The Atrebates ( Gaulish : * Atrebatis , 'dwellers, land-owners, possessors of the soil') were a Belgic tribe of the Iron Age and the Roman period , originally dwelling in the Artois region.
108-482: After the tribes of Gallia Belgica were defeated by Caesar in 57 BC, 4,000 Atrebates participated in the Battle of Alesia in 53, led by their chief Commius . They revolted again in 51 BC, after which they maintained a friendly relationship with Rome, as Commius received sovereignty over the neighbouring Morini . The quality of their woollens is still mentioned in 301 AD by Diocletian 's Price Edict . An offshoot of
216-542: A Roman citizen . Gerald Toomer, the translator of Ptolemy's Almagest into English, suggests that citizenship was probably granted to one of Ptolemy's ancestors by either the emperor Claudius or the emperor Nero . The 9th century Persian astronomer Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi mistakenly presents Ptolemy as a member of Ptolemaic Egypt's royal lineage , stating that the descendants of the Alexandrine general and Pharaoh Ptolemy I Soter were wise "and included Ptolemy
324-417: A perfect fourth ) and octaves . Ptolemy reviewed standard (and ancient, disused ) musical tuning practice of his day, which he then compared to his own subdivisions of the tetrachord and the octave , which he derived experimentally using a monochord / harmonic canon. The volume ends with a more speculative exposition of the relationships between harmony, the soul ( psyche ), and the planets ( harmony of
432-612: A Roman citizen, but was ethnically either a Greek or at least a Hellenized Egyptian. Astronomy was the subject to which Ptolemy devoted the most time and effort; about half of all the works that survived deal with astronomical matters, and even others such as the Geography and the Tetrabiblos have significant references to astronomy. Ptolemy's Mathēmatikē Syntaxis ( Greek : Μαθηματικὴ Σύνταξις , lit. ' Mathematical Systematic Treatise ' ), better known as
540-575: A balance between Romanizing the people of Gallia Belgica and allowing pre-existing culture to survive. The Romans divided the province into four civitates , corresponding generally to ancient tribal boundaries. The capital cities of these districts included modern Cassel (replaced by Tournai as Menapian civitas ), Bavay (replaced by Cambrai as Nervian civitas ), Thérouanne , Arras , Saint-Quentin , Soissons , Reims , Beauvais , Amiens , Tongeren , Trier , Toul and Metz . These civitates were in turn were divided into smaller units, pagi,
648-735: A capital at Noviomagus Reginorum ( Chichester ). In 57 BC, they were part of a Belgic military alliance in response to Julius Caesar 's conquests elsewhere in Gaul, contributing 15,000 men. Caesar took this build-up as a threat and marched against it, but the Belgae had the advantage of position and the result was a stand-off. When no battle was forthcoming, the Belgic alliance broke up, determining to gather to defend whichever tribe Caesar attacked. Caesar subsequently marched against several tribes and achieved their submission. The Atrebates then joined with
756-444: A census of the region in 27 BC, Augustus ordered a restructuring of the provinces in Gaul. Therefore, in 22 BC, Marcus Agrippa split Gaul (or Gallia Comata) into three regions ( Gallia Aquitania , Gallia Lugdunensis and Gallia Belgica). Agrippa made the divisions on what he perceived to be distinctions in language, race and community – Gallia Belgica was meant to be a mix of Celtic and Germanic peoples. The capital of this territory
864-476: A coherent mathematical description, which persists to the present as just intonation – the standard for comparison of consonance in the many other, less-than exact but more facile compromise tuning systems. During the Renaissance , Ptolemy's ideas inspired Kepler in his own musings on the harmony of the world ( Harmonice Mundi , Appendix to Book V). The Optica ( Koine Greek : Ὀπτικά ), known as
972-402: A handful of places. Ptolemy's real innovation, however, occurs in the second part of the book, where he provides a catalogue of 8,000 localities he collected from Marinus and others, the biggest such database from antiquity. About 6 300 of these places and geographic features have assigned coordinates so that they can be placed in a grid that spanned the globe. Latitude was measured from
1080-498: A long exposition on the relationship between reason and sense perception in corroborating theoretical assumptions. After criticizing the approaches of his predecessors, Ptolemy argues for basing musical intervals on mathematical ratios (as opposed to the ideas advocated by followers of Aristoxenus ), backed up by empirical observation (in contrast to the excessively theoretical approach of the Pythagoreans ). Ptolemy introduces
1188-601: A method for specifying the location of the Sun in three pairs of locally oriented coordinate arcs as a function of the declination of the Sun, the terrestrial latitude, and the hour. The key to the approach is to represent the solid configuration in a plane diagram that Ptolemy calls the analemma . In another work, the Phaseis ( Risings of the Fixed Stars ), Ptolemy gave a parapegma , a star calendar or almanac , based on
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#17327661310831296-466: A much later pseudepigraphical composition. The identity and date of the actual author of the work, referred to now as Pseudo-Ptolemy , remains the subject of conjecture. Ptolemy wrote a work entitled Harmonikon ( Greek : Ἁρμονικόν ), known as the Harmonics , on music theory and the mathematics behind musical scales in three books. Harmonics begins with a definition of harmonic theory, with
1404-663: A pretext for the Roman conquest of Britain . After the Roman conquest, part of the Atrebates' lands were organized into the pro-Roman kingdom of the Regni under Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus , who may have been Verica's son. The tribal territory was later organised as the civitates (administrative districts within a Roman province) of the Atrebates, Regni and possibly the Belgae. Gallia Belgica Gallia Belgica ("Belgic Gaul")
