From Aristarchus to Ptolemy: The Birth of Accurate Observational Astronomy

Abstract

As we saw in the last chapter, Aristarchus and Apollonius were the first two theoretical astronomers who based their astronomical conclusions on the careful mathematical analysis of observational data. Aristarchus was more of a theoretician than Apollonius, who was the greater mathematician of the two. Unfortunately, only a few scattered remnants of Aristarchus’ great treatise On the Dimensions and Distances of the Sun and Moon remained to influence his followers who were opposed by those who considered his views to be heretical. According to Plutarch, Aristarchus was charged with impiety for daring to propose that the earth is not at the center of the universe. Because Apollonius did not speculate about the motion of the earth but simply presented mathematical models (conic sections) for the orbits of the planets, his theories did not provoke the resentment of the populace. However, his suggestions that the planetary orbit might well be elliptical instead of circular aroused some criticism.

Except the blind forces of Nature, nothing moves in this world which is not Greek in its origin.

—Sir Henry James Sumner Maine