Captured Libraries

"From Scepsis came the Socratic philosophers Erastus and Coriscus and Neleus the son of Coriscus, this last a man who was not only a pupil of Aristotle and Theophrastus, but also inherited the library of Theophrastus, which included that of Aristotle. At any rate, Aristotle bequeathed his own library to Theophrastus, to whom he also left his school; and he is the first man, so far as I know, to have collected books and to have taught the kings in Egypt how to arrange a library. Theophrastus bequeathed it to Neleus; and Neleus took it to Scepsis and bequeathed it to his heirs, ordinary people, who kept the books locked up and not even carefully stored. But when they heard how zealously the Attalic kings to whom the city was subject were searching for books to build up the library in Pergamum, they hid their books underground in a kind of trench. But much later, when the books had been damaged by moisture and moths, their descendants sold them to Apellicon of Teos for a large sum of money, both the books of Aristotle and those of Theophrastus. But Apellicon was a bibliophile rather than a philosopher; and therefore, seeking a restoration of the parts that had been eaten through, he made new copies of the text, filling up the gaps incorrectly, and published the books full of errors. The result was that the earlier school of Peripatetics who came after Theophrastus had no books at all, with the exception of only a few, mostly exoteric works, and were therefore able to philosophise about nothing in a practical way, but only to talk bombast about commonplace propositions, whereas the later school, from the time the books in question appeared, though better able to philosophise and Aristotelise, were forced to call most of their statements probabilities, because of the large number of errors. Rome also contributed much to this; for, immediately after the death of Apellicon, Sulla, who had captured Athens, carried off Apellicon's library to Rome, where Tyrannion the grammarian, who was fond of Aristotle, got it in his hands by paying court to the librarian, as did also certain booksellers who used bad copyists and would not collate the texts — a thing that also takes place in the case of the other books that are copied for selling, both here and at Alexandria. However, this is enough about these men." -- Strabo, Geography, Book XIII, I, 1st century B.C.

"He [Aemilius Paulus] only permitted his own sons, who were great lovers of learning, to take the king's [Perseus of Macedon's] books...." -- Plutarch, Life of Aemilius Paulus, 1st century

"Having set out from Ephesus with the whole navy, he [Sulla] came the third day to anchor in the Piraeus. Here he was initiated in the mysteries, and seized for his use the library of Apellicon the Teian, in which were most of the works of Theophrastus and Aristotle, then not in general circulation. When the whole was afterwards conveyed to Rome, there, it is said, the greater part of the collection passed through the hands of Tyrannion the grammarian, and that Andronicus the Rhodian, having through his means the command of numerous copies, made the treatises public, and drew up the catalogues that are now current. The elder Peripatetics appear themselves, indeed, to have been accomplished and learned men, but of the writings of Aristotle and Theophrastus they had no large or exact knowledge, because Theophrastus bequeathing his books to the heir of Neleus of Scepsis, they came into careless and illiterate hands." -- Plutarch, Life of Sulla, 1st century

"But what he did in the establishment of a library deserves warm praise. He got together many books, and they were well written, and his use of them was more honourable to him than his acquisition of them. His libraries were thrown open to all, and the cloisters surrounding them, and the study-rooms, were accessible without restriction to the Greeks, who constantly repaired thither as to an hostelry of the Muses, and spent the day with one another, in glad escape from their other occupations. Lucullus himself also often spent his leisure hours there with them, walking about in the cloisters with their scholars, and he would assist their statesmen in whatever they desired. And in general his house was a home and prytaneium for the Greeks who came to Rome. He was fond of all philosophy, and well-disposed and friendly towards every school, but from the first he cherished a particular and zealous love for the Academy, not the New Academy, so‑called, although that school at the time had a vigorous representative of the doctrines of Carneades in Philo, but the Old Academy, which at that time was headed by a persuasive man and powerful speaker in the person of Antiochus of Ascalon. This man Lucullus hastened to make his friend and companion, and arrayed him against the disciples of Philo, of whom Cicero also was one. Indeed, Cicero wrote a noble treatise on the doctrines of this sect, in which he has put the argument in support of 'apprehension' into the mouth of Lucullus, and carried the opposing argument himself. The book is entitled 'Lucullus.'" -- Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 1st century

"Again, Calvisius, who was a companion of Caesar, brought forward against Antony the following charges also regarding his behaviour towards Cleopatra: he had bestowed upon her the libraries from Pergamum, in which there were two hundred thousand volumes;" -- Plutarch, Life of Antony, 1st century

McCracken, G., The Villa and Tomb of Lucullus at Tusculum, American Journal of Archaeology, Volume 46, Number 3, Pages 325-340, Jul-Sep 1942

Also see Ancient Libraries.

