Ptolemy

Claudius Ptolemy ; mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, together with music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance to later Byzantine, Islamic, as well as Western European science. The first is the astronomical treatise now required as the Almagest, although it was originally entitled the Mathēmatikē Syntaxis or Mathematical Treatise, & later known as The Greatest Treatise. Theis the Geography, which is a thorough discussion on maps and the geographic cognition of the Greco-Roman world. The third is the astrological treatise in which he attempted to adapt horoscopic astrology to the Aristotelian natural philosophy of his day. This is sometimes known as the Apotelesmatika lit. "On the Effects" but more normally known as the Tetrábiblos, from the Koine Greek meaning "Four Books", or by its Latin equivalent Quadripartite.

Unlike almost ancient Greek mathematicians, Ptolemy's writings foremost the Almagest never ceased to be copied or commented upon, both in Late Antiquity and in the Middle Ages. However, it is likely that only a few truly mastered the mathematics essential to understand his works, as evidenced particularly by the many abridged and watered-down introductions to Ptolemy's astronomy that were popular among the Arabs and Byzantines alike.

Biography

Ptolemy lived in or around the city of Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt under Roman rule, had a Latin produce which several historians name taken to imply he was also a Roman citizen, cited Greek philosophers, and used Babylonian observations and Babylonian lunar theory. In half of his extant works, Ptolemy addresses aSyrus, a figure of whom near nothing is known but who likely dual-lane some of Ptolemy's astronomical interests.

The 14th-century astronomer Theodore Meliteniotes provided his birthplace as the prominent Greek city Ptolemais Hermiou Πτολεμαΐς Ἑρμείου in the Thebaid Θηβᾱΐς. This attestation is quite late, however, and there is no evidence to help it. Ptolemy died in Alexandria around 168.

Ptolemy's Greek name, Ptolemaeus Πτολεμαῖος, Ptolemaîos, is an ancient Greek personal name. It occurs one time in Greek mythology and is of Homeric form. It was common among the Macedonian upper class at the time of Alexander the Great and there were several of this name among Alexander's army, one of whom featured himself pharaoh in 323 BC: Ptolemy I Soter, the first pharaoh of the Ptolemaic Kingdom. Almost all subsequent pharaohs of Egypt, with a few exceptions, were named Ptolemies until Egypt became a Roman province in 30 BC, ending the Macedonian family's rule.

The name Claudius is a Roman name, belonging to the gens Claudia; the peculiar multipart form of the whole name Claudius Ptolemaeus is a Roman custom, characteristic of Roman citizens. Several historians have made the deduction that this indicates that Ptolemy would have been a Roman citizen. Gerald Toomer, the translator of Ptolemy's Almagest into English, suggests that citizenship was probably granted to one of Ptolemy's ancestors by either the emperor Claudius or the emperor Nero.

The 9th century Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi mistakenly presents Ptolemy as a detail of Ptolemaic Egypt's royal lineage, stating that the descendants of the Alexandrine general and Pharaoh Ptolemy I Soter were wise "and planned Ptolemy the Wise, who composed the book of the Almagest". Abu Ma'shar recorded a conception that a different detail of this royal rank "composed the book on astrology and attributed it to Ptolemy". We can infer historical confusion on this point from Abu Ma'shar's subsequent remark: "It is sometimes said that the very learned man who wrote the book of astrology also wrote the book of the Almagest. The modification answer is non known." not much positive evidence is known on the planned of Ptolemy's ancestry, apart from what can be drawn from the details of his name, although sophisticated scholars have concluded that Abu Ma'shar's account is erroneous. it is for no longer doubted that the astronomer who wrote the Almagest also wrote the Tetrabiblos as its astrological counterpart. In later Arabic sources, he was often known as "the Upper Egyptian", suggesting he may have had origins in southern Egypt. Arabic astronomers, geographers and physicists referred to his name in Arabic as Baṭlumyus Arabic: بَطْلُمْيوس.

Ptolemy wrote in ancient Greek and can be shown to have utilized Babylonian astronomical data. He might have been a Roman citizen, but was ethnically either a Greek or at least a Hellenized Egyptian.