In this section, the focus was on Knowledge and Empire. This texts explains and describes the most predominate people on the expansion of knowledge in the Roman and Greek empires and the influence they had among world. Mostly highlighting the first couple centuries, this text discusses the use of knowledge while expanding an empire. A term that was used frequently was Roman power with Greek knowledge to emphasize the importance of knowledge along with the strong empire. The beginning of new types of thinking began in the Hellenistic period then continued after the succession of Alexander. However the Roman Empire wanted expand their knowledge also as they moved into the Hellenistic world. This was the beginning of imperial expansion and expansion of knowledge.
The text mentioned major players in the expansion of knowledge throughout the Greek and Roman world. It began with the end of the Mithridatic wars and had the Romans acquire much of the vast knowledge from the Greeks. Through this the beginning of the Roman Encyclopedia began and with the help of Varro, who began to collect and organize the Greek methods to Roman materials. His works tried to give the knowledge and skills for what a Roman gentleman should know, especially as a member of the elite. His successors Celus and Pliny the Elder, in the 1st century, focused on different aspects of the whole picture. Celus focused on the arts, which included medical, military, agriculture, philosophy and rhetoric. Mainly focusing on the rhetoric and dialectical skills but also how to maintain a healthy body. Pliny the Elder believed that the arts “created a barrier to real understanding of the world” and to focus on Roman heritage and learning in order to expand.
However, there were a few Greek scholars who influenced the Romans due to the new political arrangements that were forming. The text mentions Strabo who was a great geographer who used history and mythology learning to give detail accounts of lands. His detail accounts tell of the people, history and government of the places along with the physical formations.
The texts continued to tell about the different Greeks and Romans who furthered the empire like Vitruvius who was one of the most famous architects, who started as a military engineer then civil engineer to an architect who stressed a knowledge of not only architecture but also theoretical knowledge and emphasizing the arts. Then there was Galen who was the doctor that started it all, with his post- Hippocratic work and who was from the Greek East. He became famous for Roman medicine and classical literature. Around the same time, Ptolemy was a very famous Greek mathematician who challenged Galen. He gave a detailed mathematical theory describing the moon, sun, earth and all the planets or the earth-centered view of the universe. Next was the beginning of practical technology with major players like Hero of Alexandria and Plutarch who made remarkable achievements in Roman society.
To conclude, the spread of the Roman empire mainly happened with the spread of knowledge. This text described in detail the major players and their influences through out the Roman Empire. With knowledge comes different ways of expanding and spreading the Empire.