Two eclipses today, the first of which, in MDXXIII AUC, or alternatively, on Tybi in 1068 after Nabonassar dates a man! Pappus of Alexandria was the last red hot Greek mathematicians of Antiquity, known for his Synagoge (Συναγωγή) or Collection (c. 340), and for Pappuss Theorem. in projective geometry. Nothing is known of his life, except (from his own writings) that he had a son named Hermodorus, and was a teacher in Alexandria. Collection, his best-known work, is a compendium of mathematics in eight volumes, the bulk of which survives. It covers a wide range of topics, including geometry, recreational mathematics, doubling the cube, polygons and polyhedra. In his surviving writings, Pappus gives no indication of the date of the authors whose works he makes use of, or of the time at which he himself wrote. If no other date information were available, all that could be known would be that he was later than Ptolemy (died c. 168 AD), whom he quotes, and earlier than Proclus (born c. 411 AD), who quotes him. The Suda states that Pappus was of the same age as Theon of Alexandria, who flourished in the reign of Emperor Theodosius I (372–395 AD).[3] A different date is given by a marginal note to a late 10th-century manuscript (a copy of a chronological table by the same Theon), which states, next to an entry on Emperor Diocletian (reigned 284–305 AD), that at that time wrote Pappus.[2] However, a real date comes from the dating of the solar eclipse mentioned by Pappus himself, when in his commentary on the Almagest he calculates the place and time of conjunction which gave rise to the eclipse in Tybi in 1068 after Nabonassar. This works out as October 18, 320 AD, and so Pappus must have flourished c. 320 AD, and is given the dates 290 – c. 350 AD. The After Nabonassar Ptolemaic system of dates began with the chronology established by Nabû-nāṣir, aka Nabonassar, and meaning Nabû (is) protector, who began the dating system from his accession as the king of Babylon in 747 BCE, VI AUC, the second year of the second Olympiade, 3000 more or less after the Rabbis say the world was created, 2542 Before the BNW Era. Nabby deposed a foreign Chaldean usurper named Nabu-shuma-ishkun, bringing native rule back to Babylon after 23 years of Chaldean rule. His reign saw the beginning a new era due to the systematic maintenance of chronologically precise historical records. Both the Babylonian Chronicle and the Ptolemaic Canon begin with his accession. The second eclipse killed a king!https://youtube/watch?v=UZjauaCDD7k
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 08:31:13 +0000