1512-478: A series of indigenous tribes, possibly with some intrusive Belgic element, given initial coherence by Commius". It is possible that the name "Atrebates", as with many "tribal" names in this period, referred only to the ruling house or dynasty and not to an ethnic group; Commius and his followers, after arriving in Britain, may have established a power-base and gradually expanded their sphere of influence, creating what
1620-558: A temple at Canopus , around 146–147 AD, known as the Canobic Inscription . Although the inscription has not survived, someone in the sixth century transcribed it, and manuscript copies preserved it through the Middle Ages. It begins: "To the saviour god, Claudius Ptolemy (dedicates) the first principles and models of astronomy", following by a catalogue of numbers that define a system of celestial mechanics governing
1728-633: A term that became the French word "pays". Roman government was run by Concilia in Reims or Trier . Additionally, local notables from Gallia Belgica were required to participate in a festival in Lugdunum (modern Lyon ), which typically celebrated or worshipped the emperor's genius . The gradual adoption of Romanized names by local elites and the Romanization of laws under local authority demonstrate
1836-482: A thousand years or more". It was first translated from Arabic into Latin by Plato of Tivoli (Tiburtinus) in 1138, while he was in Spain. Much of the content of the Tetrabiblos was collected from earlier sources; Ptolemy's achievement was to order his material in a systematic way, showing how the subject could, in his view, be rationalized. It is, indeed, presented as the second part of the study of astronomy of which
1944-472: A very complex theoretical model built in order to explain a false assumption. Ptolemy's date of birth and birthplace are both unknown. The 14th-century astronomer Theodore Meliteniotes wrote that Ptolemy's birthplace was Ptolemais Hermiou , a Greek city in the Thebaid region of Egypt (now El Mansha, Sohag Governorate ). This attestation is quite late, however, and there is no evidence to support it. It
2052-562: A view supported by the Stoics. Although mainly known for his contributions to astronomy and other scientific subjects, Ptolemy also engaged in epistemological and psychological discussions across his corpus. He wrote a short essay entitled On the Criterion and Hegemonikon ( Greek : Περὶ Κριτηρίου καὶ Ἡγεμονικοῡ ), which may have been one of his earliest works. Ptolemy deals specifically with how humans obtain scientific knowledge (i.e.,
2160-481: Is an accepted version of this page Claudius Ptolemy ( / ˈ t ɒ l ə m i / ; ‹See Tfd› Greek : Πτολεμαῖος , Ptolemaios ; Latin : Claudius Ptolemaeus ; c. 100 – c. 170 AD) was an Alexandrian mathematician , astronomer , astrologer , geographer , and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises , three of which were important to later Byzantine , Islamic , and Western European science. The first
2268-587: Is ancestral to the modern system of constellations but, unlike the modern system, they did not cover the whole sky (only what could be seen with the naked eye in the northern hemisphere). For over a thousand years, the Almagest was the authoritative text on astronomy across Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. The Almagest was preserved, like many extant Greek scientific works, in Arabic manuscripts;
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#17327661310832376-517: Is damaged, but one is probably Tincomarus (the other is Dubnovellaunus , of either the Trinovantes or the Cantiaci ). It appears Tincomarus was ousted by his brother, and from this point Eppillus's coins are marked " Rex ", indicating that he was recognised as king by Rome. In about 15, Eppillus was succeeded by Verica (at about the same time, a king by the name of Eppillus appears as ruler of
2484-586: Is his Geographike Hyphegesis ( Greek : Γεωγραφικὴ Ὑφήγησις ; lit. ' Guide to Drawing the Earth ' ), known as the Geography , a handbook on how to draw maps using geographical coordinates for parts of the Roman world known at the time. He relied on previous work by an earlier geographer, Marinus of Tyre , as well as on gazetteers of the Roman and ancient Persian Empire . He also acknowledged ancient astronomer Hipparchus for having provided
2592-725: Is known but who likely shared some of Ptolemy's astronomical interests. Ptolemy died in Alexandria c. 168 . Ptolemy's Greek name , Ptolemaeus ( Πτολεμαῖος , Ptolemaîos ), is an ancient Greek personal name . It occurs once in Greek mythology and is of Homeric form . It was common among the Macedonian upper class at the time of Alexander the Great and there were several of this name among Alexander's army, one of whom made himself pharaoh in 323 BC: Ptolemy I Soter ,
2700-462: Is known that Ptolemy lived in or around the city of Alexandria , in the Roman province of Egypt under Roman rule . He had a Latin name, Claudius, which is generally taken to imply he was a Roman citizen . He was familiar with Greek philosophers and used Babylonian observations and Babylonian lunar theory. In half of his extant works, Ptolemy addresses a certain Syrus, a figure of whom almost nothing
2808-984: Is not known." Not much positive evidence is known on the subject of Ptolemy's ancestry, apart from what can be drawn from the details of his name, although modern scholars have concluded that Abu Ma'shar's account is erroneous. It is no longer doubted that the astronomer who wrote the Almagest also wrote the Tetrabiblos as its astrological counterpart. In later Arabic sources, he was often known as "the Upper Egyptian ", suggesting he may have had origins in southern Egypt . Arabic astronomers , geographers , and physicists referred to his name in Arabic as Baṭlumyus ( Arabic : بَطْلُمْيوس ). Ptolemy wrote in Koine Greek , and can be shown to have used Babylonian astronomical data . He might have been
