Thus Aristarchus of Samos had carried the development which started with Pythagoras and was continued by Philolaus and Herakleides, to its logical conclusion: the sun-centred universe. But here the development comes to an abrupt end. Aristarchus had no disciples and found no followers.12 For nearly two millennia the heliocentric system was forgotten – or, shall one say, repressed from consciousness? – until an obscure canon in Varmia, a remote outpost in Christendom, picked up the thread where the Samian had left off.
