Athene's Prophecy (Gaius Claudius Scaevola Trilogy) (16 page)

"Had Darius' cavalry got around and attacked the Macedonians from the rear, and if there were infantry to at least engage the flanking Greek infantry, victory usually follows, particularly against the phalanx. The weakness of the phalanx was that it was almost defenceless from the rear, because of the time it took to turn those long spears and reorganize. Now, back to my initial question on strategy. Why was it Alexander's optimum strategy to advance and force battle?"

"To take the initiative from Darius. To do what Darius did not expect?"

"Partly correct," Timothy said, "but there's much more. The most important point to remember is that strategy must consider operational matters. Darius must have sea on his right flank, and Alexander would have hills on his. While the sea inhibits an attack on the right, why can't Darius outflank Alexander by a fast attack down the left?"

Gaius thought for some time, then shrugged and said, "I don't know."

"It's an operational matter regarding cavalry. The cavalryman held a shield in his left hand and used the back of the horse's neck to help guide any lance or spear until the last instant. With the point of the lance on the left of the horse, don't you want the target there?"

"I suppose so," Gaius replied, a shade sheepishly.

"And this addresses the question of why Alexander was so keen on advancing on Darius. He was always going to be outnumbered five to one, but here Darius had cancelled out his numerical advantage. Alexander could deploy his cavalry on land, while Darius' cavalry had to enter the sea to outflank on the right. Alexander could see that strategically Darius had brought his massive army to the place least suitable to deploy it properly. He had to fight eventually, so why not when things were most favourable?"

"I guess so," Gaius admitted, "although . . ."

"Although what?"

"Darius could have deployed cavalry on his left. Much of his cavalry were effectively mounted archers, who could shoot arrows in either direction. With superior numbers, he could afford to deploy a few thousand mounted archers to the left, and still do everything else he intended."

"So why didn't he?"

"Perhaps he was too uninspired," was all Gaius could come up with.

To his surprise, Timothy agreed. "Darius' appears to have had the attitude that his job was to turn up with superior forces, and he had done that. However, just because you've come out on the wrong side of the strategic moves there's no reason to lie down and die. When there, you must still employ the best tactics."

Chapter 12

The day seemed so pleasant. The sun was just the right temperature, there was a slight cooling breeze, and he had to discuss elements. Gaius pulled himself together. Romans did their duty. "I have thought about elements and I have a problem," he began. "The question is, is the theory able to explain everything after the fact, but predict nothing before? For example, you say everything depends on numbers, but there are infinite numbers."

"I proposed that everything is based on numbers, on geometry, and symmetry. If you knew all the geometry, and if you correctly handle the symmetry issues, you know all about physics, all about matter, all about everything that matters. The entire universe, your entire being, is just a series of numbers and shapes, moulded by symmetry."

"Some time ago," Gaius responded, "you said there were five shapes. Four elements and no connection. So, your fifth shape? It is not that I necessarily believe your theory, I might add, but I do have to know what it is to refute it."

"Good! The four elements were really argued by Empedocles, the relation with the shapes was due to Plato. The fire is obviously the tetrahedron, its sharp points giving the burning sensation, the cube, with its solidity and rigidity is obviously the earth, water, being wet and slippery is the icosahedron, while air the octahedron. The fifth element is the most sublime of all, ether, so it must have the most complex geometry of the dodecahedron. Comment?"

"It's a good escape clause for an argument that's going wrong," Gaius grinned.

To his surprise, Timothy also seemed to smile. "Let us continue! As I said, there are seven metals and five planets. But we can allocate gold and silver to the sun and the moon, so there are five other metals, quicksilver for Mercury, copper for Venus, iron for Mars, tin for Jupiter, lead for the slow moving Saturn. Comment?"

"The only red metal does not go to the red planet," Gaius offered.

"The iron could be rusty!" Timothy countered.

"It could," Gaius admitted, then he added with a grin, "I also have five fingers on this hand."

"And what's the connection there?"

