%0 Book Section %B The Frontiers of Ancient Science %D 2015 %T Technē and Method in Ancient Artillery Construction: The Belopoeica of Philo of Byzantium %A Mark J. Schiefsky %E B. Holmes %E K.-D. Fischer %X

Abstract: In his Belopoeica, Philo of Byzantium presents artillery construction (belopoiikē) as a kind of expertise or technē that possesses a standardized method for attaining success. I describe this method, which consists of a set of procedures and rules that are systematically organized on the basis of general principles, and discuss Philo’s claim that its discovery depended crucially on experience (peira). In the second part of the Belopoeica Philo presents several designs for artillery engines that allegedly improve on the standard method. I discuss these designs, which draw on both natural philosophy and theoretical mechanics, and conclude with a brief attempt to place Philo’s picture of artillery construction as a technē involving both experience and theory in the context of roughly contemporary views of technē in philosophy and medicine. 

%B The Frontiers of Ancient Science %I De Gruyter %C Berlin %P 613-651 %G eng