Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T16:25:42.840Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A NEW APPROACH TO THE DESCRIPTION OF A BABYLONIAN HYDRAULIC WORK BY HERODOTUS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2013

K.L. Katsifarakis*
Affiliation:
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Department of Civil Engineering
I. Avgoloupis*
Affiliation:
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Department of Civil Engineering

Extract

Herodotus is a fascinating author, not only to scholars of history, but also to a wide spectrum of scientists, such as engineers, who are not usually considered to be relevant to humanistic studies. A strong indication of the persisting interest in Herodotus is the recent proliferation of books, for example those of C. Dewald and J. Marincola and A.M. Bowie, on various aspects of his work. At the same time, there is a remarkable interest in the evolution of knowledge in different scientific fields which promotes the understanding of a) the relationship between socio-economic phenomena and technological progress and b) the process of acquiring and documenting scientific knowledge. In the field of hydraulics and hydrology in particular, this interest is documented by journal papers (for example by L.W. Mays et al. and D. Koutsoyiannis et al.), books (for example by A.K. Biswas, Ö. Wikander), book chapters (for example by A.I. Wilson) and conference proceedings.

Type
Shorter Notes
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Dewald, C. and Marincola, J. (edd.), The Cambridge Companion to Herodotus (Cambridge, 2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Bowie, A.M. (ed.), Herodotus: Histories Book VIII (Cambridge, 2007)Google Scholar.

3 Mays, L.W, Koutsoyiannis, D. and Angelakis, A.N., ‘A brief history of water supply in antiquity’, Water Science and Technology: Water Supply 7(1) (2007), 112Google Scholar.

4 Koutsoyiannis, D., Zarkadoulas, N., Angelakis, A.N. and Tchobanoglous, G., ‘Urban water management in Ancient Greece: Legacies and lessons’, Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management 134 (2008), 4554CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Biswas, A.K., History of Hydrology (Amsterdam and London, 1972)Google Scholar.

6 Wikander, Ö. (ed.), Handbook of Ancient Water Technology (Leiden, Boston and Cologne, 2000)Google Scholar.

7 Wilson, A.I., ‘Hydraulic engineering and water supply’, in Oleson, J.P. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Engineering and Technology in the Classical World (Oxford, 2008), 285318Google Scholar.

8 Kuhrt, A., ‘Babylon’, in Bakker, E., de Jong, I. and van Wees, H. (edd.), Brill's Companion to Herodotus (Leiden, Boston and Cologne, 2002), 475–96CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 Matzat, H., ‘Ueber die Glaubwürdigkeit der Geographischen Angaben Herodots Über Asien’, Hermes 6 (1872), 392486Google Scholar, in particular at 445.

10 MacGinnis, J., ‘Herodotus' description of Babylon’, BICS 33.1 (1986), 6786Google Scholar.

11 Hammond, N.G.L. and Roseman, L.J., ‘The construction of Xerxes bidge over the Hellespont’, JHS 116 (1996), 88107CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 Avgoloupis, I. and Kratsifarakis, K.L., ‘References to hydraulics and hydrology in the work of Herodotus’, Hydrotechnika, 18–19 (2009), 2134Google Scholar (in Greek).

13 Godley, A.D., Herodotus I: Books I and II (London, 1975), 231Google Scholar.

14 A Commentary on Herodotus (Oxford, 1975), 144–5Google Scholar.

15 Asheri, D., ‘Book I’, in Murray, O. and Moreno, A. (edd.), A Commentary on Herodotus Books I–IV (Oxford, 2007), 57218, at 204–5Google Scholar.

16 Godley (n. 13), 389.

17 Ibid. 461.

18 Ibid. 231.

19 Maronitis, D., Ηρόδοτος (Athens, 1964)Google Scholar.

20 Mavropoulos, Th., Ηροδότου Μούσαι (Thessaloniki, 1991), 103Google Scholar.

21 Vlachos, A., Ηροδότου: Η Ιστορία των Περσικών Πολέμων (Athens, 2005), 105Google Scholar.

22 For a discussion about Nitocris, one of the weak points of the narrative of Herodotus, see MacGinnis (n. 10), 78–9; Gera, D.L., Warrior Women: The Anonymous Tractatus De mulieribus (Leiden, New York and Cologne, 1997), 106–20Google Scholar; Kuhrt (n. 8), 486, 496.

23 Scheil, V., Une Saison de Fouilles a Sippar (Cairo, 1902), 22 and 64Google Scholar.

24 LSJ9 s.v.

25 Powell, J.E., A Lexicon to Herodotus (Cambridge, 1938), 116Google Scholar.