XX Questions: Game CCCXIV

[Spartaculous]

Is this person best known for his writings or contributions to the arts?

[Hominidae]

Gotcha, thanks.

Was this person of Greek descent?

Yes.

[Hominidae]

Is this person best known for his writings or contributions to the arts?

Yes.

[DreamTrawler]

If yes to Spartaculous' question (including mathematical treatises) - Archimedes?

If no - was this person a king or statesman?

[JECE]

Greek, Etruscan, Phoenician, Macedonian or Dacian (including from Greek or Phoenician/Carthaginian colonies or kingdoms of the Diadochi such as Epirus)?

Edit: actually, scratch this question since we now know that this person is Greek.

[DreamTrawler]

If yes to Spartaculous' question (including mathematical treatises) - Archimedes?

If no - was this person a king or statesman?

Scratch this, didn't see the question had been answered.

Involved with mathematics, engineering, or science? If yes - Archimedes?

[Hominidae]

Involved with mathematics, engineering, or science? If yes - Archimedes?

You are correct! I wanted someone relatively well-known this time and as much as I dislike equating pi with its approximations, I thought this would be appropriate for this round.

Also it looks like "barbarian" just meant "foreigner", so Greeks likely would have been considered barbarians at that point, but I wasn't quite confident enough in that for a full "yes".

[cdngooner]

This is very interesting, because the Greeks were very much NOT considered to be barbarian by the Romans. The Romans looked to the Greeks as the fountain of knowledge.

Please consider this a clarification: is this person both Greek and truly barbarian (because that would be an interesting subset of people, if indeed any could fit); or is this person Greek, and if barbarian at all only so because he was Greek?

[cdngooner]

"The Romans used the term barbarus for uncivilised people, opposite to Greek or Roman" (Wikipedia).

[DreamTrawler]

Involved with mathematics, engineering, or science? If yes - Archimedes?

You are correct! I wanted someone relatively well-known this time and as much as I dislike equating pi with its approximations, I thought this would be appropriate for this round.

Also it looks like "barbarian" just meant "foreigner", so Greeks likely would have been considered barbarians at that point, but I wasn't quite confident enough in that for a full "yes".

Nice! And yeah I pressed the issue about barbarian but I understand the pass. The pi connection is fun.

Random Archimedes fact I recently learned - I think many people have heard of Archimedes' supposed "heat ray" or "death ray" because of Mythbusters, but he apparently also invented this thing, which must have been terrifying: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claw_of_Archimedes

[Hominidae]

"The Romans used the term barbarus for uncivilised people, opposite to Greek or Roman" (Wikipedia).

I apologize if I got it wrong. There was one example (in the dictionary that Wikipedia cites) of Romans referring to a Greek people they were fighting as barbarians, so it wouldn't be that surprising if they used it for Greeks in Syracuse who were their enemies. However, since "barbarus" itself was a borrowing from Greek, I wonder if it was in use at all during Archimedes's time.

This is a problem with re-asking passed questions. I passed because I legitimately didn't know if Greeks were considered barbarians or not. If you ask the same question a second time, that doesn't guarantee that I'll actually give a good answer. I think it's better to ask the question in a different way: for example, if your goal is to exclude Greeks, you can just ask if the person was Greek.

[DreamTrawler]

New thread is up btw! I will be able to answer promptly for the next 6ish hours.