2916-683: Is sometimes known as the Apotelesmatika ( Greek : Αποτελεσματικά , lit. ' On the Effects ' ) but more commonly known as the Tetrábiblos , from the Koine Greek meaning "Four Books", or by its Latin equivalent Quadripartite . The Catholic Church promoted his work, which included the only mathematically sound geocentric model of the Solar System , and unlike most Greek mathematicians , Ptolemy's writings (foremost
3024-528: The Almagest ) never ceased to be copied or commented upon, both in late antiquity and in the Middle Ages . However, it is likely that only a few truly mastered the mathematics necessary to understand his works, as evidenced particularly by the many abridged and watered-down introductions to Ptolemy's astronomy that were popular among the Arabs and Byzantines. His work on epicycles has come to symbolize
3132-413: The Almagest , is the only surviving comprehensive ancient treatise on astronomy. Although Babylonian astronomers had developed arithmetical techniques for calculating and predicting astronomical phenomena, these were not based on any underlying model of the heavens; early Greek astronomers, on the other hand, provided qualitative geometrical models to "save the appearances" of celestial phenomena without
3240-598: The Notitia Dignitatum (5th c. AD). The ethnonym Atrebates is a latinized form of the Gaulish * Atrebatis ( sing. Atrebas ), which literally means 'dwellers, land-owners, possessors of the soil'. It derives from the Proto-Celtic stem *attreb- ('settlement') attached to the suffix -atis ('belonging to'), the former descending, as a result of an assimilation from an earlier * ad-treb -, from
3348-662: The Almagest was the first, concerned with the influences of the celestial bodies in the sublunary sphere . Thus explanations of a sort are provided for the astrological effects of the planets , based upon their combined effects of heating, cooling, moistening, and drying. Ptolemy dismisses other astrological practices, such as considering the numerological significance of names, that he believed to be without sound basis, and leaves out popular topics, such as electional astrology (interpreting astrological charts to determine courses of action) and medical astrology , for similar reasons. The great respect in which later astrologers held
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3456-510: The Belgae , as the largest tribal confederation in the area. However, it also included the territories of the Treveri , Mediomatrici , Leuci , Sequani , and others who Caesar did not explictly designate as Belgic. The province was re-organised several times, first increased and later decreased in size. Diocletian brought the northeastern Civitas Tungrorum into Germania Inferior , joining
3564-410: The Geography is likely to be of different dates, in addition to containing many scribal errors. However, although the regional and world maps in surviving manuscripts date from c. 1300 AD (after the text was rediscovered by Maximus Planudes ), there are some scholars who think that such maps go back to Ptolemy himself. Ptolemy wrote an astrological treatise, in four parts, known by
3672-789: The Low Countries as the Latin language name of the entire territory until the modern period. In the 1500s, the Seventeen Provinces were then divided into the independent Belgica Foederata or the federal Dutch Republic and the Belgica Regia or the royal Southern Netherlands under the Habsburgian crown . Belgica Foederata continued to be used from 1581 up to the French Revolution. Even after that,
3780-637: The Nervians were either burnt down (Nemetacum ( Arras )) or had to be rebuilt in the last quarter of the second century, Colonia Morinorum ( Thérouanne ) and Bagacum Nerviorum ( Bavay ). With the Crisis of the Third Century and the partition of the Empire , Roman control over Gaul deteriorated in the 3rd century. In 260, Postumus became emperor of a breakaway Gallic Empire . He proved able to stop
3888-651: The Nervii and Viromandui and attacked Caesar at the battle of the Sabis , but were there defeated. After thus conquering the Atrebates, Caesar appointed one of their countrymen, Commius , as their king. Commius was involved in Caesar's two expeditions to Britain in 55 and 54 BC and negotiated the surrender of Cassivellaunus . In return for his loyalty, he was also given authority over the Morini . However, he later turned against
3996-788: The Optics, is a work that survives only in a somewhat poor Latin version, which, in turn, was translated from a lost Arabic version by Eugenius of Palermo ( c. 1154 ). In it, Ptolemy writes about properties of sight (not light), including reflection , refraction , and colour . The work is a significant part of the early history of optics and influenced the more famous and superior 11th-century Book of Optics by Ibn al-Haytham . Ptolemy offered explanations for many phenomena concerning illumination and colour, size, shape, movement, and binocular vision. He also divided illusions into those caused by physical or optical factors and those caused by judgmental factors. He offered an obscure explanation of
4104-709: The Proto-Indo-European root for 'settlement', *treb- (cf. Osc. trííbúm , Germ. *Þurpa , Lith. trobà 'house'). The ethnic name is cognate with the Old Irish ad-treba ('he dwells, cultivates') and attrab ('possession, the act of occupying, a dwelling'), the Modern Irish áitreabhach ('inhabitant'), and the Middle Welsh athref ('dwelling-place, abode'). The city of Arras , attested ca. 400 AD as civitas Atrabatum (' civitas of
4212-611: The Scheldt river) a part of which ( Ile de France ), from the middle of the 10th century became the kernel of modern France , and Middle Francia which was succeeded by Lotharingia . Though often presented as the dissolution of the Frankish empire, it was in fact the continued adherence to Salic patrimony . Lotharingia was divided in 870 by the Treaty of Meerssen under West and East Francia. The name Belgica continued to be used in
4320-463: The Tetrabiblos derived from its nature as an exposition of theory, rather than as a manual. A collection of one hundred aphorisms about astrology called the Centiloquium , ascribed to Ptolemy, was widely reproduced and commented on by Arabic, Latin, and Hebrew scholars, and often bound together in medieval manuscripts after the Tetrabiblos as a kind of summation. It is now believed to be
