- Theon of Alexandria
Theon (Greek: Θέων, ca. 335 - ca. 405 AD) was a Greek [Tihon, Anne, "Theon of Alexandria and Ptolemy's Handy Tables", In Ancient Astronomy and Celestial Divination. Dibner Institute studies in the history of science and technology. Edited by N.M. Swerdlow. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999, p. 357.
G. J. Toomer, "Theon of Alexandria," in Dictionary of Scientific Biography 13: 321-325.
T L Heath, A History of Greek Mathematics (2 Vols.) (Oxford, 1921).page number
O Neugebauer, A history of ancient mathematical astronomy (New York, 1975).page number
A Rome, Commentaires de Pappus et de Théon d'Alexandrie sur l'Almageste Tome III. Théon d'Alexandrie (Rome, 1943).page number
A Tihon (ed.), Le 'Grand commentaire' de Théon d'Alexandrie aux 'Tables faciles' de Ptolémée Livre I (Vatican City, 1985).page number
A Tihon (ed.), Le 'Grand commentaire' de Théon d'Alexandrie aux 'Tables faciles' de Ptolémée Livre II, III (Vatican City, 1991).page number] (or as some scholars contend an Egyptian) [George Sarton (1936). "The Unity and Diversity of the Mediterranean World", "Osiris" 2, p. 406-463 [429, 463] .]scholar andmathematician who lived inAlexandria ,Egypt . The biographical tradition (Suda ) defines Theon as "the man from the Mouseion"; actually, both theLibrary of Alexandria and the Mouseion may have been destroyed a century before by the EmperorAurelian during his struggle againstZenobia . Some scholars think that they were closed by the patriarch Theophilus on order of the Christian Roman emperorTheodosius I in 391 AD.
Theon was the father of the mathematician and pagan martyrHypatia of Alexandria whose murder is attributed bySocrates Scholasticus to "political jealousy" which instigated mob violence.Theon's most durable achievement may be his edition of
Euclid 's "Elements", published around 364 and authoritative into the 19th century. The bulk of Theon's work, however, consisted of commentaries on important works by his Hellenistic predecessors. These included a "conferences" ("Synousiai") on Euclid, and commentaries ("Exegeseis") on the "Handy Tables" and "Almagest " ofPtolemy , and on the technical poetAratus .In one of the commentaries on the "Handy Tables", he is the first author to describe the theory of
trepidation of theequinoxes , as an alternative toprecession . Theon described but did not endorse this theory.Notes
References
*G. J. Toomer, "Theon of Alexandria," in "Dictionary of Scientific Biography" 13:321-325.
External links
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