Listed 3 sub titles with search on: Biographies for wider area of: "PTOLEMAIS Ancient city EGYPT" .
PTOLEMAIS (Ancient city) EGYPT
85 - 165
Claudius Ptolemaeus (A.D. circa 85 - circa 165), known in the English
language as Ptolemy, was a Greek astronomer who lived in Alexandria
in Egypt. Ptolemy was the
author of the astronomical treatise which is now known as the Almagest (although
that was not its original name). In this work he formulated a geocentric model
of the solar system which remained the generally accepted model in the Western
and Arab worlds for more than 1300 years. The Almagest also contains a star catalogue.
Its list of 48 constellations is ancestral to the modern system of constellations,
but unlike the modern system there were gaps between them. Ptolemy also wrote
several other books. In his Geography he attempted to map the known world and
describe its peoples, although the results are often very inaccurate due to the
absence of reliable data and his willingness to identify ethnic groups based on
hearsay and folklore. In his Optics, a work which survives only in a poor Arabic
translation, he writes about properties of light, including reflection, refraction
and colour. His other works include Planetary Hypothesis, Planisphaerium and Analemma.
Detailed Biography
The celebrated mathematician, astronomer and geographer, was a native
of Egypt, but there is an
uncertainty as to the place of his birth. Some ancient manuscripts of his works
describe him as of Pelusium,
but Theodorus Meliteniota, a Greek writer on astronomy of the 12th century, says
that he was born at Ptolemais Hermii, a Grecian city of the Thebaid. It is certain
that he observed at Alexandria
during the reigns of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, and that he survived Antoninus.
Olympiodorus, a philosopher of the Neo-platonic school who lived in the reign
of the emperor Justinian, relates that Ptolemy devoted his life to astronomy and
lived for forty years near Alexandria,
where they raised pillars with the results of his astronomical discoveries engraved
upon them. This statement is probably correct; we have indeed the direct evidence
of Ptolemy himself that he made astronomical observations during a long series
of years; his first recorded observation was made in the eleventh year of Hadrian,
127 AD and his last in the fourteenth year of Antoninus, 151 A.D. Ptolemy, moreover,
says, "We make our observations in the parallel of Alexandria." St. Isidore of
Seville asserts that he was of the royal race of the Ptolemies, and even calls
him king of Alexandria; this
assertion has been followed by others, but there is no ground for their opinion.
Indeed Fabricius shows by numerous instances that the name Ptolemy was common
in Egypt. Weidler, from whom
this is taken, also tells us that according to Arabian tradition Ptolemy lived
to the age of seventy-eight years; from the same source some description of his
personal appearance has been. handed down, which is generally considered as not
trustworthy, but which may be seen in Weidler. [...]
This extract is cited May 2004 from the Malaspina Great Books URL below, which contains image.
Diogenes. Of Ptolemais in Egypt, a Stoic philosopher, who made ethics the basis of his philosophy. (Diog. Laert. vii. 41.)
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