4428-587: The United Kingdom of the Netherlands , created in 1815 was still known as Royaume des Belgiques , and it was only with the 1831 separatist revolution in the south of the country and subsequent creation of modern Belgium and Dutch recognition of the new nation in the Treaty of London (1839) that the name became reserved for Belgium to the exclusion of the Netherlands . Ptolemy This
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4536-668: The Western Roman Empire had already collapsed in Galla Belgica for some time the Gallo-Roman " Kingdom of Soissons " (457–486) managed to maintain control over the area around Soissons . The Franks however emerged victorious and Belgica Secunda in the 5th century became the center of Clovis ' Merovingian kingdom. During the 8th century in the Carolingian Empire the former area of Gallia Belgica
4644-461: The equator , as it is today, but Ptolemy preferred to express it as climata , the length of the longest day rather than degrees of arc : The length of the midsummer day increases from 12h to 24h as one goes from the equator to the polar circle . One of the places Ptolemy noted specific coordinates for was the now-lost stone tower which marked the midpoint on the ancient Silk Road , and which scholars have been trying to locate ever since. In
4752-519: The harmonic canon (Greek name) or monochord (Latin name), which is an experimental musical apparatus that he used to measure relative pitches, and used to describe to his readers how to demonstrate the relations discussed in the following chapters for themselves. After the early exposition on to build and use monochord to test proposed tuning systems, Ptolemy proceeds to discuss Pythagorean tuning (and how to demonstrate that their idealized musical scale fails in practice). The Pythagoreans believed that
4860-430: The "criterion" of truth), as well as with the nature and structure of the human psyche or soul, particularly its ruling faculty (i.e., the hegemonikon ). Ptolemy argues that, to arrive at the truth, one should use both reason and sense perception in ways that complement each other. On the Criterion is also noteworthy for being the only one of Ptolemy's works that is devoid of mathematics . Elsewhere, Ptolemy affirms
4968-511: The 57 BC conquest. The largest revolt was led by the Bellovaci in 52 BC, after the defeat of Vercingetorix . During this rebellion, it was the Belgae who avoided direct conflict. They harassed the Roman legions, led personally by Caesar, with cavalry detachments and archers. The rebellion was put down after a Bellovaci ambush of the Romans failed. The revolting party was slaughtered. Following
5076-556: The Atrebates'; Atrebatis in 881, Arras in 1137), the region of Artois , attested in 799 as pago Atratinse (' pagus of the Abrates'; Atrebatense castrum in 899, later Arteis ), and the Arrouaise Forest [ fr ] , attested ca. 1050 as Atravasia silva ('forest of the Atrebates'; Arwasia in 1202), are all named after the Belgic tribe. The Belgic Atrebates dwelled in the present-day region of Artois , in
5184-616: The Belgae had some ancestry from east of the Rhine, which he referred to as Germania. Indeed, the Belgian tribes closest to the Rhine he distinguished as the Germani cisrhenani . ( Strabo stated that the differences between the Celts and Belgae, in language, politics and way of life was a small one. ) Modern historians interpret Caesar and the archaeological evidence as indicating that the core of
5292-526: The Belgian alliance was in the present-day northernmost corner of France; the Suessiones , Viromandui and Ambiani as well perhaps as some of their neighbours who lived in the area, Caesar identified as Belgium or Belgica. These were the leaders of the initial military alliance he confronted, and they were also more economically advanced (and therefore less "Germanic" according to Caesar's way of seeing things) than many of their more northerly allies such as
5400-544: The Belgic tribe probably entered Britain before 54 BC, where it was successively ruled by kings Commius, Tincommius , Eppillus and Verica . After 43 AD, only parts of the area were still controlled by king Claudius Cogidubnus , after which they fell under Roman power. They are mentioned as Atrebates by Caesar (mid-1st c. BC) and Pliny (1st c. AD), Atrebátioi (Ἀτρεβάτιοι) by Strabo (early 1st c. AD), Atribátioi (Ἀτριβάτιοι) by Ptolemy (2nd c. AD), Atrébas (Ἀτρέβας) by Cassius Dio (3rd c. AD), and as Atrabatis in
5508-602: The British Atrebates, a kingdom he may have founded. Their territory comprised modern Hampshire , West Sussex and Berkshire , centred on the capital Calleva Atrebatum (modern Silchester ). They were bordered to the north by the Dobunni and Catuvellauni ; to the east by the Regni ; and to the south by the Belgae . The settlement of the Atrebates in Britain was not a mass population movement. Archaeologist Barry Cunliffe argues that they "seem to have comprised
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#17327661310835616-586: The Cantiaci in Kent ). But Verica's kingdom was being pressed by the expansion of the Catuvellauni under Cunobelinus . Calleva fell to Cunobelinus's brother Epaticcus by about 25. Verica regained some territory following Epaticcus's death in about 35, but Cunobelinus's son Caratacus took over the campaign and by the early 40s the Atrebates were conquered. Verica fled to Rome, giving the new emperor Claudius
5724-436: The French astronomer Delambre in the early 1800s which were repeated by R.R. Newton. Specifically, it proved Hipparchus was not the sole source of Ptolemy's catalog, as they both had claimed, and proved that Ptolemy did not simply copy Hipparchus' measurements and adjust them to account for precession of the equinoxes, as they had claimed. Scientists analyzing the charts concluded: It also confirms that Ptolemy’s Star Catalogue
