, a very eminent Greek of Alexandria, flourished, according to Suidas,
, a very eminent Greek of Alexandria, flourished, according to Suidas, under the emperor Theodosius the Great, from the year 379 to* 395, and acquired
deserved fame as a consummate mathematician. Many of
his works are lost, or at least have not yet been discovered.
Suidas and Vossius mention as the principal of them, his
“Mathematical Collections,
” in 8 books, of which the first
and part of the second are lost; a “Commentary upon
Ptolomy’s Almagest;
” an “Universal Chorography;
” “A
Description of the Rivers of Libya;
” a treatise or' “Military Engines;
” “Commentaries upon Aristarchus of Samos, concerning the Magnitude and Distance of the Sun
and Moon,
” &c. Of these, there have been published,
“The Mathematical Collections,
” in a Latin translation,
with a large commentary, by Commandine, in 1588, folio;
reprinted in 1660. In 1644, Mersenne exhibited an
abridgment of them in his <c Synopsis JVIathematica,“in
4to, containing only such propositions as could be understood without figure*. In 1655, Meibomius gave some of
the Lemmata of the seventh book, in his
” Dialogue upon
Proportions.“In 1688, Dr. Wallis printed the last twelve
propositions of the second book, at the end of his
” Aristarchus Samius.“In 1703, Dr. David Gregory gave part
of the preface of the seventh book, in the Prolegomena to
his Euclid. And in 1706, Dr. Halley exhibited that preface entire, in the beginning of his
” Apollonius." Dr.
Ilutton, in his Dictionary, has given an excellent analysis
of the “Mathematical Collections.”