Byzantine Philosophy, Technology, Science and Medicine
The Byzantines made numerous contributions to philosophy, science and medicine while also making innovations and inventions. Nevertheless, those achievements of Byzantium are usually ignored as Gibbon and other Enlightenment period authors castigated Byzantium for being a Christian “theocratic” state. This post is meant to illustrate Byzantine contributions in the fields of philosophy, technology, science and medicine.
Byzantine Philosophy
Philosophy (Φιλοσοφία) had many meanings in Byzantium, signifying eloquence, education, knowledge and the Christian way of life. The Byzantine authors took interest in Platonic, Aristotelian and Stoic texts.
The successors of the third century philosopher Ammonius in Alexandria and fifth and sixth centuries philosophers, such Proclus, Damaskios and Simplicius, in Athens represented the late Neoplatonic philosophy, a systemic and varied interpretation of Aristotle and Plato aiming at the divinization of the human rational soul. This school of thought influenced the works of John of Damascus, Pseudo-Dionysos, Maximus the Confessor and other Byzantine writers. Among those philosophers, the most important was Proclus (412–485). The majority of his writings were commentaries of Platonic dialogues. According to Proclus, philosophy was important in order to rescue the soul from a fascination with the body and restore it to its station. Beyond the station, according to Proclus, the soul had Intellect as its goal, and ultimately had unification with the One as its goal.
Maximus the Confessor (580–662), a civil servant before becoming a monk, studied diverse schools of philosophy and was knowledgeable of the Platonic dialogues, the works of Aristotle and commentators on the works of those two philosophers, such as the above mentioned Proclus. John of Damascus (675/676–749) was a polymath who contributed to theology, philosophy, law and music. He wrote the Fountain of Wisdom, which included chapters on logic, heresies and a summary of the Orthodox faith.
The Arab invasions of the seventh century and the collapse of the Balkan frontiers of the Empire caused unrest, economic downturn and a decline in education. Nevertheless, there is evidence for elementary teaching of philosophy (logic and ethics) in the seventh and eighth centuries in Constantinople. In the ninth century, Leo the Mathematician taught philosophy in the capital. He wrote books, poems and epigrams but much of his work has been lost. In his library he had a wide range of philosophical, astronomical and medical books. In the tenth century, Constantine (‘leader of philosophers’) also taught philosophy. Photios (810/820–893) taught and revised Aristotelian logic and criticized Plato’s metaphysics and politics while Arethas of Caesarea (860–939) commented on Aristotle’s logic and did important editorial work on Plato’s manuscripts.
In the eleventh century, there was a revival of philosophy brought about both due to the wealth and geopolitical standing of the Empire (which under the Macedonian emperors had recovered lost territories) and the work of possibly the greatest Byzantine philosopher, Michael Psellus (1017–1078). He was given the title of ‘head of philosophers’ (ὕπατος τῶν φιλοσόφων) by Emperor Constantine IX Monomachus. He had an extensive library of works of antiquity. He was an admirer of Proclus and studied Neoplatonism. He wrote a large number of philosophical and scientific texts such as De omnifaria doctrina, an important work of philosophy, and De Operatione Daemonum, a classification of demons. Psellus’ pupil, John Italus was also a Neoplatonist who used philosophical analysis on theological questions and was also skilled in logic and Aristotelian philosophy.
Under the Komnenoi, higher education was reorganized by the central government. A Patriarchal Academy was established with series for rhetoric, philosophy, theology, and Scripture. Although this centralization meant that the government (and Church) had a tighter leash in what was being taught, this did not hinder the revival of philosophy. Theodore of Smyrna, who succeeded Italus, was an author of a summary of physics while Italus’ pupil Eustratios of Nicaea collaborated with Michael of Ephesus to fill the gaps in late ancient commentaries on Aristotle, compiling commentaries on Aristotle’s ethics, physics and politics that would be instrumental in the transmission of Aristotelian thought to the West.
After the fall of Constantinople in 1204 to the Latin armies of the Fourth Crusade, which caused possibly the greatest loss of Greek texts in history, Byzantine scholars migrated to the Greek successor states. Among them was Nikephoros Blemmydes, who fled to the Empire of Nicaea and became a tutor. He taught of logic and physics. The Palaiologan restoration of Byzantium ushered a new era of renewal in philosophy. George Pachymeres (1242–1310) prepared a summary of Aristotelian philosophy and copies of Neoplatonic commentaries. Theodore Metochites (1270–1332) read rare Neoplatonic texts and criticized the scientific claims of Aristotelian physics and metaphysics while Nikephoros Choumnos (1250/55–1327) criticized Metochites’ Neoplatonism. Nikephoros Gregoras (1295–1360) had Neoplatonic sympathies and criticized logic, which was defended by Barlaam of Calabria (1290–1348).