5832-477: The Greek term Tetrabiblos (lit. "Four Books") or by its Latin equivalent Quadripartitum . Its original title is unknown, but may have been a term found in some Greek manuscripts, Apotelesmatiká ( biblía ), roughly meaning "(books) on the Effects" or "Outcomes", or "Prognostics". As a source of reference, the Tetrabiblos is said to have "enjoyed almost the authority of a Bible among the astrological writers of
5940-464: The Moselle valley. They subsequently destroyed large parts of Gallia Belgica, before eventually moving on to Hispania (present-day Spain ). This invasion and the accompanying widespread destruction broke the backbone of Roman power in at least the northern part of Gallia Belgica. After this invasion the Franks were able to conquer valuable agricultural land south of the Via Belgica , the very important main road between Cologne and Boulogne, that had been
6048-429: The Nervii and Germani Cisrhenani. Apart from the southern Remi, all the Belgic tribes allied against the Romans, angry at the Roman decision to garrison legions in their territory during the winter. At the beginning of the conflict, Caesar reported the allies' combined strength at 288,000, led by the Suessione king, Galba . Due to the Belgic coalition's size and reputation for uncommon bravery, Caesar avoided meeting
6156-444: The Rhineland colonies. The remaining part of Gallia Belgica was divided into Belgica Prima (in the eastern area of the Treveri, Mediomatrici and Leuci, around Luxembourg and the Ardennes), and Belgica Secunda (between the English Channel and the upper Meuse ). The capital of Belgica Prima, Trier , became an important late western Roman capital. In 57 BC, Julius Caesar led the conquest of northern Gaul, and already specified that
6264-532: The Romans and joined in the revolt led by Vercingetorix in 52 BC. After Vercingetorix's defeat at the Siege of Alesia , Commius had further confrontations with the Romans, negotiated a truce with Mark Antony , and ended up fleeing to Britain with a group of followers. However, he appears to have retained some influence in Gaul: coins of post-conquest date have been found stamped with his name, paired with either Garmanos or Carsicios , who may have been his sons or regents. Commius soon established himself as king of
6372-455: The Sun or Moon illusion (the enlarged apparent size on the horizon) based on the difficulty of looking upwards. The work is divided into three major sections. The first section (Book II) deals with direct vision from first principles and ends with a discussion of binocular vision. The second section (Books III-IV) treats reflection in plane, convex, concave, and compound mirrors. The last section (Book V) deals with refraction and includes
6480-414: The Wise, who composed the book of the Almagest ". Abu Ma'shar recorded a belief that a different member of this royal line "composed the book on astrology and attributed it to Ptolemy". Historical confusion on this point can be inferred from Abu Ma'shar's subsequent remark: "It is sometimes said that the very learned man who wrote the book of astrology also wrote the book of the Almagest . The correct answer
6588-422: The ability to make any predictions. The earliest person who attempted to merge these two approaches was Hipparchus , who produced geometric models that not only reflected the arrangement of the planets and stars but could be used to calculate celestial motions. Ptolemy, following Hipparchus, derived each of his geometrical models for the Sun, Moon, and the planets from selected astronomical observations done in
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#17327661310836696-423: The appearances and disappearances of stars over the course of the solar year. The Planisphaerium ( Greek : Ἅπλωσις ἐπιφανείας σφαίρας , lit. ' Flattening of the sphere ' ) contains 16 propositions dealing with the projection of the celestial circles onto a plane. The text is lost in Greek (except for a fragment) and survives in Arabic and Latin only. Ptolemy also erected an inscription in
6804-483: The backbone of Roman defense strategy between 260 and 406. In 452, a major battle was fought at the Catalaunian fields (between the Seine and the Moselle). A coalition of Romans, Visigoths and Franks fought an army led by the legendary Hunnic leader Attila . The outcome of this battle itself was inconclusive, but as a consequence of this battle the Huns and their allies left the area of Gallia Belgica, where they had plundered nearly all major cities, except Paris. After
6912-430: The catchment area of the Scarpe river. They commanded two hill forts: a large and central one near Arras, and a frontier one on the Escaut river . The Atrebates were separated from the Ambiani by the Canche river. In the mid-first century BC, an offshoot of the tribe lived in Britain, where they occupied a region stretching between the Thames , the Test , and West Sussex . During the Roman period , their centre
7020-441: The combined forces of the tribes in battle. Instead, he used cavalry to skirmish with smaller contingents of tribesmen. Only when Caesar managed to isolate one of the tribes did he risk conventional battle. The tribes fell in a piecemeal fashion and Caesar claimed to offer lenient terms to the defeated, including Roman protection from the threat of surrounding tribes. Most tribes agreed to the conditions. A series of uprisings followed
7128-458: The data needed to compute the positions of the Sun, Moon and planets, the rising and setting of the stars, and eclipses of the Sun and Moon, making it a useful tool for astronomers and astrologers. The tables themselves are known through Theon of Alexandria 's version. Although Ptolemy's Handy Tables do not survive as such in Arabic or in Latin, they represent the prototype of most Arabic and Latin astronomical tables or zījes . Additionally,
7236-402: The earliest surviving table of refraction from air to water, for which the values (with the exception of the 60° angle of incidence) show signs of being obtained from an arithmetic progression. However, according to Mark Smith, Ptolemy's table was based in part on real experiments. Ptolemy's theory of vision consisted of rays (or flux) coming from the eye forming a cone, the vertex being within
