space, without any covering from the rain or shelter from the
tempest. During the day, they generally stood, but had not even the
miserable privilege of a short walk. During night, the cold damp
ground was their bed, without a covering; and if any attempted to
rise, for whatever purpose, the sentinels had orders to fire upon
them. With great difficulty did any of their friends obtain permission
to visit them, or bring them provisions, and these were chiefly
females, who were exposed to the grossest insults from the guards;
and not infrequently were the provisions they carried destroyed, and
the water spilt, before either could reach the starving prisoners; for
the government allowance which the Duke of Monmouth procured
for them, was, besides being of the worst quality, very scanty. Nor
did the inhumanity of the ruffian soldiery allow them to retain money
or any article they could pilfer from them, even their shoes,
stockings, and upper garments were carried off; and when blankets
or any bedclothes were brought, they were immediately seized as
lawful plunder.
Before Monmouth left Scotland, he procured the liberation of some
hundreds, upon their subscribing a bond, enacting themselves in the
books of the privy council not to take up arms without or against his
majesty’s authority; and had also obtained for a few of them the
stinted favour of wretched huts, to be erected as the winter
approached. The bond became another cause of unhappy difference
and alienation among the sufferers themselves. Those who refused
amounted to about four hundred, and much interest was made to
procure their deliverance, especially by some who thought they
might sign the bond without sin, endeavouring to persuade them to
submit, as it did not involve the sacrifice of any of those principles for
which they had taken arms. The others, however, more consistently,
viewed their subscribing the bond as an admission that their
previous rising had been criminal, and therefore persisted in their
refusal. The hardships they had so long endured, and their mutual
exhortations, heightened and strengthened their scruples, till they
became absolutely impenetrable to whatever could be urged upon
the subject, nor would listen either to entreaty or argument. Yet
upwards of an hundred contrived to effect an escape; some by the
purchased connivance of the guards, some by climbing the walls at
the hazard of their lives, others by changing their clothes, and some
in women’s apparel.
The remnant who remained firm, were doomed to slavery in the
plantations; and their fate, had earth terminated their hopes, was
melancholy; but viewed as that of those who through much
tribulation must enter the kingdom, was enviable—inexpressibly
enviable! when compared with that of their oppressors, who
unwittingly sent them by the shortest road to heaven.[126] Their
numbers, estimated at about two hundred and fifty-seven, were to be
transported to Barbadoes and sold for slaves. Mr Blackadder thus
narrates the tragical story:—“The prisoners were all shipped in Leith
roads (15th November) in an English captain’s vessel, to be carried
to America. He was a profane, cruel wretch, and used them
barbarously, stewing them up between decks, where they could not
get up their heads, except to sit or lean, and robbing them of many
things their friends had sent them for their relief. They never were in
such strait and pinch, particularly through scorching drowth, as they
were allowed little or no drink and pent up together, till many of them
fainted and were almost suffocated. This was in Leith roads, besides
what straits they would readily endure in the custody of such a cruel
wretch. In this grievous plight, these captives were carried away in
much anguish of spirit, pinched bodies, and disquieted consciences,
(at least those who had taken the bond.[127]) They were tossed at sea
with great tempest of weather for three weeks, till at last their ship
cast anchor, to ride awhile among the Orkney Isles, till the storm
might calm. But after casting anchor, the ship did drive with great
violence upon a rugged shore about the isles, and struck about ten
at night on a rock. The cruel captain saw the hazard all were in, and
that they might have escaped as some did; yet, as I heard, he would
not open the hatches to let the poor prisoners fend for themselves.
He with his seamen made their escape by a mast laid over between
the ship and the rock ashore. Some leapt on the rock.
126. James Corsan, in a letter to his wife, dated from Leith roads, says—“All the
trouble they met with since Bothwell was not to be compared to one day in
their present circumstances; that their uneasiness was beyond words: yet he
owns in very pathetical terms, that the consolations of God overbalanced all,
and expresses his hopes that they are near their port, and heaven is opening
for them.”—Wodrow, vol. ii. p. 83.
127. It appears that some who had taken the bond, had, notwithstanding, been
still detained.
“The ship being strong, endured several strokes ere she bilged.
The captain and all the rest of the seamen, with about fifty prisoners,
some of whom had been above deck before, others had broke out
some other way down to the den, and so up again; so that they were
to land with their life in: one or two died ashore. While these were
thus escaping, the rest who had all been closed up between decks,
crying most pitifully, and working as they could to break forth of their
prison, but to little purpose; and all these, near two hundred, with
lamentable shrieks of dying men—as was related to the writer by
one who escaped—did perish. The most part were cast out on the
shore dead, and after buried by the country people.”[128]
128. It is pleasant to notice instances of kindness and benevolence, in times such
as these, among the influential men of the prelatical party. I quote from the
Memoirs of Brysson, edited by Dr M’Crie, who remarks—“One of these kind
lairds is evidently Sir William Drummond of Hawthornden, son of the
celebrated poet,” p. 285, Note—“After our defeat, I wist not what to do.
However, after some time lurking, I ventured home, where my sister and
family were together, who had suffered many wrongs from the enemy, my
mother being dead a year before this fell out; and that which is very
remarkable, I dwelt betwixt two lairds who were both out in arms against us;
and one of them never conformed to the Presbyterian government to his
dying day, though he lived thirty-five years after this. And the other was of the
same judgment, though he complied with the government afterwards.
However, the Lord moved them to favour me in the day of my distress. For
they sent for my sister before I came home, and advised her to put all the
goods from off the ground, and every thing but what was of present use for
the family. One of the gentlemen was so kind, that he desired my sister to
send over the milk kine and let them feed with his, and to send over her
servants morning and evening to milk them for the use of the family. And
ordered her to pack up all things that she thought the enemy might make a
prey of, and send them over to his house; which accordingly she did, where
they were secure. The other gentleman was no less kind, for he desired her
to send the milk ewes over to his ground that she might not lose their milk,
and to send her servants to milk them. After that she sent away the horses,
oxen, and other yeld beasts, to a friend who lived on the Earl of Wigton’s
ground, who received them willingly. Thus the Lord trysted me with favour
both from my friends and foes, for which I desire to adore his wonderful
providence.”—Memoirs of George Brysson, pp. 284-5.