Metrodorus (grammarian)

For other people of the same name, see Metrodorus.

Metrodorus (fl. c. 6th-century) was a Greek grammarian and mathematician, who collected mathematical epigrams which appear in the Greek Anthology.

Nothing is known about the life of Metrodorus. The time he lived is not certain: he may have lived as early as the 3rd-century AD, but it is more likely that he lived in the time of the emperors Anastasius I and Justin I, in the early 6th-century.^[1]

His name occurs in connection with 45 mathematical epigrams which are to be found in book 14 of the Greek Anthology.^[2] Although he may have authored some of the epigrams, it is generally accepted that he collected most of them, and some of them may pre-date the 5th-century BC.^[1] Many of the epigrams lead to simple equations, and they are of the same type as those found in the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus (17th-century BC).^[3] Among the problems Metrodorus collected are:^[3]

• Twenty-three simple equations with one unknown, one of which is the famous epigram which reveals the age of Diophantus^[4]
• Twelve are easy simultaneous equations with two unknowns.
• One gives a simultaneous equation with three unknowns.^[5]
• Six are problems about filling and emptying vessels by pipes.

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Henrietta Midonick, (1965), The Treasury of Mathematics, Volume 2, pages 51–2. Penguin Books.
2. ^ Greek Anthology, xiv. 1–4, 6–7, 11–13, 48–51, 116–147
3. ^ ^{a b} Sir Thomas Little Heath, (1921), A history of Greek mathematics, Volume 2, From Aristarchus to Diophantus, pages 441–3. Oxford
4. ^ Greek Anthology, xiv. 126
5. ^ Greek Anthology, xiv. 51

External links

• The Greek anthology, Volume 5, containing books 13-16, at the Internet Archive