George Gemistos Plethon (1355/1360–1452/1454) viewed Neoplatonism as a theological and political alternative to Christianity. He rejected Roman universalism in favor of creating a purely Hellenic state centered on the Peloponnese. He proposed a series of reforms to Manuel II that would see the peninsula turned into a centralized monarchy, protected by a professional army of Greek soldiers and supported by the taxpayers (Helots). His ideas were inspired by Plato’s Republic. Gennadius Scholarius (1400–1473) was an ardent defender of Orthodoxy and the first Patriarch of Ottoman Constantinople. He led a pro-scholastic defense of Aristotle. All those philosophers were the forerunners of the Western Renaissance.
Byzantine Science and Technology
The Byzantines made numerous inventions and contributed to science. Some of the more prominent Byzantine inventions are:
The hand-trebuchet, a staff sling mounted on a pole using a lever mechanism to propel projectiles. It was used by Emperor Nicephorus Phocas’ army in his campaigns to disrupt enemy lines.
The Counterweight trebuchet, which was far more powerful than the normal traction trebuchet. It was used by Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and it is said that it impressed his crusader allies during the siege of Nicaea.
The famous Greek Fire. Invented by Kallinikos, it was the flamethrower of the era. It was liquid fire used by the Byzantine navy to inflame the enemy ships. It played a crucial role in saving Constantinople from the Arab onslaught.
Cheirosiphōn, an early version of the flamethrower used by the ground troops.
Grenades. They appeared during the reign of Leo III (717–741). Byzantine soldiers threw ceramic jars with Greek fire. They set them alight by fire arrows or ignited them before throwing them at the enemy.
The Beacon System. The Byzantines used a system of beacons to transmit messages from the border with the Caliphate across Asia Minor to Constantinople during the 9th century. The system was devised during the reign of Emperor Theophilos (829–842) by Leo the Mathematician. The main line of beacons stretched over some 450 miles and it functioned through two identical water clocks placed at the two terminal stations.
The cross-in-square architectural form appeared first in the late 8th century. It was used in the construction of churches:
The pointed arch bridge, which first appeared in the 5th century.
The pendentive dome, which placed a circular dome over a square room. The first (and most famous) example of a pendentive dome is Hagia Sophia, designed by Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles.
Ship mills — they were introduced by Belisarius during the Siege of Rome (537/538) as the Ostrogoths had cut off the water supply by aqueducts. They proved useful and thus quickly became popular and spread to the Frankish realm too.
Byzantine science was based on the heritage of antiquity, especially the Alexandrian schools. Unlike the West, the Byzantines were never cut off from this great scientific heritage. The Byzantines used the works of writers such as Euclid, Apollonios, Archimedes, Ptolemy, Pappos and others. Byzantines were also influenced by Arabs and Persians. The Byzantine scholars were polymaths who would study many different subjects.
The Byzantines studied the four arts — Quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy). The first of those arts was the arithmetic. Greek numerals were written with letters and there was no symbol for zero. One of the earlier and most important work on arithmetic was the papyrus of Akhmin (seventh century), which dealt with fractions and problems in the Egyptian tradition. In the seventh and eighth centuries, young people would study arithmetic though no texts survive from before the eleventh century. In 1007–8, an anonymous Quadrivium text included an arithmetical part that was based on Euclid and Nikomachos.
It was during the end of the thirteenth and the first half of the fourteenth century that arithmetic was shown the most interest. Both George Pachymeres and Maximos Planoudes (1260–1310) studied the work of Diophantus of Alexandria, the “father of algebra”. On arithmetical manuals of this period, theoretical works were often liked to astronomy with many chapters devoted to sexagesimal calculations, while practical manuals regarding daily problems could also be found. The Stoicheiosis (Elements) of Theodore Metochites is an immense astronomical work which opens with a long arithmetical introduction while the Astronomical Tribiblos of Theodore Meliteniotes also devoted an important part of the book on arithmetical procedures. Around 1300, in a manual of his, Maximos Planoudes introduced Indian numerals but they never had much success among Byzantine scholars. Barlaam of Calabria, in his Logistic, represented the numbers with lines and letters and his work was purely abstract based on Euclid.