Ficino On Timaeus

All Things Natural: Ficino On Plato's Timaeus

"Near the beginning of this dialogue [Timaeus] Plato relates an account of the war that was once faught between the Athenians and the men of Atlantis. It is clear that Crantor, the principal expounder of Plato at the time, takes the account to be devoid of any allegory. Some, on the other hand, take it as pure allegory, but they are refuted by Platonists of the highest standing, who declare that it is an historical account because Plato has uttered it. The tale that follows is indeed amazing, but totally true." -- Marsilio Ficino, polymath, On Plato's Timaeus, Chapter 4, 15th century

"Here I ask you once more to remember that nine thousand years are calculated by Eudoxus as a thousand months; and that Phaethon, offspring of the Sun, consumed the Earth with thunderbolts, which, according to some, means that a huge comet [Venus], solar by nature and eventually disintegrating, provoked unbearable periods of heat and perhaps the fires which Moses says were sent by divine intervention." -- Marsilio Ficino, polymath, On Plato's Timaeus, Chapter 5, 15th century

Hieroglyphs On Saite Obelisks Require Translation

I have been able to find Athanasius Kircher's translation which he made before the discovery of the Rosetta Stone but I have not been able to find any other translation: Translation of the Minervan obelisk.

As well as the obelisk of Psamtik II

Cooper, W.R., and Chabas, F.J., A Short History of the Egyptian Obelisks, 1877

Democritus Guesses Again 2

Democritus guesses again: "He [Democritus] said that the ordered worlds are boundless and differ in size, and that in some there is neither sun nor moon, but that in others, both are greater than with us, and yet with others more in number. And that the intervals between the ordered worlds are unequal, here more and there less, and that some increase, others flourish and others decay, and here they come into being and there they are eclipsed. But that they are destroyed by colliding with one another. And that some ordered worlds are bare of animals and plants and all water." -- Hippolytus, priest, 2nd century

Triple Star System May Challenge Einstein Theory A recently discovered triple-star system could help a team of international researchers test for a potential flaw in Albert Einstein's theory of General Relativity, possibly shedding light on the true nature of gravity. Originally spotted by an American graduate student using a steerable radio telescope, the unique star system features two white dwarf stars and a super-dense pulsar, or neutron star. "This triple system gives us a natural cosmic laboratory far better than anything found before for learning exactly how such three-body systems work and potentially for detecting problems with General Relativity that physicists expect to see under extreme conditions," Scott Ransom, an astronomer with the U.S. National Radio Astronomy Observatory, said in a statement. Related Links Covering an area smaller than the Earth's orbit around the sun, the star system's close orbit will allow researchers to observe a potential violation in Einstein's theory of General Relativity: the strong equivalence principle. What is 'strong equivalence'? The principle states that the effect of gravity on a body doesn't depend on the nature or internal structure of that body. Pulsars emit "lighthouse-like beams of radio waves" so by conducting high-precision timing of the pulses coming from the pulsar, the triple-star system could reveal clues to the true nature of gravity, University of British Columbia astronomer Ingrid Stairs told CTVNews.ca on Monday. "Finding a deviation from the strong equivalence principle would indicate a breakdown of General Relativity and would point us toward a new, revised theory of gravity." The results are published in Nature and will be presented at the 223rd American Astronomical Society meeting.

Fossils of Xenophanes

"And Xenophanes opines that there was once a mixture of earth with the sea, and that in time it was freed from moisture, asserting in proof of this that shells are found in the centre of the land and on mountains, and that in the stone quarries of Syracuse were found the impress of a fish and of seals, and in Paros the cast of an anchor below the surface of the rock and in Malta layers of all sea-things. And he says that these came when all things were of old time buried in mud, and that the impress of them dried in the mud; but that all men were destroyed when the earth being cast into the sea became mud, and that it again began to bring forth and that this catastrophe happened to all the ordered worlds." -- Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies, 2nd century

