Engineering in the Ancient World

by John G. Landels

Studies the engineering accomplishments of the Greeks and Romans, surveying pumps, cranes, engines, ships, and transport systems employed for purposes of both peace and war

Genres: History, Engineering, Nonfiction, Science, Ancient History, Greece, Archaeology

224 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1978

About the author

John G. Landels was Lecturer in Classics at the University of Hull from 1953 until 1959, and the University of Reading from 1960 until his retirement in 1989. His work, in collaboration with the Engineering Department, involved making working replicas of ancient machines and testing them in the field.

Reviews

[Czarny Pies · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Engineering in the Ancient World" is an absolute pearl. There is no shortage of excellent modern histories written on the history of classical Greece and Rome based on contemporary authors such as Thucydides, Tacitus, Suetonius, Xenophon and Plutarch. This work is based on the writings of Vitruvius, Pliny the Elder, Hero of Alexandra and Frontinus.

Combined with the contemporary chronicles Landels makes outstanding use of archeological findings to analyse pumps, boilers, sails, valves, harnesses, water wheels, wind mills, gears, catapults, crossbows and many other fascinating objects. Landels hopes that underwater archeology will eventually help solve us many unanswered questions about in the area of sea transportation. The hope also exists that excavations will yield important new findings about pumps. This is a great book for anyone who loves history.

[Zechy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Too short, but that's just because there isn't enough historical evidence. It's all the Greek's fault, they should have kept better notes.

[Paige Genest · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid research and brilliant commentary throughout. Could have really benefitted from more diagrams.

It has always been the case, and in all probability will always remain the case, that applied science and technology are permanently concerned with catching up with what the society in ques­tion sees and recognizes as its immediate requirements. These requirements may be essential (such as improvements in food production) or they may be luxuries (such as power-driven tooth brushes), but in every case they represent something which, at the time, has not yet been made practicable, and it is the task of the technologist to make it so. In the last thirty years we have seen perhaps the most impressive and telling example of this principle in operation. In 1946 it was not possible to build a rocket which would travel to outer space. But two major world powers decided, for various and complicated reasons, that there was a genuine need for them to develop such rockets. Accordingly, the financial resources were made available, and the technologists improved their designs and increased their capabilities until the demands of the two societies were met. This is how technology operates, and this is what it does.
If, therefore, we encounter in an ancient society a situation in which there seems to have been a failure on the part of technology to meet what appears to us an obvious demand, we must ask the following question. Was this because the technologists were incompetent, or was it because the demand itself never really existed?

[Ed P · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're curious about how they did things back around 0 AD, this is your book. While it concentrates on Greek and Roman cultures, omitting any reference to any Chinese or Arab progress of the same time, it is still great. I was amazed to find out how incredibly sophisticated engineering had become in the Classical period. I constantly had to remind myself of the historical context while reading; some of the processes and methods sound quite modern.

Written in a fairly conversational tone, with a few very British jokes thrown in, this book also comes with an extensive bibliography for the reader wishing to go further.

[Joseph “Millennium Man” · Rating 5 out of 5]

I used the formulas in this book as a reference to construct a ballista.

[Mike Opferman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was absolutely fantastic. It describes a lot of different technologies in the ancient world in enough detail that the reader can grasp the concept as well as marvel that the ancients actually knew how to do these things. It is very difficult to find a book like this that is readable, understandable, and interesting, but is not shallow and does not gloss over key technical points that are needed to actually begin to understand the subject. I learned about everything from ancient water pumps and aqueducts, metallurgy and blacksmithing, ships and sailing, and many other subjects. This book gets my highest level of recommendation. I'll probably read it again some day.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is truly an excellent book on ancient technology and engineering. As others have commented, I found myself wishing the chapters and text were longer. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on ships, ground transport, catapults and the Progress of theoretical knowledge. It is most interesting to observe how the ancients were on the cusp of some major technological advancements and to view the ways in which they just did not quite make it. While we often think ourselves so advanced in modern times, it is doubtful that the average American will achieve the basic levels of understanding of these Ancient Greek and Roman writers. Reversion to barbarianism can occur in just one generation.

[Blast · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simply an amazing book on how things were accomplished in anciet times. It was interesting to see both how clever and how, well, stupid, the anciet engineers were. They came up with some incredible inventions but refinments we take for granted now escaped them for centuries.

[Erik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding. The author has knowledge of the classical sources and a firm command of engineering problems and tradeoffs, explained simply of course. I wasn't familiar with all the terminology, but a quick google revealed it.

[Allan Olley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nice introduction to some of the technical history and basic shape of Ancient Greek and Roman technology and engineering. It gives a basic physical, technical and historical context to various activities such as the use of water wheels for milling, the pumping of water and the building of siege equipment. The author is informed by lots of primary and secondary sources in his descriptions and so one gets a sense of how the sort of information he is working from. The author communicates both good familiarity with the ancient history and with the technical context he is discussing.

