1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910795550603321

Titolo

Numbers and numeracy in the Greek polis / / edited by Robert Sing, Tazuko van Berkel, and Robin Osborne

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Leiden, Netherlands ; ; Boston, Massachusetts : , : Brill, , [2021]

©2021

ISBN

9789004467224

900446722X

9789004467217

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (297 pages) : illustrations (some color)

Collana

Mnemosyne, Supplements, history and archaeology of classical antiquity ; volume 446

Disciplina

510.938

Soggetti

Mathematics, Greek

Numeration

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Includes index.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

A counting people : valuing numeracy in democratic Athens / Lisa Kallet -- The appearance of numbers / Robin Osborne -- Punishing and valuing / Steve Johnstone -- Ten thousand : fines, numbers and institutional change in fifth-century Athens / Josine Blok -- Numeric communication in the Greek historians : quantification and qualification / Catherine Rubincam -- Creative accounting? Strategies of enumeration in Epinician texts / Daniel Mahendra Jan Sicka -- Hidden judgments and failing figures : Nicias' number rhetoric / Tazuko Angela van Berkel -- Performing numbers in the Attic orator / Robert Sing -- Numbers, ontologically speaking : Plato on numerosity / George Florin Calian -- Doing geometry without numbers : re-reading Euclid's Elements / Eunsoo Lee.

Sommario/riassunto

"We tend to think of numbers as inherently objective and precise. Yet the diverse ways in which ancient Greeks used numbers illustrates that counting is actually shaped by context-specific and culturally-dependent choices: what should be counted and how, who should count, and how should the results be shared? This volume is the first to focus on the generation and use of numbers in the polis to quantify,



communicate and persuade. Its papers demonstrate the rich insights that can be gained into ancient Greek societies by reappraising seemingly straightforward examples of quantification as reflections of daily life and cultural understanding"--