Philon of Byzantium

280?-220? b.c.

Greek Physical Scientist

What little is known of Philon suggests that he was a relatively wealthy man who helped design and construct a large number of machines. Most of these machines seem to have been designed to help fight and win battles, and many of his designs are described in his treatise, Mechanics.

Virtually nothing is known of Philon's life and, in particular, his early life is apparently lost to history. However, the devices he helped to invent or to make useful were considered sufficiently important that, even a few centuries later, Roman architect and engineer Vitruvius (first century b.c.) mentioned him as one of the great inventors, and Heron of Alexandria (first century a.d.) also notes some of Philon's writings in his own work.

Philon's lived after the great flowering of Greek science and philosophy that reached its peak during the fourth and fifth centuries b.c.. Between the reign of Pericles and Philon's birth, Athens lost the Peloponnesian War to Sparta, Alexander the Great (356-323 b.c.) conquered the known world, and Alexander's empire disintegrated following his death. During Philon's lifetime, the city of Rome was winning the wars that would give it one of history's largest empires, though the Romans had not yet conquered Greece, and the Persian empire was still a concern to the East. It is no wonder that some of the best and the brightest minds of Greece concerned themselves with helping to develop military technology. Even Archimedes (287?-212 b.c.), one of the greatest thinkers of the day, was as well known for his military devices as for his brilliant discoveries in mathematics and physics. It is against this backdrop that Philon's inventions must be viewed.

Philon is thought to have been wealthy enough to have been well traveled in the ancient world. During his travels, he was able to meet many inventors, and he was inventive enough to not only remember what he saw, but to use many of these ideas as inspiration for his own inventions. One example is the catapult, which was invented by Ctesibius (second century b.c.). Shortly after learning about this device, Philon wrote of it in his masterwork, Mechanics, as well as discussing its military applications with the rulers of Alexandria and other Greek cities. Other military devices Philon wrote about were siege engines and fortresses and the art of defending and besieging towns.

His Mechanics consists of a total of nine books which, taken as a whole, summarize much of the world's knowledge about a variety of devices and technologies during his time. Though not all of his writings have survived, Philon repeats and refers to previous works with sufficient frequency that most of his ideas, if not his exact words, remain.

In addition to his technological accomplishments, Philon did have one contribution to mathematics: his description of a method to duplicate the cube. By this, he meant to construct a cube with exactly twice the volume of a given cube. In reality, this accomplishment was not driven by intellectual interest so much as a practical application for designing catapults, but the method of solving the problem did help to advance mathematics and deserves recognition.

Although Philon is known to have written other works, they have not survived. However, Mechanics seems to be his most important work, and it is certainly the only one to be referenced after his death at the age of about 60.

P. ANDREW KARAM