Geometry was not much developed by the Byzantines with the exception of Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles during the reign of Emperor Justinian in the sixth century. Euclid and his geometry were widely studied, though, while there existed numerous small treatises on geodesy which explained procedures for surveying. Astronomy, on the other hand, was much cultivated by the Byzantines. Byzantine astronomy can be divided into two strands; the Ptolemean tradition and the adoption of various foreign astronomical tables (Arabic, Persian, Latin and Jewish). The Ptolemaic tradition was based on his work Almagest and on Theon of Alexandria, whose commentaries on Ptolemy were widely used. Theon’s book was, according to the author, ‘astronomy for dummies’ and with its clear explanations and examples allowed anyone to use Ptolemy’s tables without having to understand the difficult geometrical grounds of Ptolemy’s astronomy. The first Byzantine book on astronomy was the Commentary to the Handy Tables of Stephanos of Alexandria (c.617). In the eighth century, John of Damascus, in his De Fide Orthodoxa, gave basic notions of cosmology and astronomy. The ninth century was marked by the copying of scientific manuscripts containing Ptolemy’s and Theon’s works.
The eleventh century was the most important for Byzantine astronomy. Aside from books based on the Ptolemaic tradition, one can find good knowledge of Islamic astronomy. Anonymous commentaries composed around 1032 quote observations made during the reign of Caliph al-Ma’mun and the tables of Alim. In 1062, a Byzantine astrolabe was created for a man of Persian origins. The texts of the eleventh and twelfth centuries reveal a very high scientific level. The destruction brought upon by the Fourth Crusade caused a rapture in that scientific advance and the Islamic works disappeared from Byzantium until the late thirteenth century, when Constantinople had been recovered. Among the renewers of Ptoleamic astronomy in that new period was Theodore Metochites with his enormous work Astronomike Stoicheiosis (Astronomic Elements). Nikephoros Gregoras, pupil of Metochites, was able to use Ptolemaic astronomical tables to predict solar and lunar eclipses. Barlaam of Calabria was also skilled in astronomy and able to calculate the solar eclipses of 1333 and 1337. During this period, Persian astronomy was introduced in Byzantium. George Chioniades acquired knowledge of astronomy in Persia and he returned to Trebizond and Constantinople with Persian works translated into Greek. Translations of this period include the Zij as-Sanjari (al-Khazini, c.1120), the Zij al-Ala’i (al-Fahhad, c.1150), and the instructions of the Persian astronomer Shams Bukhari. The technical terms were simply transcribed from Persian or Arabic. In 1347, George Chrysokokkes studied astronomy with a priest named Manuel and wrote the Persian Syntaxes. The Persian tables thus spread widely and were adapted in Byzantine works.
The last branch of the Quadrivium was music. In large part, ancient musical theory consisted in studying the mathematical ratios that represented musical intervals, and that study of harmonic ratios was extended to cosmology. The Byzantines continued with this tradition. An anonymous work of the eleventh century contains a short musical section. In the late thirteenth century, John Pediasimos commented on various points of musical theory. At the same period, Manuel Bryennios left a treatise comprised of three books called Harmonics, compiled from the ancient theoreticians. Nikephoros Gregoras wrote a complement to the Harmonics of Ptolemy, which Barlaam of Calabria criticized in his Refutation.
Access to those works through Byzantine history had a small intellectual elite of scholars, astrologers or physicians patronized by the court, rich aristocrats/civil officials or high members of the Orthodox Church.
Byzantine medicine and botanology
The ancient sources of Byzantine botanology can be found in the poems of Nicander of Colophon (second century BC) and the Materia Medica of Dioskorides (first century AD). The Byzantines had much interest in the medical use of plants. They had institutionalized hospitals which favored the growth of medicine and pharmacy. This was especially true for the era of the Komnenoi Dynasty (eleventh-twelfth centuries), when the Hospital of Pantokrator included a pharmacy. The hospitals in Byzantium were the beginnings of modern hospitals. Many of them were designed for the poor, funded by the Church and became part of civic life. Many of the surviving Byzantine medical texts were practical, sophisticated, responsive to changing needs and, in some ways, innovative.
