The Decline Of Old Science

Science was doing remarkable progress during the days of the Hellenistic period from around 300 BC to 300 AD. Just consider the following examples:

In astronomy, Claudius Ptolemy had built a very accurate model of the universe, which in spite of a couple of evident flaws, was adopted for every purpose; from astrology to navigation, during the next fifteen hundred years.In Geography, Eratosthenes had measured the circumference of the Earth with astonishing precision.In Mathematics, Euclid had put together all ancient geometrical knowledge in his compilation book Elements, which served as a reference text until the arrival of Renaissance.In Engineering and applied Mathematics, Archimedes had built incredibly accurate mechanical devices for military defense and come really close to differential calculus with his method of exhaustion.

But that trend of advance was interrupted at the end of the Classical Era, and didn't fully gained momentum again until the rediscovery of Aristotelian natural philosophy and in fact until the arrival of Renaissance.

An immediate, important and legitimate question arises: Why did scientific progress in antiquity come to a halt?

Very frequently we hear that the main reason for this decay was the establishment of Christianity as official religion of the Roman Empire. The case supposedly rests on the documented negative reaction against existing pagan science. Some even say science was persecuted by law.

Such a question deserves a legitimate answer and the truth is very different from that simplistic approach.

There were two groups of causes that lead to this situation:

Cultural and religious change: There was indeed a turn for the worse in that sense and everything that had originated in paganism was rejected because it usually contradicted Scripture (the Bible). Academies were closed and even though there were never written laws against science; the atmosphere was unbearable for scientists. For instance, many of them were denounced as wizards for their simple use of astronomical instrumentsDeterioration of daily material conditions because of constant warfare. The continuous threat of barbaric invasions from outside and of heresies from inside created a climate of interminable riots, fights, military actions, persecutions which made life very precarious. People had no other choice but concentrating on daily survival. No resources were left for education and science.

As a result of these causes, science entered a period of stagnation which in Western Europe lasted until the arrival of the XIII century, when medieval harsh material conditions were alleviated a little by some advances in agriculture (new plough devices, better water mills) and scholars were able to spare some time to study the new copies of ancient Greek texts that were coming from Toledo (Spain) and Constantinople.

There were, by the way, some written laws against the art of Mathematica on the Theodosian and Justinian law compilations, from 400 and 500 BC respectively. Only Mathematica in old Latin, didn't mean mathematics but astrology or divination.

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