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Eutocius

Eutocius

c. 480 CE–c. 540 CE · Alexandria

Eutocius of Ascalon (c. 480 – c. 540 CE) was a Greek mathematician of the late antique Alexandrian school, associated with the circle of Ammonius (a pupil of Proclus), to whom he dedicated part of his work. He is known chiefly for his commentaries on the works of Archimedes, including On the Sphere and Cylinder, Measurement of the Circle, and On the Equilibrium of Planes, as well as a commentary on the first four books of the Conics of Apollonius, which he dedicated to Anthemius of Tralles. His commentaries are an important source for the history of Greek mathematics, preserving methods and solutions—such as approaches to the doubling of the cube—that would otherwise be lost.

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AlexandriaEgypt

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About Alexandria

Alexandria (al-Iskandariyya) is the great Mediterranean port-city of northern Egypt, founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BCE and a leading centre of learning in antiquity. After the Muslim conquest of Egypt (642) it remained a major commercial and scholarly hub; the Shadhili Sufi Ibn Ata Allah al-Iskandari (d. 1309) took his nisba from the city, and the modernist reformer Muhammad Abduh (d. 1905) was active in Egypt's intellectual life there and in Cairo.

In Alexandria at the same time

Ammonius, John Philoponus, David the Invincible, Olympiodorus, Elias Neoplatonicus

Across the traditions, in Alexandria at the same time

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In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Eutocius’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

Across the traditions

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Eutocius’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works(3)