Engineering in the Ancient World

This book about engineering in the ancient world is written by J. G. Landels, a former Lecturer in Classics at Reading University. The first edition was published in 1978; the second edition in 2000. For the second edition he wrote a new preface, added an appendix about the reconstruction of an ancient Greek ship and a section containing “some further thoughts” about the topic. In addition, the bibliography was expanded and updated.

The main text is divided into nine chapters; each chapter covers one aspect of the general topic. Here are the headings:

     1. POWER AND ENERGY SOURCES (Man, animal, water, wind, and steam)

     2. WATER SUPPLIES AND ENGINEERING
     3. WATER PUMPS

     4. CRANES AND HOISTS

     5. CATAPULTS
     6. SHIPS AND SEA TRANSPORT

     7. LAND TRANSPORT

     8. THE PROGRESS OF THEORETICAL KNOWLEDGE
     9. THE PRINCIPAL GREEK AND ROMAN WRITERS ON TECHOLOGICAL SUBJECTS
         (Hero of Alexandria, Vitruvius, Frontinus, and Pliny the Elder)

Some passages are rather technical (in particular pp. 53-57 and 166-169). Perhaps you must be a professional engineer in order to understand the passages completely. I do not want to complain or worry about this. I will merely quote the advice Frontinus gives his readers just before the beginning of a boring passage in his book about the Roman aqueducts:

EIS QUIBUS SUFFICIET COGNOVISSE SUMMA, LICEBIT TRANSIRE LEVIORA.

In English:

“Those, who will be satisfied with knowing the main facts, can skip the details.”

[Frontinus, De Aquis, chapter 77.]

What about illustrations? There are 65 drawings in black-and-white. There are no maps, and no photographs. While the drawings are helpful, it is a shame that there are no other illustrations.

The main text from 1978 was reprinted without any changes in 2000. This means that misprints and mistakes in the first edition are repeated in the second edition.

Misprints

* Page 15 – “hot” instead of “not.”

* Page 21 – “150 cm/see” instead of “150 cm/sec.”

* Page 172 – “One again” instead of “Once again.”

Mistakes 

On pp. 41-42 Landels mentions two famous Roman aqueducts: one in Spain (Segovia) and one in France (Pont du Gard). He claims the aqueduct in Segovia “rises to a height of 164 feet (50 m) above the ground.” Describing Pont du Gard, he says “the total height above the river bed is 180 feet (54.8 m).”

He is wrong on both counts: the aqueduct in Segovia rises to a maximum of 93 feet (28 m), while the total height of Pont du Gard is 163 feet (49 m). How can he get these facts wrong?

On pages 52-53 he mentions the case of the Roman engineer Nonius Datus, who was called in to help a group of workers, who were trying to build a tunnel through a mountain in North Africa. The case is quite famous, probably because it is dramatic, funny, and instructive. It is mentioned in several modern books:

** Paul MacKendrick, The North African Stones Speak (1980, 2000) pp. 247-248

** Brian Campbell, The Roman Army 31 BC–AD 337 (1994) page 125

** Colin M. Wells, The Roman Empire (1995) pp. 232-233

Landels introduces the case in this way:  

“A graphic record of one fiasco survives in a stone inscription found in the Roman town of Saldae (now Bougie in Algeria, on the coast about 120 miles – 200 km – east of Algiers).”

He is wrong on three counts:

(A) The inscription was discovered (in 1866) at Lambaesis, where the third legion was stationed. Thirty years later (in 1896) it was moved to Bougie, because the ancient aqueduct delivered water to this place.

(B) Bougie was the name of the town when Algeria was a French colony. After independence in 1962 the name of the town was changed to Bejaïa.

(C) The distance from Algiers to Bejaïa is 113 miles or 182 km, if you follow a straight line. If you are driving on a road, the distance is 163 miles or 260 km.

Omissions

 

In chapter 1, Landels mentions the water mills at Barbegal in France (pp. 18, 22), but he fails to mention another case in which water was used as a source of power: the water turbines at Chemtou (or Chimtou) in present-day Tunisia. The Roman name of the town built next to a famous marble quarry is Simitthus.

This book covers several aspects of the general topic, as you can see from the table of contents above, but two important elements are never mentioned: Roman roads and Roman bridges.

When Landels wrote the section called “Some Further Thoughts” he had a golden opportunity to improve the quality of his book. He could have:

** Corrected the mistakes mentioned here

** Mentioned the water turbines in Simitthus

** Added a chapter about Roman roads and bridges

** Included some photos of items mentioned in the text

He did not do any of these things.

The author has good intentions: he is trying to combine the world of the classics with the world of engineering, and in some cases he succeeds. But his book is so uneven: chapter 2 about water supplies and chapter 6 about ships are the most successful, while chapter 5 about catapults is the least successful.

This book reminds me of Philip Wilkinson, What the Romans did for us (a companion to the television series of the same name shown on BBC 2). In many respects the two books are similar, but Wilkinson’s book is better than Landels’ because it has no serious omissions, and because the illustrations are better.

The bibliography can now be updated with a recent work: The Oxford Handbook ofEngineering and Technology in the Classical World edited by John Peter Oleson (HC 2008, PB 2010).

[The case of Nonius Datus is mentioned in this book on pp. 329-333. Serafina Cuomo (Birkbeck College, London) has written an article about Nonius Datus. It is the first full-scale study of this case in English. Here is the reference: "A Roman Engineer's Tale," Journal of Roman Studies, vol. 101 (2011) pp. 143-165.]

Landels had a chance to improve the quality of his book, but he did not take it. Therefore I cannot give his book more than three stars.

* * *

 

J. G. Landels

Engineering in the Ancient World,

first edition 1978, new revised edition 2000, 238 pages

 

* * *