To help make ends meet and help you understand the ancient origins of modern science better than Christians would ever let you if they had their way, each season I shall discuss a selection of books from my long-standing recommendations list on ancient science.

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Previously I covered my Ancient Science Starter Kit and G.E.R. Lloyd and the Forgotten Revolution. Today I sample three more essential classics in the field. The first two are by another of the most legendary historians of ancient science of all time, George Sarton, widely considered the founder of the modern history of ancient science: first is Ancient Science Through the Golden Age of Greece (1952), and second, Hellenistic Science and Culture in the Last Three Centuries B.C. (1959). The third is What Did the Romans Know? An Inquiry into Science and Worldmaking by Daryn Lehoux (2012). Click to buy. But if you want my take on these, keep reading.

Why these?

These three books go into more detail than the introductions I recommended in my previous posts. Sarton was an actual scientist and Lehoux is a leading expert in the philosophy (not just the history) of science—he also is soon to come out with a book on the whole gamut of ancient science.

Sarton’s two volumes provide often meticulous (and always fascinating or illuminating) detail on what the leading scientists did in two key periods: the Classical era (basically everything up to Aristotle) and the Hellenistic (from Aristotle to Posidonius). He touches on but does not get into much detail in the pinnacle era of Roman era science. But he covers scientists like Aristarchus, Archimedes, Hipparchus, Herophilus, Eratosthenes, Euclid, and scientists lesser known today (but hugely known then) like Posidonius, and how ancient writers like Cicero spoke of science and the technical arts, thus surveying everything we can know from what survives. Sarton’s volumes are admittedly out of date (new information and revised conclusions abound that are covered in my previous recommendations). But they remain essential reading owing to their detail in discussing primary sources, and their breadth, discussing advances in everything from surveying and physiology to sculpture and architecture, and owing to Sarton’s perspective as a working scientist at the dawn of the space age. Any complete library on ancient science can’t do without Ancient Science Through the Golden Age of Greece and Hellenistic Science and Culture in the Last Three Centuries B.C. And I can tell you they are very enthralling reads.

My third recommendation today is an recent study completing the sweep of antiquity by covering the Roman era. What Did the Romans Know? An Inquiry into Science and Worldmaking focuses more on the style of Roman science, its methods and tools, and attitudes and ideas. It does not cover the sciences in as much detail as Sarton (I expect Lehoux’s next book aims at that). But it does cover in detail the thought of the time, explaining how Roman science meets every definition of modern science, complete with mathematical laws of physics and controlled experiments and critical skepticism and everything else you should expect. It also accomplishes novel tasks such as rehabilitating Pliny the Elder and Seneca the Younger, whose Natural History and Natural Questions, respectively, survey wide ranges of ancient encyclopedic knowledge in the sciences (and were not the only scientific encyclopedias of the era, just the ones to survive). They have traditionally been denigrated as gullible but Lehoux shows that a lot of what they report is more correct and credible than supposed, and hints at whole fields of lost scientific literature and advancement that they were only touching on. Lehoux’s book is another important and engrossing read, and also an essential habitant of any topnotch ancient science bookshelf.