The text contains a fair bit of rule of thumb guessing about the technical characteristics and limitations of the technology, rates of flow, speed and so on, which is not strictly defensible either in terms of the textual record or known archaeology but gives some sense of scale and immediacy to the ideas. It is all delivered with a kind of matter the fact British World War II, technical efficiency that gives the book a distinctive character and perspective on the nature of technology. The author is not unaware of the importance of historical and cultural context to understand the situation, but is perhaps a little crude and direct in his interpretation of the controling necessities of the technical.

There are odd gaps in the coverage of the book, for example despite a chapter on Land Transport no real mention is made of the Roman road system built and maintained by its legions with its heavy use of concrete and so on. This is especially mysterious as the book takes pains to mention the importance of boat and ships for the transport of massive amounts of food supply throughout the empire, and to emphasize the lack of bulk land transport. It would have been interesting to have any observations on this important activity and of the Romans. As it is there is barely a mention of Roman concrete and the only brief mention of a few possible Greek tramways where wagon wheel tracks may have been cut into stone as examples of any sort of innovation in road design.

Despite its rather narrow technical focus it still an approachable introduction to the topic for the lay reader and still provides some insight to the more dedicated scholar on the general topic.

[V · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is remarkably easy to read considering the contents. I don't know what I was expecting, but it was not this.
The ancient world of this book covers the classical period of Greco Roman times. The author covers the types of energy sources (slave power, animals, water etc) and then goes into various types of machines (water pumps, catapults, cranes, water and land transport, etc).
Most sources (when known) are credited with a summary at the end of what is know about them.
Now, I know this is soundly fairly dry, which is what I expected, however the pleasant surprise is how easy it is to understand, with the help of the many diagrams in the book.
Makes you feel like whipping out the tools and creating something in the back yard to stun the neighbours.
Recommended for those with an interest in ye olde weaponry or just how many of things described in the book have managed to survive for so long.

[Siddharth Nishar · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book spans the technological history of Greek and early-to-mid Roman civilizations with rich detail. Dr. Landels provides guesstimate calculations of time, load, dimensions and cost for the discussed machines that makes the book read like a series of site visits. Each page contains only as many words as it needs. As a history buff, I was grateful for the book's nuanced survey of not only the machines but the pertinent dimensions of society and the economic motivations that these inventions were situated in.

Descriptions suffer from occassional spatial ambiguity. Some are rescued by the superbly helpful diagrams but even as a mechanical engineer, I struggled to imagine the correct axes, orientations and joints for several components.

[David LaBarge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Going into reading this, I was taken aback. I believed this book to be primarily about works of civil engineering, specifically buildings, architecture, and roads. It’s profound the way people were able to solve such vital equations with so little tools. Especially when it came to being as precise as they were, sometimes.

What really astounded me was the chapter regarding the progress of theoretical knowledge. I was unaware of the many facts presented in this chapter. The way time was kept was one of the most interesting aspects to me personally. Imagine having a stop watch back 2,000+ years ago? I highly recommend this book for scholars or people interested in all sorts of engineering in the ancient world. If you have a thesis to be written, this is a great source.

[Audrey Vo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly short book. Descriptive yet uses a lot of niche language that if you’re not an engineer or an enthusiast, you would not understand. Also written from a historian approach and not an engineer’s approach (leaning too much on historical texts) vs. just literally explaining how it works and can be improved. The order should also be reversed: the first few chapters are fluid mechanics should be introduced last, and the latter chapters of classical mechanics should be introduced first.

[Tim Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

All good stuff, but no so compelling that I read every page.

One good point: the ancients did not share our obsession with speed and efficiency. Any machine that was faster than an ox and stronger than a man would do.

[Harrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good diagrams

[Scott Noyes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite book on ancient engineering, and one of my top two favorite books on engineering of any sort.

[Dave Harmon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as good as i had hoped but still pretty darn good.

[Ray Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

You really have to be an old school engineering geek to like this book. I guess it's a good thing that I am.

[Anthony Shen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting details. Some descriptive passages were a bit difficult to understand. While drawings are provided, more would have been helpful.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was for sure a pussy book. I got a lot out of it and enjoyed it at the same time.

[Stephen Simpson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author did a good job of making technical discussions accessible, but the scope of the work was relatively limited; only about a half-dozen topics are really addressed in much depth. It's good for what it is, but please note that "Ancient World" in this case means pretty much just Greek with a little Roman.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was a really pleasant book to read - even though some of the technical details, such as physics formulas mentioned a few times - were beyond me. The thing I derived from reading the book, was insight/information on what was known and advancements that had been achieved in the field of engineering/technology, in antiquity. I vaguely knew about some things, but not details - and other things I had only heard about; this book explains and describes all that was known, in a very pleasant way.

There were many important mathematical and engineering principles figured out by towering scientific figures of classical antiquity such as Archimedes, Hero of Alexandria, as well as later figures such as Vitruvius, Frontinus, and Pliny the Elder. Problems had been solved and much thought given to problems having to do with warfare (catapults) ship design, land transport, cranes and hoists, supplying cities with water, supplying energy for industry (or what consisted of industry back then), as well as metallurgy. This book is written in plain non-technical English and includes helpful diagrams and drawings, and so is accessible to the average reader who wants to find out more about this interesting aspect of life in classical antiquity. These thinkers were not perfect but they were the first to employ the scientific method.

