Byzantine’s contribution to science (and some coins)

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by Herberto, Feb 23, 2018.

  1. Herberto

    Herberto Well-Known Member

    As the title suggests I will list a couple of Byzantine’s contribution to science. It might be somehow dry for someone, so in case you want just to see the coins I suggest just to scroll down to post number two.

    I will provide a couple of things related to science which were invented, re-invented or improved in the realm of the Byzantine Empire. Perhaps it might be interesting for some of you.



    Here they are:



    PENDENTIVE ARCHITECTURE:
    1pendent.png

    Pendentive architecture is actually a late-Roman invention, at least in theory. But it was during Byzantine Empire that it was fully incorporated into practical matter where a tiny part of corners could support a heavy and large dome. The result is of course stunning.

    Source: https://www.britannica.com/technology/pendentive




    JOHN PHILOPONUS’S CRITICISM OF ARISTOTOTLE’S PHYSICS:
    2aristo john gali.png
    A popular misconception is that nobody questioned Aristotle’s physics before Galileo’s time. The reality is that many did that. And the first one who did it, was John Philoponus who was a byzantine philosopher/scientist. He was the first to criticize Aristotle’s theory of the free fall. Aristotle stated that heavier item will fall faster than a lighter item. So basically, if you have a 10kg iron ball and a 1kg iron ball, and you throw them from the Eiffel tower then the 10kg-ball will hit the earth first according to Aristotle’s teaching. But Philoponus refuted it and argued that since a 10kg and 1kg iron would have the same density they will fall at the same time.

    During the Scientific Revolution, which spanned from Galileo’s time until Newton’s time (ca. 1600-1750), Philoponus’s criticism of Aristotelian physics was critical for Galileo as he cited and mentioned Philoponus in his works when Galileo argued why Aristotelian physics was wrong.

    Source: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/philoponus/




    CORPUS JURIS CIVILIS:
    3Corpus.png
    Prior Justinian’s reign the law of the Romans was confusing as there were many contradictions between the law and the edicts of various emperors. Justinian’s code solved it, and the jurisprudence of the Western world has its roots from Byzantine law.




    SHIP MILL:
    4shipmill.png
    The theory behind the ship mill is from Vitruvius(a Roman engineer during Julius Caesar’s time) – The Byzantines knew Vitruvius’s ideas, and it was Byzantines who transformed his theory into practice by introducing ship mills to mill grain. Ship mills were often used close to bridges were steam of water could provide energy. Ship mills were used in Europe up until 1800.

    source: http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/11/boat-mills-bridge-mills-and-hanging-mills.html




    RUSSIAN CYRILLIC ALPHABET:
    5cyrilisk.png
    Cyril and Methodius are two byzantine monks from 800s, and they are for the Russian (and Balkan) Ortodoxs what Saint Patrick is for the Irish Catholics.

    Cyril and Methodius invented the Cyrillic alphabet for the Russians. It made Russian literature possible. It also made Russian expansion possible, because expansion requires effective revenues, and effective revenues require written-system to record taxes properly. Look how the Russians expanded century for century for century.




    GREEK FIRE AND PROTO-“GRANADE”:
    6 greek fire.png
    Greek Fire is a secret weapon made by Byzantines which meant they had control of a specific fire that even burnt on water! - The recipe was secret and only the Byzantines knew how to manufactured it, meaning they had an advantage against enemy ships. Greek fire without doubt saved the Byzantine Empire when they lifted and defeated the army of the Umayyad Caliphate in 717-718 during the great siege of Constantinople despite the fact that the Byzantine army and naval were completely outnumbered.

    While I am 100% sure that the Greek Fire was important in term of having an advantage in naval fight, I am not so sure how effective the proto-“grenade” was.




    SEPARATING CONJOINED TWINS:
    7Skylitzes.jpg
    In the Byzantine Empire in the 10th century we have record of the first known example of separating conjoined twins: a pair of conjoined twins were physically well from Armenia but were eventually brought to Constantinople. Many years later one of them died so the surgeons in Constantinople decided to remove the body of the dead one. The result was partly successful as the surviving twin lived in three days before dying. But the fact that the second person survived for few days after separating it, was so impressive that it was mentioned 150 years later again by historians and they still talked about it. The next case of separating conjoined twins will be recorded 700 years later in the year 1689 in Germany.

    The depiction above is made by John Skylitzes 150 years later after the event found place.

    Source:
    http://denysmontandon.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/conjoined-twins.pdf

    http://www.medievalists.net/2014/01/the-case-of-conjoined-twins-in-10th-century-byzantium/




    FORK AND MAYBE LYRA(VIOLIN?):
    8fork and violin.png
    Fork was first recorded during the crusades when the crusaders noted that the Byzantines ate with a fork. West Latin Europe did not know such thing. So, every time when you eat spaghetti you should think of Byzantine Empire during the crusade times.

