Hipparchus (190-120 B.C.) made an extremely good calculation of
the distance of the moon.
By the brilliant work of the Alexandrian astronomers the old
world seemed to be approaching the discovery of the universe. Men
were beginning to think in millions, to gaze boldly into deep
abysses of space, to talk of vast fiery globes that made the
earth insignificant But the splendid energy gradually failed, and
the long line was closed by Ptolemaeus, who once more put the
earth in the centre of the system, and so imposed what is called
the Ptolemaic system on Europe. The keen school-life of
Alexandria still ran on, and there might have been a return to
the saner early doctrines, but at last Alexandrian culture was
extinguished in the blood of the aged Hypatia, and the night
fell. Rome had had no genius for science; though Lucretius gave
an immortal expression to the views of Democritus and Epicurus,
and such writers as Cicero and Pliny did great service to a later
age in preserving fragments of the older discoveries. The
curtains were once more drawn about the earth. The glimpses which
adventurous Greeks had obtained of the great outlying universe
were forgotten for a thousand years.
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