His other reform, which was not completed until the reign of Augustus, was a scientific survey of the Roman empire. This conferred great benefits not only upon Rome, but upon the world. Geography, commerce, and industry were enlarged, many practical scientists were trained, and the various data and maps which had to be collected and drawn resulted in many improvements in statistical methods and in surveying and astronomical computations.
An early contribution to science by Rome was the textbook on Architecture by Vitruvius. This great work became the standard guide to building until the changed conditions in the Middle Ages called for new architectural methods.
The works on natural philosophy by Lucretius, the geography of Strabo, the books on natural history by Pliny, and the encyclopedic medical works of Galen were successive contributions. These chiefly aimed at developing the teachings of the great Greek scientists for the practical use of the Romans.
Roman history shows that all branches of the learned professions were popular and Roman professional men were very competent. None, however, stands out as a great discoverer. The names just above recorded are those of the chief lights of Roman science, and they simply reflect the practical nature of the Roman intellect. The best the Romans did was to preserve Greek science, test it extensively by practical applications throughout their vast empire, and hand it on to succeeding nations.
Philosophical thought in the declining years of Greece turned to theosophical speculations, and finally to ethics and theology. Much interest was evinced by the Romans in ethics, æsthetics, and theology. A new religion, destined to exert profound influences on intellectual developments, gradually attracted the attention of thinkers. The Romans were fascinated by the monotheism of Christianity and the doctrines of a future life and good will and love. There grew out of the critical attacks on this new theology a powerful scholastic philosophy aiming at the exposition, systematization, and demonstration of the principal Christian doctrines.
Aurelius Augustinus, a native of Africa (353-430 A. D.), championed the opinion that knowledge of God and self was the proper kind to study. The sciences have only value in illuminating the power of God. Intelligence is necessary to comprehend what we believe; faith is required to believe what we comprehend. As the highest good, or moral ideal, is transcendent, Christians cannot realize it, so human perfection should consist in the love of God and bearing good will to others.
The conditions brought about by this turn of thought were not favorable for scientific development. The world had to wait until the scholastic philosophy lost itself in metaphysical discussions. Then Roger Bacon (1214-1294) released science and mathematics from the chains which had so long confined them.
While European thought was occupied in discussing scholastic philosophy, the Arabs and Moors were carrying on the practice of the sciences. The Moors in Spain published many valuable textbooks and developed new principles in architecture and medicine. Their Giralda observatory in Seville was the first astronomical building erected in Europe, and their university in Cordova remained for a long period the leading professional school.
The universities of Paris, Salerno, Oxford, and Cambridge, and the law school at Bologna, were founded in the eleventh and twelfth centuries and have continued to hold up the torch of science until our time.
Roger Bacon, an English Franciscan monk, was a graduate of the University of Paris. He was a brilliant student of physical and mathematical sciences. Pope Clement IV invited him to write a textbook of science. Bacon did this in 1266. He became a professor in Oxford University in 1268. His Opus Majus (1267) summarized ancient and current philosophy and science and included the researches of the Moors. This great book reasserted the fact that science must be based upon experiments and that the astronomical and physical sciences must rest upon geometry and mathematics. Bacon's clear recognition of the value of experimental methods and logical exposition mark him as the greatest intellectual force of his century.