Antipater of Thessalonica in Wikipedia

Antipater of Thessalonica was the author of over a hundred epigrams in the Greek Anthology. He is the most copious and perhaps the most interesting of the Augustan epigrammatists. He lived under the patronage of Lucius Calpurnius Piso (consul in B.C. 15 and then proconsul of Macedonia for several years), who appointed him governor of Thessalonica. There are many allusions in his work to contemporary history: * one celebrates the foundation of Nicopolis by Octavianus, after the battle of Actium * one anticipates his victory over the Parthians in the expedition of 20 BC * one is addressed to Gaius Caesar, who died in A.D. 4. None can be ascribed securely to a date later than 4. Waterwheel Antipater is also known for being the first to mention use of the waterwheel in a poem . He tells of an advanced overshot wheel watermill around 20 BC/10 AD.[1] He praised for its use in grinding grain and the reduction of human labour:[2] Hold back your hand from the mill, you grinding girls; even if the cockcrow heralds the dawn, sleep on. For Demeter has imposed the labours of your hands on the nymphs, who leaping down upon the topmost part of the wheel, rotate its axle; with encircling cogs,[3] it turns the hollow weight of the Nisyrian millstones. If we learn to feast toil-free on the fruits of the earth, we taste again the golden age. The vertical watermill is described by Vitruvius in his De architectura, as well as being mentioned by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia. Both were writing in the 1st century AD. The remains of many such Greek and Roman mills are known from Europe, perhaps the most impressive being the stone buildings and Roman aqueduct at Barbegal in southern Gaul. The aqueduct also fed the Roman city of Arles and was built in the 1st century AD. The complex comprised no less than 16 overshot waterwheels.