"None, apart from noting that if one unrelated coincidence is possible, so are two, or three." He paused, and waited for the expected outburst.

To his surprise, Timothy smiled. "That is a very good point," he said, "and it addresses logic. To be honest I think that business with the planets is just sheer nonsense."

"Which gets me back to my original point," Gaius emphasized. "Your theory seems useless, and only explains what you already know. My challenge to you is to predict something you don't know!"

"If I don't know it, how?" Timothy waved his hands. "How many Romans have had anything useful to say at all about physics? The reason is because the great Aristotle has explained nearly all of physics. There is nothing left for Romans to discover."

"Or at least, so you Greeks think," Gaius muttered.

"Wrong!" Timothy almost roared. "It is you Romans who think that, which is why you do not seek."

Gaius was stunned. There was an element of truth in that. Much as he hated to admit it, if Romans ever thought about physics, they referred to Aristotle. He eventually nodded, and muttered, "I suppose that could be true."

"And that is a Greek triumph that Rome can never take away!"

Gaius stared at Timothy. There was no immediate answer to that, yet something stirred in Gaius' mind. This wretched Greek could not possibly be right. He was, after all, a Greek! Surely the Greeks had not discovered everything?

* * *

Timothy smiled inwardly as he saw the expressions cross Gaius' face. He had expected Gaius to explode further, and rant about the uselessness of Greek science. But he had not. Instead, Gaius was almost accepting the challenge. If he read this young man correctly, eventually when he had to give up, he would concede defeat graciously, and give Timothy his freedom. And the way this was going, he would give up fairly soon.

That might even present a problem, since Gaius was intent on following Tiberius' orders, but there was a way out. Tiberius had written asking whether he, Timothy, needed any assistance. What he needed was a substitute teacher when Gaius finally cracked. He would reply that Gaius needed someone else to better teach Gaius about military strategy. That would give him his freedom, and Gaius what he really wanted to learn about all along. So, in the meantime, these physics were providing a value he had never appreciated: a way to freedom.

* * *

"Well? Have you refuted our geometry yet?" Timothy challenged.

"I accept geometry," Gaius replied, "because you can prove the conclusions. However, you can't prove your elements and I can refute one of your arguments." He paused, then added a quieter, "Maybe."

"Continue!" Timothy smiled at the late addition.

"You put fire into earth and get metal? But just not any earth. If you want to get mercury, you must put fire into the red cinnabar. If you want to get tin, you must put fire into cassiterite. I'll believe it your theory when you can turn earth I give you into gold."

"You can't do that," Timothy said, "because . . ."

"Because the theory's wrong! I give you the earth and as much air or water as you like. So, go make gold."

"Just because I don't know how do something doesn't make the underlying theory wrong!"

"It doesn't make it right either," Gaius replied. "It merely makes it useless."

"And therein is another typical Roman approach," Timothy said.

"The view is also Greek. The great Protagoras," Gaius smiled as he overly emphasized the word "great", "said that the quest for absolute truth merely leads to contradictions. Religions, philosophies, they're merely useful conventions and what all knowledge is good for lies in its ability to bring success to human effort."

"So where did you learn about Sophism?" a perplexed Timothy asked. This was a turn he had not expected.

"From your library," Gaius admitted. "I had to have some ammunition."

"Excellent!" Timothy enthused. He had to be encouraging, if for no other reason to return to physics and away from philosophy, which might lead to endless debate before he could get his freedom. "Anything else?"

"Yes," Gaius suddenly remembered. "You said that nature abhors a void, hence the universe is full of air?"

"I did!" Timothy smiled.

"Then if, as I argued previously, the medium supplies the contrary to motion, and if, as seems likely, the Moon has eternal motion, then the Moon cannot be in air. Accordingly it must move in a void, and, as the great Aristarchus showed," and again he emphasized the word 'great', "no, proved by geometry, the Sun is far further away than the Moon, therefore most of the Universe is void."

"I was wondering whether you would bring this up. The logic is impeccable, and given the premise, the answer follow. The only question is, is the premise correct."

