Abstract:
This study is based on a dataset formed on the basis of the Encyclopaedia of Ancient Natural Scientists (London, 2008) with significant revisions and modifications. The selection criteria, problems of demarcation of the sciences (mathēmata) from natural philosophy (physikē) and practical arts (technai) are discussed. The dataset includes entries on 415 persons, pseudonymous and anonymous treatises associated with at least one of the six mathematical (or mathematized) disciplines: mathematics, astronomy, geography, harmonics, optics, and mechanics. Five phases of the population dynamics of the ancient science were discerned: the rapid growth phase (600–350 BC), first plateau at the level of 60–70 contemporaries (350–50 BC), decline (50 BC – 0), second plateau at the level of 25–40 contemporaries (0–500 AD), final decline (500–600 AD). The growth and decline phases are characterized by a concerted rise or decline of the most populated disciplines, while the plateaus are composed of fluctuations of the different disciplinary communities counterbalancing each other. Patterns of population dynamics of different disciplines are discussed separately.
