Aristarchus:

(310-230  BC) Greek astronomer & mathematician, presented first known heliocentric model of the universe, with planets in their correct order of distance around the Sun; suspected the stars were bodies like the Sun but further away from Earth.  First to deduce rotation of earth on its axis.  He used an eclipse cycle called the Saros cycle, first employed by Babylonian astronomers to predict eclipses of the Sun & Moon. 

​

Chaldean-Persian school (and Alexandrine astronomy): *  see Endnote 25

There are many clues which point to the influence of Babylonian astronomy in Greek thinking, especially during the Hellenistic period.  Their influence may have started as early as the 5th century BC (Metoic cycle) and it seems certain that by 190 BC the Babylonian tables to determine planetary motion, were known.

 

Copernicus:

(1473-1543) Polish mathematician & astronomer famous for his model of the universe placing the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe (published 1543).  This was a major event in the history of science, triggering the Copernican Revolution. He also developed economic theory; in 1517 he derived a quantity theory of money & in 1519 he formulated an economics principle which later came to be called Gresham's law.

​

Faustian:

Spengler’s reference to the Western Soul, expressing the quintessential of this Culture, seeking for the limitless, infinity, space.

 

cathedrals (and infinity): * see Endnote 26

grew out of the Romanesque architectural style, from roughly 1000 to 1400 AD, especially notable in France & Britain; characteristic features include the pointed arch, the vaulting supported by intersecting arches & the flying buttress.

​

Seleucus:

(190 BC- circa 150 BC) Hellenistic astronomer & philosopher from Seleucia on the Tigris; a proponent of the heliocentric theory of Aristarchus of Samos; his planetary model is the only surviving model of the Chaldean astronomers; also developed a theory of the origin of tides and according to the Greek geographer Strabo, the first to assume the universe to be infinite; Strabo lists him as a Chaldaen.  The only writings of his to survive was a fragment of his work in Arabic translation, later referred to by the Persian philosopher Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi (865–925)

 

Persian Seleucia on Tigris:

major Mesopotamian city of the Seleucid, Parthian & Sasanian empires, sited at the confluence of a major canal from the Euphrates & the Tigris River, opposite Ctesiphon, well placed to receive trade from both rivers; founded in 305 BC, first capital of the Seleucid Empire by Seleucus I Nicator (a successor to Alexander); important centre for trade, Hellenistic culture & regional government under the Seleucids; populated by Greeks, Syrians & Jews.  In the 3rd & 2nd centuries BC, one of the great Hellenistic cities, comparable to Alexandria; population estimated at 100,000.

​

Aristarchian system: * see Endnote 27

The Aristachian system may have been revolutionary in the sense that it introduced a heliocentric model (which was not adopted by Greeks); however from what Archimedes has to say (In the Sand Reckoner) he maintained much traditional Greek cosmology (which was passed down by Claudius Ptolemaeus, 2nd century AD), namely that the stars were stationary & that the heavens were within a hollow sphere whose limit contains the cosmos.