Naturales quaestiones
Encyclopedia
Naturales quaestiones is an encyclopedia of the natural world written by Seneca
around 65 AD. It is much shorter than the Naturalis Historia
produced by Pliny the Elder
some ten years later, however.
around 65 AD, and is addressed to Lucilius Junior
. It is one of the few Roman works which deals with scientific matters. It is not a systematic work, but a collection of facts of nature from various writers, Greek and Roman, many of which are curiosities. The first book deals with meteor
s, halo
s, rainbow
s, mock suns, etc.; the second of thunder
and lightning
; the third of water
; this book contains, by the way, the description of the roman heat exchangers
, which were called "dracones", or "miliaria"; almost at the end, a hair-raising description of the deluge
. A very interesting note in this book, is that ancient rivers were not as pristine as we tend to think: for instance, the Alpheus became incredibly filthy when thousands of people congregated on its banks for the olympic games
. The fourth book speaks of hail
, snow
, and ice
; the fifth of wind
s; the sixth of earthquake
s and the sources of the Nile
; and the seventh of comet
s. Moral remarks are scattered through the work; and indeed the design of the whole appears to be to find a foundation for ethics
in the knowledge of nature.
There are many incidental and interesting comments, such as the reference to water heating apparatus using coiled tubes in a furnace
. The same section on water (Chapter III) refers directly to the use of hypocausts at the baths.
What is God
? Everything you see, and everything you don't see too; in latin: "Quid est deus? Quod vides, totum, et quod non vides, totum".
The earth
is but a point, yet how many nations divide it violently among themselves. How ridiculous are boundaries among humans! In latin: "Hoc est illud punctum, quod inter tot gentes ferro et igne dividitur? O, quam ridiculi sunt mortalium termina!"
In the third book, the description of the deluge ends with a bitter note: "... all animals will be created from scratch and the earth will be given a new man, who knows nothing of crime and is born under better auspices. But their innocence will last as long as they are inexpert; soon, evil will sneak in. Virtue
is difficult to to find, needs a governance and a guide; to learn vice
, no teacher is needed." In latin: "... omne ex integro animal orietur, dabiturque terris homo inscius sceleris et melioribus auspiciis natus. Sed illis quoque innocentia non durabit, nisi dun novi sint; cito nequitia subrepit. Virtus difficilis inventu est, rectorem ducemque desiderat; etiam sine magistro vitia discuntur."
In the book on earthquakes
, Seneca imagines that Lucilius questions the value of science: "What is - you are asking - the reward for this toil? It is the gratest reward of all, to know nature
." In Latin: "Quod, inquis, erit pretium operae? Quo nullum maius est, nosse naturam."
Seneca the Younger
Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero...
around 65 AD. It is much shorter than the Naturalis Historia
Naturalis Historia
The Natural History is an encyclopedia published circa AD 77–79 by Pliny the Elder. It is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day and purports to cover the entire field of ancient knowledge, based on the best authorities available to Pliny...
produced by Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
some ten years later, however.
Content
The work was written by Seneca the YoungerSeneca the Younger
Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero...
around 65 AD, and is addressed to Lucilius Junior
Lucilius Junior
Lucilius Junior , was the Roman governor of Sicily during the reign of Nero, a friend and correspondent of Seneca, and the possible author of Aetna, a poem which survives in a corrupt state.-Life:...
. It is one of the few Roman works which deals with scientific matters. It is not a systematic work, but a collection of facts of nature from various writers, Greek and Roman, many of which are curiosities. The first book deals with meteor
METEOR
METEOR is a metric for the evaluation of machine translation output. The metric is based on the harmonic mean of unigram precision and recall, with recall weighted higher than precision...
s, halo
Halo (optical phenomenon)
A halo from Greek ἅλως; also known as a nimbus, icebow or gloriole) is an optical phenomenon produced by ice crystals creating colored or white arcs and spots in the sky. Many are near the sun or moon but others are elsewhere and even in the opposite part of the sky...
s, rainbow
Rainbow
A rainbow is an optical and meteorological phenomenon that causes a spectrum of light to appear in the sky when the Sun shines on to droplets of moisture in the Earth's atmosphere. It takes the form of a multicoloured arc...
s, mock suns, etc.; the second of thunder
Thunder
Thunder is the sound made by lightning. Depending on the nature of the lightning and distance of the listener, thunder can range from a sharp, loud crack to a long, low rumble . The sudden increase in pressure and temperature from lightning produces rapid expansion of the air surrounding and within...
and lightning
Lightning
Lightning is an atmospheric electrostatic discharge accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...
; the third of water
Water
Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...
; this book contains, by the way, the description of the roman heat exchangers
Heat exchanger
A heat exchanger is a piece of equipment built for efficient heat transfer from one medium to another. The media may be separated by a solid wall, so that they never mix, or they may be in direct contact...
