Eutocius of Ascalon
Greek mathematician
Biography
Lists
Also Viewed
The basics
Quick Facts
| Intro | Greek mathematician | |
| Places | Turkey | |
| Mathematician | ||
| Work field | Mathematics | |
| Gender |
| |
| Birth | 1 January 480, Ashkelon, Southern District, Israel | |
| Death | 1 January 600 |
The details
Biography
Eutocius of Ascalon (; Greek: Εὐτόκιος; c. 480 – c. 540) was a Greek-speaking mathematician who wrote commentaries on several Archimedean treatises and on the Apollonian Conics.
Life and work
Little is known about the life of Eutocius. He was born in Ascalon, then in Palestina Prima. He wrote commentaries on Apollonius and on Archimedes. The surviving works of Eutocius are:
- A Commentary on the first four books of the Conics of Apollonius.
- Commentaries on:
- the Sphere and Cylinder of Archimedes.
- the Quadrature of the Circle of Archimedes (In Archimedis circuli dimensionem in Latin).
- the Two Books on Equilibrium of Archimedes.
Historians owe much of their knowledge of Archimedes' solution of a cubic by means of intersecting conics, alluded to in The Sphere and Cylinder, to Eutocius and his commentaries. Eutocius dedicated his commentary on Apollonius' Conics to Anthemius of Tralles, also a mathematician, and architect of the Hagia Sophia patriarchal basilica in Constantinople.