Right, Pliny and Seneca are pop science. There’s nothing wrong with that, and it’s not surprising that it survived. The problem is that there isn’t any Roman science. It’s not just that none survives, but no names are known, while lots of names of Hellenistic scientists are known without text. Maybe the scientists and engineers wrote in Greek. Galen lived in Rome and wrote in Greek, but he was Greek. Maybe the Romans didn’t want to learn science and engineering, subjects for slaves.
A better example is the introduction to Varro’s book on farming. This is not a pop science book, but a practical manual. He complains that his Greek sources are full of “philosophy.” Lucio Russo suggests that they are full of abstract arguments that Varro cannot follow. But Varro is our only access to these authors, so we cannot be sure. In any event, these are all small N arguments.
In fairness to the Romans, I could probably find popular “science” books today with a similar level of stupidity.
Right, Pliny and Seneca are pop science. There’s nothing wrong with that, and it’s not surprising that it survived. The problem is that there isn’t any Roman science. It’s not just that none survives, but no names are known, while lots of names of Hellenistic scientists are known without text. Maybe the scientists and engineers wrote in Greek. Galen lived in Rome and wrote in Greek, but he was Greek. Maybe the Romans didn’t want to learn science and engineering, subjects for slaves.
A better example is the introduction to Varro’s book on farming. This is not a pop science book, but a practical manual. He complains that his Greek sources are full of “philosophy.” Lucio Russo suggests that they are full of abstract arguments that Varro cannot follow. But Varro is our only access to these authors, so we cannot be sure. In any event, these are all small N arguments.