Considering the limitations in materials, and many other limitations that are described - such as the imperfect measurement of time in those days, progress in the Greco-Roman world was remarkable. Problems were confronted and solved, math explanations and methods were described in writing so that others throughout the classical world could draw upon their experience/knowledge. They had even hit upon many of the elements that go into a steam engine but hadn't put the elements together to produce a steam engine. Hundreds of years would pass before a steam engine was developed which then drove the industrial revolution and made so much of our modern world, and the huge expansion of population, possible.

This is really an interesting book that touches on many other topics incidentally - shedding light on so many aspects of antiquity. A chapter gives overviews on the principal Greek and Roman writers on technological subjects - and even this chapter is interesting, as it fills in as much as possible on their lives, what is known about them, and the books (scrolls) they wrote. Also, there's a chapter on the progress of theoretical knowledge, which ends, after a discussion of chemical knowledge in antiquity with the following:

"However, when all this has been said in disparagement of their chemical theory, it is as well to recall that the Greeks and Romans managed their practical chemistry with fair success. They could cure some diseases; they could brew palatable and potent wines; they could devise an adequate and healthy diet from terribly limited resources of food production and they could put a black glaze on their pottery which still looks shiny and new today and -- who knows -- may still remain so when our own civilization has passed into history."

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in finding out about engineering in the classical world. You do not need to have much knowledge of math or physics to appreciate it - although those who are familiar with some basic math may get more out of the book. The takeaway is that here was a population that thought to dispassionately think about problems they were confronted with, search for & come up with solutions, and then write about them so that others might find out. This is one reason they managed to build up a civilization in antiquity - because the results of the research of others was shared throughout the classical world, enabling trade, urbanization, different forms of irrigation, the production of goods and the defense of the empire. Whatever we think our world is today - aspects that we take for granted, perhaps - much of it was first thought of, and solutions arrived at, about two thousands (or more) years ago in the E. Mediterranean and Rome. Obviously, the development of the steam engine later changed everything but it is still astonishing to consider how much the Greeks and Romans were able to accomplish even without it, during their heyday, technological advancements which lay the foundations for much of the modern world.

[Eray Mutlu · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Engineering in the Ancient World" takes readers on a venture through the ingenious technologies and engineering marvels of antiquity. In this comprehensive book, the author delves deep into various aspects of ancient engineering, offering a glimpse into the nuts and bolts of ancient civilization.

The book is structured into several chapters, each focusing on a specific aspect of ancient engineering, from power and energy sources to water supplies, water pumps, catapults, ships, land transport, and the progress of theoretical knowledge. Through rich historical accounts, archaeological evidence, and insights from ancient texts, the author paints a vivid picture of how civilizations in the past harnessed their surroundings to accomplish remarkable feats of engineering.

One of the standout features of the book is its exploration of energy sources in the ancient world. The comparison of the efficiency of different power sources, such as horses, oxen, and even undershot and overshot water wheels, offers a perspective on how ancient societies optimized their resources. The book's meticulous attention to detail, including calculations of theoretical and actual power outputs, adds a layer of depth to the reader's understanding of these technologies.

The book also explores the fascinating world of ancient catapults, shedding light on the choice of materials and design considerations that made these formidable weapons possible. The author's discussion of the Roman approach to maritime affairs, including the construction of war fleets and merchant ships, offers a fresh perspective on how geography and strategy influenced ancient naval technology.

In addition to discussing the practical applications of ancient engineering, the book delves into the progress of theoretical knowledge in the ancient world. From the Greek philosophers' musings on change and the nature of reality to Archimedes' contributions to hydrostatics.

"Engineering in the Ancient World" is a good start for anyone interested in the history of technology and engineering. It offers a rich and illuminating exploration of how ancient civilizations harnessed their ingenuity to shape the world around them. This book is a testament to the enduring legacy of ancient engineering and the profound impact it has had on the course of human history.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was just one of those books that is kind of interesting to read. I like reading about classical times although I haven't spent much time learning of that era. The interest probably comes from reading Asterix, and I certainly was thinking of many images from the Asterix books as I read this one - Roman construction, oar-powered ships (including triremes with three levels of oars-men), catapults... The book was more academic than popular i.e. relatively few diagrams which were all black and white line drawings, pages of dense text. But it isn't too long and was okay to read.

Surprisingly though, the book did not even mention Roman road building, and only mentioned buildings in the context of cranes used to hoist large blocks into place. There is a lot more to learn!

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A review of engineering techniques of the ancient empires of both Europe and Asia. Gives some idea of what was possible before the Middle Ages and helps explain how some of the ancient marvels were capable of being.

[Royce Ratterman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most books are rated related to their usefulness and contributions to my research.
Overall, a good book for the researcher and enthusiast.
Read for personal research
- found this book's contents helpful and inspiring - number rating relates to the book's contribution to my needs.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you need to understand the engineering in the ancient world, this is your book.

[Preston Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very readable, a bit dry but if you are interested in the topic you will probably like this.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read. Enlightened me to new areas of ancient problems/solutions, and introduced me to some ancient people (Hero, Vitruvius, and Frontinus).