Introduction

Until fairly recently, the history of astronomy was considered to have begun in ancient Greece. Babylonian astronomical texts were only beginning to be deciphered in the late 19th and early 20th century. In contrast, Greek works have been read and thought about throughout the entire history of science. The Greeks didn't live in a large centralised empire, but in numerous smaller city-states. Many of the most important figures in so-called Greek science never would have set foot in mainland Greece. Instead, they lived in one of the many colonies.