Romans and Astronomy

[Viggen]

The thread about the roman calendar and the mentioning of astonomy made me wonder how good the romans actually were on this subject, did they just took over from the greek, or did they explore/discover anything noteworthy themselves? Where the romans actually interested in astronomy or was ist just about knowing when the next winter/summer would come.

 

Recent finds show that already the early celts and before had a pretty good concept of stars, the sun and the moon. What about the romans? Most of the time we just here about their conquests, so i would be intrsted about their astronomical capacity.

 

cheers

viggen

[Lynch]

Well Celts studied the skies as part of the Pagan Religion, obviously the heavens were a big deal for them, I'd have to agree the Roman's interest in the stars, would be more weather related than anything. But of course I could be wrong! I watched an interesting show called Secrets of the Dark Ages, where they basically explore the role, and important contributions of so-called 'barbarians'. Even though It's called Secrets of the Dark Ages many of the episodes cover roman times. I must say after watching that show I begin to wonder exactly how much the romans thought of themselves!

[Caine]

Caesar's reforms and understanding of the solar year obviously points that they knew quite a bit about it. Caesar's main astronomer was from Alexadria....cant remember his name.

 

Also, Ptolomy create various maps and such using astrological signs for distance and precision, and his map are very close to actual land formations

[Viggen]

Thanks Caine for the heads up,

 

cheers

viggen

[Guest Drusilia]

Caeser's astronomer's name was Sosigenes.

[Danno]

There was a huge mania for astrology during the Empire. Witness several emperors' expulsions of astrologers from Rome, and laws forbidding people to make horoscopes about the emperor or to meet about them in secret. Augustus put his sign Capricorn on some of his coins; Nero had people put to death whose horoscopes foretold greatness for them. Just a few examples.

 

This was the Romans' main interest in astronomical events; certainly knowing the seasons was important, but it wouldn't have played any larger a part in the mind of the average Roman as it does in any of our minds... all we have to do is look at a calendar.