The ancient Romans developed many new techniques for engineering and architecture. The citizens of Rome enjoyed fountains, public baths, central heating, underground sewage systems and public toilets. All right, but apart from sanitation, medicine, education, irrigation, roads and aqueducts, what did the Romans ever do for maths?
It might be thought that the great Roman works of engineering and architecture required advanced mathematical understanding and achievement. However, this is a false view. The reality is that, in relation to mathematics, the Roman contribution amounted to essentially nothing.
The Romans were disinterested in speculative or logical investigation. They regularly applied simple mathematics to solve practical problems. They also needed elementary arithmetic for surveying and for managing trade and taxes, but they were satisfied with rules-of-thumb that called for little in the way of understanding of the great body of theoretical Greek scholarship.
Any educated person asked to name a mathematician of the ancient world would have no difficulty. Certainly Pythagoras, Euclid and Archimedes are universally familiar, even to people without any knowledge of their work. But they are all Greek. The Wikipedia list of Greek mathematicians names nearly 100 ancient mathematicians from the Hellenic world. There is no corresponding list for ancient Rome.
Greek mathematicians continued under the rule of the Roman Republic and later in the days of the Empire, but there were no noteworthy native Roman mathematicians. There is not a single name from the Roman Empire worthy to stand alongside the great mathematicians of Greece.
Simple mathematics
Roman engineers and military technologists were interested only in simple mathematics that was essential for solving practical problems. Curiously, they took little interest in Greek trigonometry, which could have been of great value in surveying, engineering and astronomy. They were oblivious to the beauties of theoretical mathematics and geometry that were so highly valued by the Greeks.
The creation of the Roman calendar organised by Julius Caesar, which included a leap day every four years in a 365-day annual cycle, involved some tricky mathematics. But it was a Greek astronomer, Sosigenes of Alexandria, who carried out the design. His scheme stood for 1,500 years until it was replaced by the Gregorian calendar used in modern times.
Boethius, a philosopher and statesman who lived around the end of the Empire, has been described as one of the foremost mathematicians of ancient Rome, but this says little. He wrote textbooks on the four mathematical branches of the liberal arts, but they were no more than elementary summaries of earlier Greek classics.
His Geometry comprised only statements of the simpler theorems of Euclid’s Elements, without any proofs. His works on Arithmetic, Astronomy and Music were little better. Nevertheless, these books had widespread influence and were used extensively in medieval monastic schools, including the Irish monasteries. Cassiodorus and Isidore of Seville, contemporaries of Boethius, also wrote mathematics books, but neither contributed anything original.
During the Second Punic War, the city of Syracuse was besieged by the Romans. The great geometer Archimedes, who lived there, invented ingenious war machines to hurl stones, hooks to smash the Roman ships and mirrors to set fire to them. Alas, when the city was sacked in 212 BC, Archimedes was slain by a Roman soldier. The murder of Archimedes was perhaps the most profound impact of the Roman civilization on mathematics.
Peter Lynch is emeritus professor at UCD School of Mathematics & Statistics, – he blogs at thatsmaths.com
FAQs
They regularly applied simple mathematics to solve practical problems. They also needed elementary arithmetic for surveying and for managing trade and taxes, but they were satisfied with rules-of-thumb that called for little in the way of understanding of the great body of theoretical Greek scholarship.
How did Romans do math without zero? ›
The Romans never used their numerals for arithmetic, thus avoiding the need to keep a column empty with a zero symbol. Addition and subtraction were done instead on an abacus or counting frame. About 1,500 years ago in India a symbol was used to represent an abacus column with nothing in it.
How did Roman engineers do math? ›
The Ancient Romans developed a portable abacus, similar to but smaller than earlier ones used by the Greeks and Babylonians. It was an essential calculating aid for engineers, merchants, surveyors and tax collectors. It reduced the time required for basic arithmetic calculations.
How did Romans do sums? ›
The Abacus
The other method of working mathematical problems available to the ancient Roman would be the use of the counting board or abacus.
Who was the mathematician killed by the Romans? ›
Archimedes died during the siege of Syracuse, when he was killed by a Roman soldier despite orders that he should not be harmed.
How was math done before zero? ›
One forerunner of the mathematical zero can be seen in the earliest known counting system, devised by the Sumerians. At first, they'd use a blank space to indicate a nothing value, and when that grew confusing, they began using a pair of angled wedges as a placeholder for a blank space.
Who invented 0 in mathematics? ›
Aryabhata, a great astronomer of the classic age of India was the one who invented the digit “0” (zero) for which he became immortal but later on is given to Brahmagupta who lived around a century later 22, another ancient Indian mathematician.
What is the smallest perfect number? ›
perfect number, a positive integer that is equal to the sum of its proper divisors. The smallest perfect number is 6, which is the sum of 1, 2, and 3. Other perfect numbers are 28, 496, and 8,128. The discovery of such numbers is lost in prehistory.
What did Roman math look like? ›
Today we use a place value system and Indo-Arabic numerals (0 to 9) for calculations. The Romans utilized number symbols like I, V, X, L, C, D, M. They had no sign for zero and no negative numbers. Therefore there is no year 0.
Did the Romans know calculus? ›
The Romans experimented with materials, from which they invented cement and mortar. They knew geometry (from Euclid), the right triangle, and basic math. One really didn't need the knowledge of algebra or calculus to erect large structures as they did.
Addition was done by totaling separately the symbols (1s, 10s, 100s, etc) in the numbers to be added, and multiplication was a laborious process based on successive doublings (division was based on the inverse of this process). But most of Greek mathematics was based on geometry.
What did the Romans do in the time of Jesus? ›
When Jesus was born, Palestine was ruled by the Romans. The Romans knew that whoever controlled Palestine had control of all the roads in and out of those areas. The Romans invaded the land of Palestine in 63BC. The Roman army marched into Jerusalem and took over the city.
How did ancient Rome do math? ›
They used a table and stones to do computations, similar to an abacus. Roman numerals were just used to record numbers, not to do long computations.
How did Romans write fractions? ›
“The Romans didn't have a standard way to write fractions using their numerals,” “Dr. Math” says at mathforum.com. “Instead, they just wrote out the word for the fraction. For example, two-sevenths was 'duae septimae' and three-eighths was 'tres ocatavae.
How did Romans use science and mathematics to improve life? ›
To improve life in the empire, Romans used mathematics and science to engineer bridges, harbors, and roads. Roman roads were so durable that they were used for a long period of time after the fall of the empire and aqueducts, bridgelike stone structures, carried water into Roman cities, making it easier to obtain.
Who discovered mathematics first? ›
Archimedes is regarded as the founding figure of mathematics. But the question of who created mathematics has no clear answer. In many centuries and by many people, it was discovered. We think it's more accurate to say that humanity discovered mathematics and that mathematics belongs to the entire planet.
How math has helped in ancient times? ›
Applied math developed because of necessity, as a tool to watch the stars and develop calendars, or build architectural marvels. The Egyptians devised a mathematical system designed to meet their needs, based around the need for accurate surveying.
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