Attalus of Rhodes ( el, Ἄτταλος ὁ Ῥόδιος) was an ancient Greek
grammarian,
astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...
, and
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change.
History
On ...
, who lived in
Rhodes
Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the S ...
in the 2nd century BC, and was a contemporary of
Hipparchus
Hipparchus (; el, Ἵππαρχος, ''Hipparkhos''; BC) was a Greek astronomer, geographer, and mathematician. He is considered the founder of trigonometry, but is most famous for his incidental discovery of the precession of the equi ...
.
[.] He wrote a commentary on the ''Phaenomena'' of
Aratus
Aratus (; grc-gre, Ἄρατος ὁ Σολεύς; c. 315 BC/310 BC240) was a Greek didactic poet. His major extant work is his hexameter poem ''Phenomena'' ( grc-gre, Φαινόμενα, ''Phainómena'', "Appearances"; la, Phaenomena), the ...
.
Although this work is lost,
[.] Hipparchus cites him in his ''Commentary on the Phaenomena of Eudoxus and Aratus''.
[.] Attalus sought to defend both Aratus and
Eudoxus against criticisms from contemporary astronomers and mathematicians.
Book IV of
Apollonius of Perga's ''Conics'' is addressed to someone named Attalus, and it has been suggested that this may have been Attalus of Rhodes. However, this is not a good match chronologically, and Attalus was a common name at the time, so the connection is only speculative.
[.]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Attalus Of Rhodes
Ancient Greek astronomers
Ancient Greek mathematicians
2nd-century BC Rhodians
2nd-century BC writers
Ancient Rhodian grammarians
Ancient Rhodian scientists
2nd-century BC mathematicians
2nd-century BC astronomers