    Lyra has always existed among the steppe people in Asia somehow, and most likely found way into Constantinople. However, the marble depicting lyra, is the earliest record of it. I will not go so far by saying that Byzantines invented violin unless I read it from a historian with expertise on music history. But here you have it: the first depiction of lyra.




    PRESERVATION OF CLASSICAL LEARNING:
    9cons to rom.png
    After or before the fall of Constantinople in 1453, a lot of Greek scholars flee to North Italy which fueled the era later commonly known as “Renaissance” as they brought with them a lot of classical learning in term of Homer’s Iliad, Aristoteles’s physics, Ptolemy’s astronomy, Galen’s medical texts, Euclid’s mathematics, plus many other things. I mentioned earlier that John Philoponus-guy who was critical of Aristotle’s physics, and it was also in this context that it found way to north Italy, and at the end to Galileo.

    The preservation of classical texts, alongside Justinian’s codification, are probably the two greatest contribution of Byzantium.

    Source: David Lindberg, "The Beginnings of Western Science", page 162

    here are some free pages from page 162:
    https://books.google.dk/books?id=dPUBAkIm2lUC&pg=PA162&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false



    I hope it has been somehow informative for you.
     
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  3. Herberto

    Herberto Well-Known Member

    Here some private photos from Arcadius(395-408) up to Manuel II(1391-1425). Bronze, silver and gold.

    The first 3 images are on a certain side, and the last 3 images the coins have been turned around.

    The order of the coins is chronically following the timeline of the emperors.

    Nothing news here, but I know that private photos are always more fascinating, and also I have gathered them together so you can “sense” the size of the coins and the timeline:


    a (1).JPG a (2).JPG a (3).JPG a (4).JPG a (5).JPG a (6).JPG
     
  4. Severus Alexander

    Severus Alexander find me at NumisForums

    Nice post!! The intellectual contributions of Byzantium are little known, you've done a nice job of highlighting them. One small addition: many of Plato's dialogues would have been lost if it hadn't been for the Byzantines. (See here.)

    Great coins, too!!
     
    Caesar_Augustus likes this.
  5. TIF

    TIF Always learning.

    That was a very interesting summary, thanks!
     
  6. ancient coin hunter

    ancient coin hunter 3rd Century Usurper

    Cool write up. I was aware of some of these things but not all of them. Thanks.
     
  7. Orfew

    Orfew Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus

    Great writeup, thanks.
     
  8. ominus1

    ominus1 Well-Known Member

    Purdy kool Herberto! interesting info and nice coins! :)
     
  9. Theodosius

    Theodosius Fine Style Seeker

    Thanks for the informative post and great coins!

    John
     
  10. chrsmat71

    chrsmat71 I LIKE TURTLES!

    Cool post @Herberto ! I dig reading about the history of medicine, I didn't know about the conjoined twins surgery, neat!

    Here's a Heraclius coin I got from @Pishpash !

    102_7465_zpsdxg3bfsu.jpg
     
  11. ancientcoinguru

    ancientcoinguru Well-Known Member

    The Byzantines were notorious for their treachery and political intrigue, so it's nice to read about their positive contributions. Thanks @Herberto, I learned a lot from your post.

    Nice coins too!
     
  12. Herberto

    Herberto Well-Known Member

    Thank you, and the others, for the appreciation.

    However, with regards to Byzantium being notorious for treachery, I am not so sure as that is rather a popular misconception from 1700s when the West Europe wanted to distance themselves from the “Eastern”/”Orientalistic” world.

    The term “Byzantine” was first invented after the fall of Constantinople by a guy named Hieronymus Wolf. It did not mean intrigue or complex. It was during 1700s that the discourse of Byzantine as "intrigue" appeared.

    While the term “Byzantine” does mean “complex” in English today, I am not so sure that the historians with expertise on Byzantium would accept it.

    And frankly: a short calculation and comparison of “Roman” and “Byzantine” emperors do not suggest it is true: an emperor in Byzantine time reigned longer than in Roman times, and the usurpations were more rare in Byzantine period than it was in Roman period.




    List of the Roman and Byzantine emperors:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Roman_emperors

    List of Roman usurpers:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Roman_usurpers

    List of Byzantine usurpers:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Byzantine_usurpers
     
    Last edited: Feb 25, 2018
  13. Severus Alexander

    Severus Alexander find me at NumisForums

    Where I think the Byzantine emperors deserve the connotation is with their diplomatic relations, playing off various steppe peoples, Bulgars, Magyars, Slavs, Caucasians, western Europeans, Fatimids, Persians, Turks, etc. etc. against each other... with impressive success even when their own military power was rather limited.
     
    Theodosius and Alegandron like this.
  14. randygeki

    randygeki Coin Collector

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