"I assure you," Gaius smiled, "stones fall toward the centre more slowly in water than in air. The water must be supplying a greater contrary."

"Not necessarily! Remember Archimedes! The stone is lighter in water, therefore the force towards the centre is less, and it will accelerate more slowly."

"I hadn't thought of that," a rueful Gaius admitted, after a moment's thought.

"So, you admit you're wrong?"

"I suppose," Gaius muttered.

"Then you shouldn't!" Timothy stared at him. This was not the way Gaius must give up. Even worse, he must not see the obvious problem after having had his concession accepted, because when he retracted the concession, he might also retract the offer of freedom. "You must have more confidence. What sort of a commander gives in the first time the enemy does something he hasn't expected?"

"A bad one."

"Exactly. You are now partly diverted by an irrelevancy. Yes, the stone is lighter in water but is that the issue? It may be a factor, but not the prime factor? A general might blame a shortage of cavalry for failure, but the main reason for failure might be that the general was just plain incompetent, and his incompetence might have included the fact he did not realize early enough that he was deficient in cavalry. Go away and think on this."

* * *

"I have it!" Gaius exclaimed the following day. "Besides providing the less accelerating force through the stone being lighter, the water also provides the greater contrary, which makes the stone accelerate even more slowly."

"And how did you deduce that?"

"I didn't! Unlike you Greeks who like to sit around and contemplate, I devised a means of measuring this. I built a little bow that fires a little copper arrow. If I fire the arrow horizontally in the air it goes very much further than if the bow is immersed in water. The water must provide a greater contrary!"

"Of course," Timothy remarked with a smile, "a Greek could have worked that out without going to all that trouble."

"But he wouldn't have known absolutely that he was correct!" Gaius smiled. "Like most Greeks, he would only have argued that he was correct."

"Hmmph!" Timothy stared at him, then laughed a little and added, "We Greeks argue to show that we are correct. In fact, we even help our Roman friends when we suspect they will need it."

"This sounds rich!" Gaius jibed.

"I must give you some help for your coming discussion," Timothy said. One of the advantages of being right was that you could afford to look generous, and give what were sometimes known as Greek gifts. "Remember the great Aristotle showed why the Earth was a sphere? We can prove that the Earth is a sphere, and you always fall towards the centre. If you travel far enough . . ."

"You get back to where you started, although I am unaware anyone has tried."

"The Earth is simply too big," Timothy nodded. The young man was assertive, confident. Good! Now to be 'helpful'. "If you look at the Moon it has an image, right?"

"Yes."

"Carthaginians travelled south along the coast of Africa, where the desert changes to very hot jungle, to desert again, and then it starts to get cooler. What do you deduce?"

"The sun is over the middle part of the sphere," Gaius said, "and so the travellers went past the middle, and then to the corresponding part . . . well . . . down, or south."

"And the moon?"

"I presume it was about the same size, the same colour, the same image. What else?"

"The image is upside down," Timothy explained. "Of course the moon is the same. The traveller is the other way up."

Gaius stared at him, then said, "Of course!"

"Of course we don't know much more than that," Timothy added. "The noble Romans ploughed the Carthaginians into the soil, and destroyed any records they might have had."

"They were barbarians," Gaius shrugged. "They didn't leave records."

"On the contrary, the reason there are no records is because the noble Romans burned their great library to the ground. And why do you think they were barbarians?"

"They sacrificed little children to their Gods, just to get rain. And even then, it didn't rain!"

"So the noble Romans put an end to baby killing by killing everyone! They didn't do it out of greed? Your leading families didn't get hugely rich?"

"Yes, they did," Gaius admitted.

"And it wasn't as if they shared it out? Your senators got all the farmers to join the army and defeat the Carthaginians, and what did they do? They stole the peasants' land, so now they have a great landless class in Rome who have to be fed and entertained with barbaric games, all paid for by the taxes you impose."

"I agree the games are barbaric, however, they get rid of vicious criminals and make a bit of money doing it. Anyway, I'm not sure what that has to do with Aristarchus."