London Ancient Science Conference 2018

Institute for Classical Studies

Feb. 12, 2018

Ashley A. Simone, PhD Candidate

Department of Classics
Columbia University in the City of New York

Cicero’s Celestial Spheres

The first book of Cicero’s De re publica gives an account of Archimedes’ two celestial spheres:
one solid and beautiful, the other mechanical and plain. The mechanical celestial device,
although initially less visually appealing, proves to be the superior model of the cosmos. While
the beautiful sphere depicts the constellations, it is solid and static with aesthetic value more so
than scientific. The mechanical device, though unprepossessing, can predict the complex motions
of the planets with the single turn. Cicero’s account of these spheres has received limited
scholarly attention because of a lacuna that interrupts their description (Zetzel 1995), but Jaeger
(2008) and Gallagher (2001) consider their import for the dialogue. Freeth and Jones (2012) have
looked to Cicero’s description of Archimedes’ mechanical celestial model as a valuable literary
source for studying the remains of the Antikythera mechanism. In this paper, I complement
Cicero’s literary account of the celestial models with visual evidence. A Roman mosaic Villa of
Titus Siminius Stephanus at Pompeii, roughly contemporaneous with Cicero’s De re publica,
depicts a group of seven scholars examining a celestial model that recalls Archimedes’ beautiful
yet solid celestial sphere. Brendel (1977) and Evans (2016) have noted the Platonic associations
of this mosaic but have not considered how it might be put into conversation with Cicero’s De re
publica, in part because they have overlooked what I propose is a second astronomical model in
the mosaic. This second model, depicted as a box with a crank, parallels the mechanical
astronomical model in Cicero’s account and may provide further evidence for planetaria like
Antikythera mechanism.

Select Bibliography

Brendel, O. J. (1977). Symbolism of the Sphere. Leiden: Brill.

Elderkin, G. W. (1935). “Two Mosaics Representing the Seven Wise Men.” AJA, 39(1), 92–111.

Evans, J. (2016). “Images of Time and Cosmic Connection.” In Time and Cosmos in Greco-
Roman Antiquity, ed. A. Jones. Princeton.

Dekker, E. (2012). Celestial Cartography in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Oxford.
 London Ancient Science Conference 2018
Institute for Classical Studies
Feb. 12, 2018

Freeth, T., & A. Jones (2012). ISAW Papers 4 (February , 2012). The Cosmos in the Antikythera
Mechanism, 4, 1–82.

Gallagher, R. L. (2001). Metaphor in Cicero’s De Re Publica. CQ, 51(2), 509–519.

Jaeger, M. (2008). Archimedes and the Roman Imagination. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan
Press.

Künzl, V. (2005). Himmelsgloben und Sternkarten: Astronomie und Astrologie in Vorzeit und
Alterum. Theiss.

Thiele, G. 1898. Antike Himmelsbilder: Mit forschungen zu Hipparchos, Aratos und seinen
Fortsetzern und Beiträgen zur Kunstgeschichte des Sternhimmels. Berlin.

Zetzel, J. E. G. (1995). Cicero, De re publica. Selections. Cambridge.