ARISTARCHUS, who flourished in the first half of the third century B.C., is chiefly known as the only philosopher or astronomer of antiquity who taught that the earth moves round the sun. This doctrine is, however, not mentioned in the only writing of his which has been preserved, and the little we know about it is derived from allusions to it made by subsequent writers. All the same, his little book, "On the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moon," is of great importance, and Sir Thomas Heath's new and critical edition, accompanied by a translation, commentary, and notes, is therefore a most welcome addition to the literature of astronomical history. Considering that the idea of the earth being in the centre of the universe reigned undisturbed until less than four hundred years ago, it is one of the most surprising facts in the history of astronomy that its motion round the sun should have been proposed more than 1700 years before the time of Copernicus, and that it should only have been accepted by one single philosopher, Seleukus, as to whom it is not even certain that he went the whole way and did not merely accept the daily rotation of the earth. The editor of this new edition of Aristarchus, therefore, thought it desirable to prepare a lengthy introduction to the work, giving an account of the progress of astronomy in Greece from the time of Thales to and including that of Aristarchus. Though this is not the first time that an English writer has dealt with this subject, Sir Thomas Heath has done good work by preparing this introductory memoir, which fills more than three hundred pages, as he possesses special qualifications for writing the history of Greek science, and there are various controversial matters which cannot be too much discussed-provided it is done by writers who are as competent to do so as he is. The author gives full references to the very copious literature on the subject; indeed, he even notices some statements which he might well have ignored, such as the comically exaggerated picture drawn by Gomperz, of how Demokritus seems to have anticipated out of his inner consciousness many modern discoveries. The passages in the works of ancient writers from which our knowledge of early Greek astronomy is derived are always given at full length in translation, which many readers who may not have access to the originals will find very convenient.... --Nature, Volume 91

"A most welcome addition to the literature of astronomical history." — Nature "A most important contribution to the early history of Greek thought and a notable monument of English scholarship." — Journal of Hellenic Studies This classic work traces Aristarchus of Samos's anticipation by two millennia of Copernicus's revolutionary theory of the orbital motion of the earth. Heath's history of astronomy ranges from Homer and Hesiod to Aristarchus and includes quotes from numerous thinkers, compilers, and scholasticists from Thales and Anaximander through Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, and Heraclides. 34 figures.

Sir Thomas Heath has given us, under the title of "The Copernicus of Antiquity," an account of Aristarchus of Samos following a survey of the earlier Greek astronomers. With the Greeks astronomy and geometry advanced pari passu during a period of three centuries, until by the time of Aristarchus in the third century, B.C, there was large knowledge of the elements (plane and solid) of geometry, of conic sections, and of measurements of "areas of curves and the surfaces and volumes of curved surfaces by geometrical methods practically anticipating the integral calculus." The movement in astronomical knowledge was not less remarkable from the days of Thales of Miletus in the sixth century. Anaxagoras showed that the moonlight is sunlight, Pythagoras announced the sphericity of the earth, Oenopides of Chios proved the obliquity of the elliptic, while Aristarchus put forward, as Copernicus himself admits, the heliocentric hypothesis. This little book might well be used in schools as a step towards making clear the largeness of Greek humanism. --The Contemporary Review, Volume 120

Heath's history of astronomy ranges from Homer and Hesiod to Aristarchus and includes quotes from numerous thinkers, compilers, and scholasticists from Thales and Anaximander through Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, and Heraclides. 34 figures.

"A Bible history, reaching, in its present imperfect form, from Adam to the death of Saul. It has come to us only in a Latin translation (made from Greek, and that again from a Hebrew original), and by an accident the name of the great Jewish philosopher of the first century, Philo, has been attached to it." - Introd., p. 7.