What did the Romans know? : an inquiry into science and worldmaking / Daryn Lehoux.

Lehoux contends that even though many of the Romans' views about the natural world have no place in modern science--the umbrella-footed monsters and dog-headed people that roamed the earth and the stars that foretold human destinies--their claims turn out not to be so radically different from our own. He begins with Cicero's theologico-philosophical trilogy On the Nature of the Gods, On Divination, and On Fate. Lehoux then guides readers through highly technical works by Galen and Ptolemy, as well as the more philosophically oriented physics and cosmologies of Lucretius, Plutarch, and Seneca, all the while exploring the complex interrelationships between the objects of scientific inquiry and the norms, processes, and structures of that inquiry.--From publisher description.