Athene's Prophecy (Gaius Claudius Scaevola Trilogy) by Ian Miller Page A

way at least has the advantage of being successful."
    "So far," Timothy mumbled.
    "So far," Gaius agreed. "However, it seems to me that adopting the second policy of keeping one's eyes open in case the first answers itself has a lot going for it."
    "For a Roman, it would," Timothy nodded, then he pulled himself together. Irritating his master was not in a slave's best interests. "So, back to physics. Did you learn anything else from Thales?"
    "I made sparks," Gaius shrugged. "Whether that is useful is another matter."
    "Explain!"
    "Thales found that if you rubbed some materials like amber with fur, the amber would attract hair, and if you rubbed hard enough, you could make little sparks. So I got some amber and tried my hand at it. It works, but the sparks are very small, and I regard it more as a curiosity."
    Timothy was now a little puzzled. The boy would have had to read quite a bit to find that, and having done so, to actually go into town and find some amber and fur would have taken effort. The boy seemed to find things interesting. Whether that was good or bad remained to be seen. In the meantime, he had to keep going. "Let's move on to Anaximander, also of Miletus. Anaximander believed that the original substance of the universe was formless and from this, everything was created. The uneven creation led to forces, and these forces have formed the present and will form the future. Every force has a contrary, thus hot counters cold, wet counters dry, and so on. Every motion in the Universe is a result of such forces, and most things are acted upon by forces and therefore change. Your comments?"
    "Forces drive change, but maybe we shouldn't invent forces simply because something changes. What I mean is, if there's a net force there will be a change, but it doesn't follow that there is a force behind every change."
    "That's a good point of logic," Timothy smiled. "Suppose I say, all cows eat grass. That is a one-way statement, hence if I see a cow I know it eats grass, but if someone tells me there is something eating grass, it doesn't have to be a cow. Now, back to the concept of forces and contraries. Anything else?"
    "If the forces tend to bring everything together, then surely soon everything will be thoroughly mixed?"
    "Good! But you see, there is inherent unevenness. The sun only shines in the day, therefore the heat of the sun is uneven, so while the forces attempt to bring everything together, there are also causes of separation. Anaximander decided that while the contrary forces were universal and were trying to bring the Universe into harmony, there are also changes and situations that increase the separation. Give another example in which the separation of contraries is maintained, and explain why?"
    "I can't . . ." Gaius shrugged. "I don't know . . ."
    "You can't! How useful!" Timothy scowled. He had to try to irritate his young charge, because he had to know whether he had potential, or whether this was simply an exercise he had to go through. On the other hand, he must not irritate too much. "Take your time! Think!" Timothy gave a quiet smile, and sat back and began munching a piece of bread and cheese. As tests went, this could be even more useful.
    At first nothing came to Gaius, however it seemed that the answer was presumably related to this Greek physics. He should review all he knew, which would not take long. He was almost going to give up, when a thought struck him. "I may have something," he announced.
    "May? As Aristotle would have noted, you either have or have not. Which is it?"
    "How about this?" Gaius asked. He suddenly felt confident. "As I recall from Aristarchus, the sun is a long way away, and it shines heat. The Earth is a ball, so where the heat strikes square-on, such as to the south of us, it gets very hot, while at the north, it stays dark throughout the winter and it gets very cold. These so-called contraries are being generated continually."
    "And the forces of cold and the heat