My Studymode Docs
Hero of Alexandria
Born: c. 10 AD
Died: c. 70 AD
Cause of death: unspecified
Gender: Male
Religion: Pagan
Race or Ethnicity: White
Occupation: Mathematician
Nationality: Ancient Rome
Executive summary: Metrica
Hero of Alexandria (sometimes Heron), Greek geometer and writer on mechanical and physical subjects, probably flourished in the second half of the 1st century. This is the more modern view, in contrast to the earlier theory most generally accepted, according to which he flourished about 100 BC. The earlier theory started from the superscription of one of his works from which it was inferred that Hero was a pupil of Ctesibius. Martin, Hultsch and Cantor took this Ctesibius to be a barber of that name who lived in the reign of Ptolemy Euergetes II (died in 117 BC) and is credited with having invented an improved water-organ. But this identification is far from certain, as a Ctesibius mechanicus is mentioned by Athenaeus as having lived under Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-247 BC). Nor can the relation of master and pupil be certainly inferred from the superscription quoted (observe the omission of any article), which really asserts no more than that Hero re-edited an earlier treatise by Ctesibius, and implies nothing about his being an immediate predecessor. Further, it is certain that Hero used physical and mathematical writings by Posidonius, the Stoic, of Apamea, Cicero's teacher, who lived until about the middle of the 1st century BC. The positive arguments for the more modern view of Hero's date are (1) the use by him of Latinisms from which Diels concluded that the 1st century AD was the earliest possible date, (2) the description in Hero's Mechanics III of a small olive-press with one screw which is alluded to by Pliny as having been introduced since AD 55, (3) an allusion by Plutarch (who died AD 120) to the proposition that light is reflected from a surface at an angle equal to the angle of incidence, which Hero proved in his Catopirica, the
Born: c. 10 AD
Died: c. 70 AD
Cause of death: unspecified
Gender: Male
Religion: Pagan
Race or Ethnicity: White
Occupation: Mathematician
Nationality: Ancient Rome
Executive summary: Metrica
Hero of Alexandria (sometimes Heron), Greek geometer and writer on mechanical and physical subjects, probably flourished in the second half of the 1st century. This is the more modern view, in contrast to the earlier theory most generally accepted, according to which he flourished about 100 BC. The earlier theory started from the superscription of one of his works from which it was inferred that Hero was a pupil of Ctesibius. Martin, Hultsch and Cantor took this Ctesibius to be a barber of that name who lived in the reign of Ptolemy Euergetes II (died in 117 BC) and is credited with having invented an improved water-organ. But this identification is far from certain, as a Ctesibius mechanicus is mentioned by Athenaeus as having lived under Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-247 BC). Nor can the relation of master and pupil be certainly inferred from the superscription quoted (observe the omission of any article), which really asserts no more than that Hero re-edited an earlier treatise by Ctesibius, and implies nothing about his being an immediate predecessor. Further, it is certain that Hero used physical and mathematical writings by Posidonius, the Stoic, of Apamea, Cicero's teacher, who lived until about the middle of the 1st century BC. The positive arguments for the more modern view of Hero's date are (1) the use by him of Latinisms from which Diels concluded that the 1st century AD was the earliest possible date, (2) the description in Hero's Mechanics III of a small olive-press with one screw which is alluded to by Pliny as having been introduced since AD 55, (3) an allusion by Plutarch (who died AD 120) to the proposition that light is reflected from a surface at an angle equal to the angle of incidence, which Hero proved in his Catopirica, the