Geometer, in a Landscape: Embodied Mathematics in Hero’s Dioptra

Roby, Courtney

doi:10.1515/9783110565959-004

Cited by 2 publications

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“…In Hero of Alexandria's first-century AD work on the dioptra, one of the mathematical agents used is a surveyor who is laying out a watercourse and has to gauge the height difference between two points ( Dioptra 6.1–21; Roby 2018, 73–4; Lewis 2001, 263–5). The second-century AD inscription found in Lambaesis, mentioned above ( CIL VIII 2728), informs us that the military engineer, Nonius Datus, surveyed the route of the Saldae aqueduct, stating: Therefore I, who had first made the survey, had decided on the route of the aqueduct, had arranged for it to be done according to the plan which I had given the procurator Petronius Celer, completed the work.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Roman Aqueduct of Knossos, a Model for Nineteenth-Century Aqueduct Design

Kelly

O'Neill²

2023

Annu. Br. Sch. Athens

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In this paper, we present findings from a field inspection of the Knossos aqueduct undertaken in 2019. A key contribution of our fieldwork was the architectural identification of the Roman channel underlying the nineteenth-century wall of the Ottoman-Egyptian aqueduct supplying Iraklio. While reuse of the Roman aqueduct in the nineteenth century was known from historical reports, the structural overlap has never been identified in the field or documented archaeologically, until now. We recorded the Roman channel lined with opus signinum running along the base of the nineteenth-century aqueduct's wall between Fundana and Spilia. Through this realisation in the field, we were able to establish diagnostic styles of masonry for both periods. Our architectural distinction between the overlaid aqueducts allowed us to integrate previously disarticulated components of the later system, like the reused Roman tunnel at Skalani and the nineteenth-century bridge at Spilia, into an integrated Ottoman-Egyptian water supply for Iraklio. As we approached Knossos from Spilia, we were also able to identify the point at which the Venetian aqueduct supplying Iraklio converged with the Roman system. Consequently, our 2019 fieldwork not only mapped the length of the Roman aqueduct supplying the city of Knossos but also that section of the nineteenth-century Ottoman-Egyptian aqueduct of Iraklio built directly over it and a shorter tract of the Venetian aqueduct of Iraklio that either ran alongside it or was, in turn, itself partially overlaid by the nineteenth-century system.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Roman Aqueduct of Knossos, a Model for Nineteenth-Century Aqueduct Design

Kelly

O'Neill²

2023

Annu. Br. Sch. Athens

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Strange Loops

Roby

2024

Technological Animation in Classical Antiquity

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Hero of Alexandria’s Automata describes the design and construction of theatrical automata. These elaborate devices could be mechanically programmed to perform a variety of activities, including rolling around the floor on any of several predetermined paths, sparking a group of dancing figurines to life, or even presenting a multiscene play with changing backdrops and puppet actors. Hero presents his automata as mechanical systems shaped by an iterative dynamic between craftsman and machine: the craftsman begins with a plan for the automaton, but the automaton’s own material complications ‘reprogramme’ the plan in various ways throughout the construction process. These ancient automata are driven by stubbornly material, mechanical components, and yet the iterative process of designing and fitting the automaton to play out its ‘programme’ turns out to resemble the day-to-day work of constructing algorithms like those that guide modern automated systems more than the cleanly finished products might suggest. In this paper, I explore the material complications of Hero’s automata, the extent to which his automata aim for realism, and the ways in which Hero’s instructions to a reader-builder appeal to the kind of looped ‘respecification’ modern algorithms require as their designs are gradually refined by the complications of the world in which they operate.

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Geometer, in a Landscape: Embodied Mathematics in Hero’s Dioptra

Cited by 2 publications

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The Roman Aqueduct of Knossos, a Model for Nineteenth-Century Aqueduct Design

The Roman Aqueduct of Knossos, a Model for Nineteenth-Century Aqueduct Design

Strange Loops

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