The artes and the Emergence of a Scientific Culture in the Early Roman Empire

The first full-scale account of the Latin treatises called artes, demonstrating their relation to a uniquely Roman scientific culture.

James L. Zainaldin (Author)

9781009501637, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 February 2025

474 pages, 20 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.9 x 3.2 cm, 0.83 kg

This book offers the first full-scale, synthetic account of the Latin technical treatises called artes, arguing that their flourishing in the early Roman Empire represents the emergence and development of a uniquely Roman scientific culture. It introduces the Roman artes on architecture, agriculture, land-surveying, medicine, and the art of war to those without specialist knowledge of the disciplines and advances a new argument for their significance vis-à-vis a common intellectual culture. It unpacks the socio-political, literary, and especially philosophical and scientific dimensions of these writings. It characterizes the scientific culture which the artes constitute and traces significant themes in their construction of disciplinary expertise, examining the effects of the tension between theory and practice as well as their systematic, explanatory, and interdisciplinary presentation of specialized knowledge. In presenting a novel interpretation of the artes, this book aims to add a new chapter to the history of science in Greco-Roman antiquity.

Introduction. The idea of the artes
Part I: 1. The scientific premises for the imperial artes: a view from the late Republic
2. Society, politics, and specialized knowledge in the early Roman empire: the artes and their authors
Part II: 3. The architectonic ars of architecture: explanation and method in Vitruvius' De architectura
4. Columella and the new Roman agronomy: the art of agriculture and knowledge of nature in Res rustica
Part III: 5. Making a Roman ars of medicine: observation, explanation, and judgement in Celsus' De medicina
Part IV: 6. The character and growth of the Latin art of war: from ars to exempla
7. The emergence of an ars mensoria: Frontinus and Hyginus on the historical realities and theoretical ideals of Roman land-surveying
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]