The Romans were a practical people, however, and, while they contemplated the Greek intellectual achievement with awe, they also could not help but ask what good it had done the Greeks.
Roman common sense was what kept Rome great; science and philosophy were either ignored or relegated to rather low status..
Roman astronomers didn't know all of the planets, only the five you can see with your own eyes: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn.
But they knew those because they were told about them, and how to predict their movements, by earlier Greek and Egyptian astronomers..
There were many Roman astronomers that occupied themselves with star mapping by just staring into the skies to see the movement of the constellations.
The Romans knew of 7 celestial bodies in the sky.
With the naked eye they could see the sun (sol), the moon (luna), and 5 planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter.Dec 27, 2017.
The Romans believed the night sky illuminated their destiny, practising divination through zodiac signs and horoscopes.
Until the 17th century, there wasn't the distinction we see today between astrology and astronomy..
Mars was the Roman god of War.
Jupiter was the king of the Roman gods, and Saturn was the Roman god of agriculture.
Uranus was named after an ancient Greek king of the gods.
Neptune was the Roman god of the Sea..
The Romans widely practised astronomy and believed the heavens were the gateway to the gods.
To realise the significance the Romans placed on astronomy, look no further than the fact that the planets and stars are named after Roman gods..
There were many Roman astronomers that occupied themselves with star mapping by just staring into the skies to see the movement of the constellations.
The Romans knew of 7 celestial bodies in the sky.
With the naked eye they could see the sun (sol), the moon (luna), and 5 planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter.Dec 27, 2017.
Aristarchus of Samos (310 B.C. - 230 B.C.).
Born and died in Greece.
Aristarchus was a mathematician and astronomer who is celebrated as the exponent of a Sun-centered universe and for his pioneering attempt to determine the sizes and distances of the Sun and Moon..
Because the earliest Greek philosophers focused their attention upon the origin and nature of the physical world, they are often called cosmologists, or naturalists.
Although monistic views (which trace the origin of the world to a single substance) prevailed at first, they were soon followed by several pluralistic theories (which trace it to sever.
In his Metaphysics, Aristotle developed a physical cosmology of spheres, based on the mathematical models of Eudoxus.
The ancients developed cosmologies that combined their direct view of the heavens with a rich variety of philosophical and religious symbolism.
At least 2000 years before Columbus, educated people in the eastern Mediterranean region knew Earth was round.
Our concept of the cosmos—its basic structure and origin—is called cosmology, a word with Greek roots.
Before the invention of telescopes, humans had to depend on the simple evidence of their senses for a picture of the universe.
Much of modern Western civilization is derived in one way or another from the ideas of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and this is true in astronomy as well.
However, many other ancient cultures also developed sophisticated systems for observing and interpreting the sky.