20,000 Year Old Ruins

The Site of Mount Padang is the Evidence of Architectural Masterpieces of Ancient The results of radiometric analysis of the content of the carbon element in some samples of cement in drill core from the depth of 5-15 meters which was conducted in 2012 at the prestigious Laboratory, BETALAB, Miami, USA in the mid-2012 shows its age with a range between 13,000 and 23,000 years ago. Previously, the results of carbon dating which carried out in the BATAN laboratory, the dominant quartz sand that fills the voids between the columns of andesite at the depth of 8-10 meters below the terrace of five also showed the same age range is about 13,000 years ago. Data from drilling conducted by DR. Andang Bachtiar and microscopic analyzes of rocks from drill core samples were carried out by DR. Andri Subandrio, geologist of volcanic rocks of the Petrology laboratory ITB, can be assured that the high resistivity body rock is andesite lava rock, the same rock type as the column of the site of mount Padang. Another thing that is interesting from petrological analysis is finding of many microscopic cracks in the thin section of andesite stone columns that allegedly non-natural because the cracks cut its constituent mineral crystals. Danny H. Natawidjaja states that mount Padang has same potency with Borobudur, even it is more meaningful because it can be a breakthrough of knowledge about "the craddle of civilizations" in this century, as a proof of the great monuments of the oldest civilizations in the glorious world that destroyed because of catastrophe thousands of years ago in the pre-history of Indonesia. "It is not impossible anymore if Indonesia as archipelago nation has civilization as advanced as the ancient Egyptian civilization, even in the much older," Danny said.

18 KG Meteorite Found In Antarctica

SCIENTISTS AT PRINCESS ELISABETH ANTARCTICA DISCOVER 18KG ANTARCTIC METEORITE.

A team of scientists working at Princess Elisabeth Antarctica has recently discovered a meteorite weighing 18kg embedded in the East Antarctic ice sheet, the largest such meteorite found in the region since 1988. The eight members of the SAMBA project, from Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Japan’s National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR) and Tokyo University were searching for meteorites scattered across the Nansen Ice Field on January 28, when they found the 18kg ordinary chondrite. The team discovered a total of 425 meteorites, with a total weight of 75kg during the 40 day expedition, at an altitude of 2,900m, 140km south of Belgium’s Princess Elisabeth Antarctica research base. “This meteorite was a very unexpected find for us, not only due to its weight, but because we don’t normally find such large meteorites in Antarctica”, said Vinciane Debaille, a geologist from Université Libre de Bruxelles, who led the Belgian team during the expedition. “This is the biggest meteorite found in East Antarctica for 25 years, so it’s a very special discovery for us, only made possible by the existence and location of Princess Elisabeth Antarctica.” The SAMBA project contributesto the US and Japan-led global collection of Antarctic meteorites, and is an initiative of VUB and ULB, in collaboration with the Japanese Institute of Polar Research. SAMBA is supported by the Belgian Science Policy (BELSPO) and the International Polar Foundation. Initial field analysis by the scientists suggests that the 18kg meteorite is an ordinary chondrite, the most abundant kind of meteorite. The fusion crust – the meteorite’s outer casing - was eroded, allowing the scientists to inspect the rock underneath. The meteorite is currently undergoing a special thawing process in Japan – to ensure water doesn’t get inside the rock - but will be brought to Belgium in the future. “We study meteorites in order to better understand how the solar system formed, how it evolved, how the Earth became such a unique planet in our solar system”, said Debaille. “This season’s SAMBA mission was a success both in terms of the number and weight of the meteorites we found. Two years ago, we found less than 10kg. This year, we found so much that we had to call the travel agency – because we had 75kg of meteorites to take home”. Princess Elisabeth Antarctica is the world’s first zero emission polar research station, and is operated by the International Polar Foundation, in partnership with the Belgian Polar Secretariat. Princess Elisabeth Antarctica’s design and construction seamlessly integrates passive building technologies, renewable wind and solar energy, water treatment facilities, continuously monitored power demand and a smart grid for maximising energy efficiency. Located in East Antarctica’s Sør Rondane Mountains, Princess Elisabeth Antarctica welcomes scientists from around the world to conduct research in this little-studied and pristine environment. “Both Princess Elisabeth Antarctica and the International Polar Foundation are proud to support the research work of the Belgian and Japanese meteorite team”, said expedition leader Alain Hubert. “By providing solid logistics and field accomodation solutions to scientists working on the ice, we can ensure they can concentrate on what they have come to Antarctica to achieve: unlocking of Nature’s mysteries and broadening understanding of our planet”. To find out more about science at Princess Elisabeth Antarctica and life in the frozen south, visit Inside the Station – an interactive exhibition that takes visitors on a journey inside Belgium’s zero emission polar research centre - currently taking place at Tour & Taxis, Brussels.