ABSTRACT

Technology is the attempt by humans to control and master the natural environment to make it more hospitable. While the approach of pure science often lacks immediate implementation, technology utilises practical skills, recipes, and inventions to resolve problems – a pragmatic and applicable approach. Clearly technology, ancient to modern, has transformed human existence. The objective of the book is to provide in English translation important texts from Greek and Latin sources in 14 thematic chapters to illustrate the significant roles, positive and negative, of technology in the classical world. The book is mostly concerned with literary sources (encyclopaedia, topical works, treatises, compendia, agricultural manuals, histories, geographic descriptions, poems, philosophical works, biographies, letters, etc.) but also includes many noteworthy inscriptions and papyri. Archaeological evidence is presented via a number of line-drawings to provide a visual sense of some of the devices, implements, and methods described in the texts, but material remains are not a focus of the book.