7344-448: The effectiveness of this concilium Galliarum . With that said, the concept and community of Gallia Belgica did not predate the Roman province, but developed from it. During the 1st century AD (estimated date 90 AD), the provinces of Gaul were restructured. Emperor Domitian reorganized the provinces in order to separate the militarized zones of the Rhine from the civilian populations of the region. The northeastern part of Gallia Belgica
7452-469: The elevation of the north celestial pole for a few cities. Although maps based on scientific principles had been made since the time of Eratosthenes ( c. 276 – c. 195 BC ), Ptolemy improved on map projections . The first part of the Geography is a discussion of the data and of the methods he used. Ptolemy notes the supremacy of astronomical data over land measurements or travelers' reports, though he possessed these data for only
7560-425: The empirical musical relations he identified by testing pitches against each other: He was able to accurately measure relative pitches based on the ratios of vibrating lengths two separate sides of the same single string , hence which were assured to be under equal tension, eliminating one source of error. He analyzed the empirically determined ratios of "pleasant" pairs of pitches, and then synthesised all of them into
7668-419: The eye, and the base defining the visual field. The rays were sensitive, and conveyed information back to the observer's intellect about the distance and orientation of surfaces. Size and shape were determined by the visual angle subtended at the eye combined with perceived distance and orientation. This was one of the early statements of size-distance invariance as a cause of perceptual size and shape constancy,
7776-581: The first pharaoh of the Ptolemaic Kingdom . Almost all subsequent pharaohs of Egypt, with a few exceptions, were named Ptolemy until Egypt became a Roman province in 30 BC, ending the Macedonian family's rule. The name Claudius is a Roman name, belonging to the gens Claudia ; the peculiar multipart form of the whole name Claudius Ptolemaeus is a Roman custom, characteristic of Roman citizens. This indicates that Ptolemy would have been
7884-483: The former province of Gallia Belgica and start the Merovingian kingdom , the first immediate forerunner state of Western civilization. Emperor Diocletian restructured the provinces around 300, and split Belgica into two provinces: Belgica Prima and Belgica Secunda. Belgica Prima had Augusta Treverorum (Trier) as its main city, and consisted of the eastern part. The border between Belgica Prima and Belgica Secunda
7992-553: The history of science". One striking error noted by Newton was an autumn equinox said to have been observed by Ptolemy and "measured with the greatest care" at 2pm on 25 September 132, when the equinox should have been observed around 9:55am the day prior. In attempting to disprove Newton, Herbert Lewis also found himself agreeing that "Ptolemy was an outrageous fraud," and that "all those result capable of statistical analysis point beyond question towards fraud and against accidental error". The charges laid by Newton and others have been
8100-635: The incursions from the Franks. Only in 274 was Roman control restored by the new emperor Aurelian in the Battle of Châlons . The cost of this defeat in the long run proved very high indeed. With the Gallic army defeated and not returning to the Rhine border , the Franks overran the neighbouring province of Germania Inferior . The Rhineland (to the Ripuarian Franks ) and the area between the Rhine and
8208-616: The introduction to the Handy Tables survived separately from the tables themselves (apparently part of a gathering of some of Ptolemy's shorter writings) under the title Arrangement and Calculation of the Handy Tables . The Planetary Hypotheses ( Greek : Ὑποθέσεις τῶν πλανωμένων , lit. ' Hypotheses of the Planets ' ) is a cosmological work, probably one of the last written by Ptolemy, in two books dealing with
8316-534: The kingdom from Calleva, while Eppillus ruled the southern half from Noviomagus ( Chichester ). Numismatic and other archeological evidence suggests that Tincomarus took a more pro-Roman stance than his father, and John Creighton argues from the imagery on his coins that he was brought up as an obses (diplomatic hostage) in Rome under Augustus . Augustus's Res Gestae mentions two British kings presenting themselves to him as supplicants, probably ca. 7 AD. The passage
8424-415: The length of his apparent floruit , some have concluded that there were two kings, father and son, of the same name. Three later kings of the British Atrebates name themselves on their coins as sons of Commius: Tincomarus , Eppillus and Verica . Tincomarus seems to have ruled jointly with his father from about 25 BC until Commius's death in about 20 BC. After that, Tincomarus ruled the northern part of
8532-541: The main road between Boulogne and Cologne, present-day South Holland, Zeeland, Flanders, Brabant and Limburg, the last three in both the present-day Netherlands and Belgium (to the Salian Franks ) were de facto lost forever for the Roman empire. This gave the Salian Franks a base from which they could expand some 130 years later, beginning after the disastrous Rhine crossing in 406, to conquer the whole area of
8640-500: The mathematics of music should be based on only the one specific ratio of 3:2, the perfect fifth , and believed that tunings mathematically exact to their system would prove to be melodious, if only the extremely large numbers involved could be calculated (by hand). To the contrary, Ptolemy believed that musical scales and tunings should in general involve multiple different ratios arranged to fit together evenly into smaller tetrachords (combinations of four pitch ratios which together make
8748-566: The modern title is thought to be an Arabic corruption of the Greek name Hē Megistē Syntaxis (lit. "The greatest treatise"), as the work was presumably known in Late Antiquity . Because of its reputation, it was widely sought and translated twice into Latin in the 12th century , once in Sicily and again in Spain. Ptolemy's planetary models, like those of the majority of his predecessors, were geocentric and almost universally accepted until
