In the 6th century, the Greek physicist and theologian Philoponus constructed an anti-Aristotelian theory of motion. For Philoponus, an “impressed incorporeal motive force” explains the motion of a top, a projectile, and falling bodies. In Athens, Philoponus dropped objects of varying weights from a tall height, recording the differences in time for them to hit the ground. Although the falling bodies experiment is often misattributed to Galileo at the leaning Tower of Pisa, Philoponus used this experimental evidence in the 6th century to refute Aristotle’s theory of natural motion and to construct an important anti-Aristotelian tradition in the physics of motion.