Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Chapter 651: A Heated Debate on a Mathematical Incident

That event made Speusippus depressed, but it also stimulated his determination to study harder.

Besides those, what made Speusippus even more curious was the endless stream of people from Theonia coming to the Akademia to listen to the lectures since the start of the Academic Symposium. The whole Akademia was filled with people that Thurii had to send soldiers to maintain order. In the end, the Akademia even imposed a rule that only a fixed number of people would be allowed to enter. Yet even with that, many people could still be seen wandering outside the Akademia every day.

Augeas tried talking with them. From what he gathered, he learned that among these people were civil servants, farmers, merchants, craftsmen…and so on. Not only were they from Thurii, but there were also people from Campania, Magna Graecia, Apulia, Sicily…and so on. And apart from the Greeks, there are also Lucanians, Bruttians, Messapians…most of them have studied in the schools in the various cities of Theonia and are still eager for knowledge even with their busy life.

And from the questions they raised in the various conference halls, it was clear their knowledge wasn't low, which surprised Speusippus and Augeas. After all, speeches and exchanges at this level were often a minority affair, as learning wasn't widespread in the many Greek city-states, even in prosperous cities such as Athens. Like when the Athenians elected strategoi or expelled politicians during the annual ecclesia, it was common for the illiterate citizens to ask someone to help them write on the clay tablets… Thus the Theonians' pursuit of knowledge was so much that they put them to shame.

In the afternoon of that day, Augeas and his colleagues hurried from the Lyceum of Philosophy to the Institute of Mathematics because Phaestokiadas would give his lecture.

The academic symposium held in Theonia also provides a stage for young scholars. Thus as long as their applications are approved, they can also give their lecture on stage and exchange with renowned scholars.

Of course, the majority of young scholars who gave their speeches on the stage were students from the Theonian Akademia since they passed the evaluation as they were more prepared.

Phaestokiadas, the first student of the Theonian Akademia whom Speusippus and Augeas knew the earliest and had the best relationship, had invited them to dine at Cheiristoya's Restaurant last night. Hence it is only natural for Speusippus and the others to come and show up to his lecture. Moreover, they were also curious about what Phaestokiadas would lecture as he had kept his mouth shut during last night's discussion.

When they entered the hall in the Institute of Mathematics, Phaestokiadas was already giving his speech.

But what they saw was a bizarre sight: Some audience were shouting angrily, trying to rush to the stage but were stopped by the soldiers while some threw stones on the stage. Yet even with that, Phaestokiadas, surrounded by his classmate, spoke his views in a louder voice and wrote his argumentation on the black wallboard with white chalk made of limestone.

“What is the title of Phaestokiadas' speech?” Augeas asked an audience next to him.

The audience said impatiently, “On the existence of numbers other than the ratio of integers.” Then he continues listening attentively.

Augeas then felt the subject was somewhat familiar.

“Hippasus!” Speusippus quickly reminded him.

Augeas suddenly realised why he felt it familiar. It was because the topic involved an academic tragedy in Magna Graecia decades ago.

The Hippasus of Metapontum was a disciple of the Pythagorean School. While studying the pentagon, he found that he could not express the diagonal and side length by the ratio of integer. Then he discovered that a square's side length and diagonal are the same.

Thus with the spirit of exploration, he confirmed one thing after repeated verification: In addition to the ratio of integers, there exists a kind of number which cannot be divided evenly, cannot get the exact number and cannot be cycled.

Then, he put forward his views in an exchange with the other Pythagoreans.

But it caused the members of the Pythagorean School to panic as once Hippasus' discovery is confirmed and spread, it would overturn the philosophy of Pythagoras, who said that everything is a number, one is the generator of all other numbers, and everything in the universe comes down the ratio of integers. As a result, the other members of the Pythagorean School imprisoned Hippasus and finally threw him into the sea, drowning him alive.

Unfortunately, this incident eventually spread through the complaints of Hippasus' family.

Although Augeas knew of such an event, he did not know the detailed process. But when he saw the angry audience, he knew they must be Pythagoreans.

Yet even with that, Phaestokiadas didn't pay attention to their shouting as he calmly continued to solve it.