, which were called "dracones", or "miliaria"; almost at the end, a hair-raising description of the deluge
Deluge
Deluge can refer to:* A large downpour of rain* A floodMythical and prehistoric floods* Deluge myth, mythic floods in general, involving Gilgamesh, and others* Deluge , prehistoric great floods, some of which may have inspired deluge myths...
. A very interesting note in this book, is that ancient rivers were not as pristine as we tend to think: for instance, the Alpheus became incredibly filthy when thousands of people congregated on its banks for the olympic games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
. The fourth book speaks of hail
Hail
Hail is a form of solid precipitation. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is referred to as a hail stone. Hail stones on Earth consist mostly of water ice and measure between and in diameter, with the larger stones coming from severe thunderstorms...
, snow
Snow
Snow is a form of precipitation within the Earth's atmosphere in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by...
, and ice
Ice
Ice is water frozen into the solid state. Usually ice is the phase known as ice Ih, which is the most abundant of the varying solid phases on the Earth's surface. It can appear transparent or opaque bluish-white color, depending on the presence of impurities or air inclusions...
; the fifth of wind
Wind
Wind is the flow of gases on a large scale. On Earth, wind consists of the bulk movement of air. In outer space, solar wind is the movement of gases or charged particles from the sun through space, while planetary wind is the outgassing of light chemical elements from a planet's atmosphere into space...
s; the sixth of earthquake
Earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...
s and the sources of the Nile
Nile
The Nile is a major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. It is long. It runs through the ten countries of Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Egypt.The Nile has two major...
; and the seventh of comet
Comet
A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet...
s. Moral remarks are scattered through the work; and indeed the design of the whole appears to be to find a foundation for ethics
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
in the knowledge of nature.
There are many incidental and interesting comments, such as the reference to water heating apparatus using coiled tubes in a furnace
Furnace
A furnace is a device used for heating. The name derives from Latin fornax, oven.In American English and Canadian English, the term furnace on its own is generally used to describe household heating systems based on a central furnace , and sometimes as a synonym for kiln, a device used in the...
. The same section on water (Chapter III) refers directly to the use of hypocausts at the baths.
Selected quotes
Man is really something worthless, if he doesn't rise above human concerns; in latin: "Quam despecta res est homo, nisi supra humana surrexerit".What is God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
? Everything you see, and everything you don't see too; in latin: "Quid est deus? Quod vides, totum, et quod non vides, totum".
The earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
is but a point, yet how many nations divide it violently among themselves. How ridiculous are boundaries among humans! In latin: "Hoc est illud punctum, quod inter tot gentes ferro et igne dividitur? O, quam ridiculi sunt mortalium termina!"
In the third book, the description of the deluge ends with a bitter note: "... all animals will be created from scratch and the earth will be given a new man, who knows nothing of crime and is born under better auspices. But their innocence will last as long as they are inexpert; soon, evil will sneak in. Virtue
Virtue
Virtue is moral excellence. A virtue is a positive trait or quality subjectively deemed to be morally excellent and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being....
is difficult to to find, needs a governance and a guide; to learn vice
Vice
Vice is a practice or a behavior or habit considered immoral, depraved, or degrading in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a defect, an infirmity, or merely a bad habit. Synonyms for vice include fault, depravity, sin, iniquity, wickedness, and corruption...
, no teacher is needed." In latin: "... omne ex integro animal orietur, dabiturque terris homo inscius sceleris et melioribus auspiciis natus. Sed illis quoque innocentia non durabit, nisi dun novi sint; cito nequitia subrepit. Virtus difficilis inventu est, rectorem ducemque desiderat; etiam sine magistro vitia discuntur."
In the book on earthquakes
Earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...
, Seneca imagines that Lucilius questions the value of science: "What is - you are asking - the reward for this toil? It is the gratest reward of all, to know nature
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...
." In Latin: "Quod, inquis, erit pretium operae? Quo nullum maius est, nosse naturam."
Further reading
- Seneca, Naturales Quaestiones: Bks. I-III, v. 1. Loeb Classical Library
- Seneca, Naturales Quaestiones: Bks. IV-VII, v. 2. Loeb Classical Library
- Seneca, "Ricerche sulla Natura", a cura di Piergiorgio Parroni, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, a recent (2010) edition with a fine comment.
External links
- Naturales Quaestiones Web Texts
- Physical science in the time of Nero; being a translation of the Quaestiones naturales of Seneca, (1910). Translated by John ClarkeJohn Clarke-Canada:* John Clarke , Canadian political activist and founder of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty* John Clarke C.M., Canadian mountaineer, explorer and wilderness educator* John Clarke -Canada:* John Clarke (activist), Canadian political activist and founder of the Ontario Coalition...
, with notes by Archibald GeikieArchibald GeikieSir Archibald Geikie, OM, KCB, PRS, FRSE , was a Scottish geologist and writer.-Early life:Geikie was born in Edinburgh in 1835, the eldest son of musician and music critic James Stuart Geikie...
, at the Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
.