8856-477: The motions of the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars. In 2023, archaeologists were able to read a manuscript which gives instructions for the construction of an astronomical tool called a meteoroscope ( μετεωροσκόπιον or μετεωροσκοπεῖον ). The text, which comes from an eighth-century manuscript which also contains Ptolemy's Analemma , was identified on the basis of both its content and linguistic analysis as being by Ptolemy. Ptolemy's second most well-known work
8964-461: The observations were taken at 12:30pm. The overall quality of Ptolemy's observations has been challenged by several modern scientists, but prominently by Robert R. Newton in his 1977 book The Crime of Claudius Ptolemy , which asserted that Ptolemy fabricated many of his observations to fit his theories. Newton accused Ptolemy of systematically inventing data or doctoring the data of earlier astronomers, and labelled him "the most successful fraud in
9072-528: The part to the north of the Seine and Marne rivers was inhabited by a people or alliance known as the Belgae . This definition became the basis of the later Roman province of Belgica. Caesar said that the Belgae were separated from the Celtic Gauls to their south by "language, custom and laws" ( lingua, institutis, legibus ) but he did not go into detail, except to mention that he learnt from his contacts that
9180-401: The radius of the sphere of the fixed stars was 20 000 times the radius of the Earth. The work is also notable for having descriptions on how to build instruments to depict the planets and their movements from a geocentric perspective, much as an orrery would have done for a heliocentric one, presumably for didactic purposes. The Analemma is a short treatise where Ptolemy provides
9288-486: The reappearance of heliocentric models during the scientific revolution . Under the scrutiny of modern scholarship, and the cross-checking of observations contained in the Almagest against figures produced through backwards extrapolation, various patterns of errors have emerged within the work. A prominent miscalculation is Ptolemy's use of measurements that he claimed were taken at noon, but which systematically produce readings now shown to be off by half an hour, as if
9396-468: The respective northern and northwestern coast of present-day Netherlands and Germany . The attack occurred in the drainage basin of the river Scheldt (present-day Flanders and Hainaut ). Archaeologists have found evidence that large farms near Tournai and the village Velzeke (near Ghent ) had to be abandoned. Further the capitals in the areas of the former tribes of the Atrebates , Morini and
9504-582: The same root attached to the Gaulish suffix -acos . Before 54 BC, an offshoot of the Gallic tribe probably settled in Britain. After the Roman invasion of Britain , three civitates were created in the late 1st c. BC: one of the Atrebates, with a capital in Calleva Atrebatum ( Silchester ); one of the Belgae with its capital at Venta Belgarum ( Winchester ); and one of the Reg(i)ni, with
9612-405: The secondary literature, while noting that issues with the accuracy of Ptolemy's observations had long been known. Other authors have pointed out that instrument warping or atmospheric refraction may also explain some of Ptolemy's observations at a wrong time. In 2022 the first Greek fragments of Hipparchus' lost star catalog were discovered in a palimpsest and they debunked accusations made by
9720-526: The south. The newer Gallia Belgica included the cities of Camaracum ( Cambrai ), Nemetacum ( Arras ), Samarobriva ( Amiens ), Durocortorum ( Reims ), Dividorum ( Metz ) and Augusta Treverorum ( Trier ). In 173, the later emperor Didius Julianus , then governor of Gallia Belgica, had to repel a serious invasion of the Chauci , a Germanic tribe that lived along the shores of the Wadden Sea at
9828-474: The spanning of more than 800 years; however, many astronomers have for centuries suspected that some of his models' parameters were adopted independently of observations. Ptolemy presented his astronomical models alongside convenient tables, which could be used to compute the future or past position of the planets. The Almagest also contains a star catalogue , which is a version of a catalogue created by Hipparchus . Its list of forty-eight constellations
9936-451: The spheres ). Although Ptolemy's Harmonics never had the influence of his Almagest or Geography , it is nonetheless a well-structured treatise and contains more methodological reflections than any other of his writings. In particular, it is a nascent form of what in the following millennium developed into the scientific method, with specific descriptions of the experimental apparatus that he built and used to test musical conjectures, and
10044-440: The structure of the universe and the laws that govern celestial motion . Ptolemy goes beyond the mathematical models of the Almagest to present a physical realization of the universe as a set of nested spheres, in which he used the epicycles of his planetary model to compute the dimensions of the universe. He estimated the Sun was at an average distance of 1 210 Earth radii (now known to actually be ~23 450 radii), while
10152-517: The subject of wide discussions and received significant push back from other scholars against the findings. Owen Gingerich , while agreeing that the Almagest contains "some remarkably fishy numbers", including in the matter of the 30-hour displaced equinox, which he noted aligned perfectly with predictions made by Hipparchus 278 years earlier, rejected the qualification of fraud. Objections were also raised by Bernard Goldstein , who questioned Newton's findings and suggested that he had misunderstood