Speusippus then looked at the wall panel and saw that the numbers and symbols used by Phaestokiadas were Davos' number, which was told to have been invented by King Davos under the enlightenment of Hades. Although this Davos' number was only popular in the country of the king of Theonia back then, it later spread to other city-states through the merchants. Afterwards, it gradually got accepted by the people of other city-states and even scholars as it was too convenient and fast when counting and computing. In particular, it has eliminated the worries of the Greeks about counting large numbers. Hence today's scholars and the public can understand those.

Phaestokiadas drew a square on the wall panel. He then set the length of each side as one, and then he solved the length of the diagonal. Ironically, Phaestokiadas used the Pythagorean Theorem invented by Pythagoras to find that the length of the diagonal would become the square root of two.

Phaestokiadas then used the method commonly used by the Pythagorean School to disproof, proving that the ratio of two integers could not represent the number. After his successful argument, he continued to try to square two.

At this time, he used an algorithm called dichotomy. Seeing that he had almost filled the whole wall panel, he threw away the white chalk, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and turned to face the audience. He then loudly shouted, “After my calculation, the length of the diagonal of a square should be 1.4142…this number has no end. It would be endless that we can’t write it as the ratio of two integers, nor is it a rational number…And thus, I call it an irrational number…”

“Booo!”

“Rubbish!”

“You are wrong; there is no such thing! What right you, a mere student, to slander the great Pythagoras?! To insult our school! Get your ass down here; we will teach you a good lesson!…” The members of the Pythagorean School shouted and swore.

Marticoris, the vice-dean of the Institute of Mathematics, stood up angrily and shouted, “Why are you making trouble?! This is the Theonian Akademia, not Taranto! Soldiers, get these fools out of here for making trouble instead of paying attention to the lecture!”

With Marticoris having the identity of a statesman of the kingdom, the soldiers rushed to catch those troublemakers as soon as he gave his order.

Then some members of the Pythagorean School cursed loudly and angrily, “Marticoris, you traitor! I knew you would use Theonia to suppress us Pythagorean because you are all academically inferior to us! We came to Thurii this time to see what new ideas you had, but I didn't expect…bah! What an All-Greek Academic Symposium! This is just a piece of sh*t!”

“What about the All-Greek Academic Symposium? It's still not your turn to comment about it!” A loud voice rang from the entrance of the hall.

“His majesty Davos!!”

“His majesty!!!”

. . . . . . . . . . . .

While the audience exclaimed, Davos strode towards the stage.

Even the Pythagoreans stopped shouting in the presence of Davos, which soon caused an odd silence to descend in the hall.

Phaestokiadas then bowed at Davos with respect as soon as he stepped onto the stage.

Davos patted him on the shoulder, then faced the audience and said, “This is a sacred place to impart and exchange knowledge. Verbal and Physical fighting is forbidden, and those who violate them will be punished per the Laws of Theonia. Thus I hope you will not violate it, or the law will punish you, no matter who you are!”

“Your majesty, we have no intention to violate the Laws of Theonia. However, in such an influential symposium, the Theonian Akademia's Institute of Mathematics deliberately chose such a thesis to smear and slander our school's revered founder – Pythagoras. They wantonly attack the reputation of our school and destroy the unity between Theonia and Taranto. I believe that isn't what you would like to see either…so I hope that your majesty will deal with the perpetrators of this matter seriously!” As an important member of the Pythagorean School, Lysis didn't make trouble like the others. Instead, he protested righteously with his eloquence.

“Your majesty, listen to me…” Marticoris was eager to argue, but Davos' sharp stare stopped him.

Davos has coordinated the conference schedule, so he generally knows the topic of the famous scholar's lectures. However, he didn't know the content of the young scholar's lectures since they are evaluated and arranged by each institution. But how could Marticoris, a former disciple of the Pythagorean School, not know the possible impact of this matter? Yet he still quietly arranged for the students to speak on such a topic without informing him! Thus it is only natural for Davos to be dissatisfied with him because it could ruin such a hard-to-organise symposium.

If not for Henipolis anxiously wanting to go to the College of Liberal Arts this morning to listen to the lectures, then Davos wouldn’t ask what the content of today’s lectures was. Then Aristias wouldn’t send someone to the Akademia to inquire about it. Then Davos wouldn’t have known about this conflict until it had become a huge deal.