10260-501: The supremacy of mathematical knowledge over other forms of knowledge. Like Aristotle before him, Ptolemy classifies mathematics as a type of theoretical philosophy; however, Ptolemy believes mathematics to be superior to theology or metaphysics because the latter are conjectural while only the former can secure certain knowledge. This view is contrary to the Platonic and Aristotelian traditions, where theology or metaphysics occupied
10368-587: The third part of the Geography , Ptolemy gives instructions on how to create maps both of the whole inhabited world ( oikoumenē ) and of the Roman provinces, including the necessary topographic lists, and captions for the maps. His oikoumenē spanned 180 degrees of longitude from the Blessed Islands in the Atlantic Ocean to the middle of China , and about 80 degrees of latitude from Shetland to anti-Meroe (east coast of Africa ); Ptolemy
10476-533: The three parts of Gaul (Tres Galliæ), the other two being Gallia Aquitania and Gallia Lugdunensis . Belgica stretched from the Marne and Seine rivers, which Caesar described as a cultural boundary between the Belgae and the Celtic Gauls . In the north and east it stretched all the way to the Rhine . The official Roman province of this name was later created by emperor Augustus in 22 BC, and named after
10584-426: Was Reims , according to the geographer Strabo, though later the capital moved to modern-day Trier . The date of this move is uncertain. Modern historians however view the term 'Gaul' and its subdivisions as a "product of faulty ethnography" and see the split of Gallia Comata into three provinces as an attempt to construct a more efficient government, as opposed to a cultural division. Successive Roman emperors struck
10692-551: Was a province of the Roman Empire located in the north-eastern part of Roman Gaul , in what is today primarily northern France , Belgium , and Luxembourg , along with parts of the Netherlands and Germany . Before the Roman province came into existence in about 50 BC, the region was conquered by Julius Caesar during his Gallic Wars . His report, the Commentarii de Bello Gallico , described Belgic Gaul as one of
10800-707: Was approximately along the Meuse . The eastern part of Gallia Belgica, especially the valley of the Moselle became very prosperous in the fourth century, particularly in the decades that Augusta Treverorum (Trier) was the capital of the Western Roman Empire . The Roman poet Ausonius wrote a famous poem on the Mosella . Around 350 Salian Franks who were already living in Batavia were settled in Texandria . Texandria
10908-568: Was his astronomical treatise now known as the Almagest , originally entitled Mathematical Treatise ( Greek : Μαθηματικὴ Σύνταξις , Mathēmatikḗ Syntaxis ). The second is the Geography , which is a thorough discussion on maps and the geographic knowledge of the Greco-Roman world . The third is the astrological treatise in which he attempted to adapt horoscopic astrology to the Aristotelian natural philosophy of his day. This
11016-615: Was in effect a proto- state . However, during Caesar's first expedition to Britain in 55 BC, after the Roman cavalry had been unable to cross the Channel, Commius was able to provide a small group of horsemen from his people, suggesting that he may have already had kin in Britain at that time. After this time, the Atrebates were recognized as a client kingdom of Rome. Coins stamped with Commius's name were issued from Calleva from ca. 30 BC to 20 BC. Some coins are stamped "COM COMMIOS": interpreting this as "Commius son of Commius", and considering
11124-723: Was most likely for a large part overlapping with the area now known as the Kempen . Eventually, in 406, a large alliance among the Vandals , Alans and Suebi , under great pressure from the Huns , after first having been defeated by the Ripuarian Franks in the neighbourhood of Cologne in Germania Inferior, successfully crossed the Rhine in the neighbourhood of present-day Koblenz and entered Gallia Belgica by way of
11232-464: Was not based solely on data from Hipparchus’ Catalogue. ... These observations are consistent with the view that Ptolemy composed his star catalogue by combining various sources, including Hipparchus’ catalogue, his own observations and, possibly, those of other authors. The Handy Tables ( Greek : Πρόχειροι κανόνες ) are a set of astronomical tables, together with canons for their use. To facilitate astronomical calculations, Ptolemy tabulated all
11340-592: Was split into Neustria (roughly Belgica Secunda, main cities Paris , Reims ) and Austrasia (roughly Belgica Prima and Germania Inferior , main cities Trier , Metz , Cologne ). After the death of Charlemagne 's son, Louis the Pious , the Carolingian Empire was divided by the Treaty of Verdun in 843. The three sons of Louis the Pious divided his territories into three kingdoms: East Francia (the forerunner of modern Germany ), West Francia (west of
11448-403: Was split off and renamed Germania Inferior , later to be reorganized and renamed as Germania Secunda . This included the eastern part of modern Belgium , the southernmost part of the modern Netherlands , and a part of modern Germany. The eastern part was split off to become Germania Superior (parts of western Germany and eastern France) and the southern border of Gallia Belgica was extended to
11556-512: Was transferred from the hill-fort of Etrun to Nemetocennae (present-day Arras ), on an important road junction. The name Nemetocennae means in Gaulish either 'far' or 'born' 'from the sacred wood, the sanctuary', stemming from the root nemet(o)- ('sacred wood' > 'sanctuary') attached to the suffix - cenna ('far') or, more likely, to a deformed suffix - genna ('born from'). It is later attested as Metacon by Ptolemy (ca. 170 AD), and as Nemetacum (ca. 300 AD) or Nemetaco (365), with
11664-506: Was well aware that he knew about only a quarter of the globe, and an erroneous extension of China southward suggests his sources did not reach all the way to the Pacific Ocean. It seems likely that the topographical tables in the second part of the work (Books 2–7) are cumulative texts, which were altered as new knowledge became available in the centuries after Ptolemy. This means that information contained in different parts of
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