Geminus

Geminus

Born: about 130 BC in (possibly) Rhodes, Greece
Died: about 70 BC

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Geminus is believed to have worked in Rhodes. Certainly his astronomy text uses mountains on Rhodes to make specific points. He wrote an elementary astronomy text Introduction to Astronomy based on Hipparchus.

His mathematics text Theory of Mathematics is now lost but information about it is available from a number of sources. Proclus quotes extensively from it and Euclid and Heron also give some information.

The Theory of Mathematics deals with the logical subdivisions of mathematics. Geminus considers the concepts of 'hypothesis', 'theorem', 'postulate', 'axiom', 'line', 'surface', 'figure', 'angle' etc.

Geminus is critical of Euclid's axioms in this work and he offers a 'proof' of the fifth postulate.

References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. T L Heath, A History of Greek Mathematics II (Oxford, 1921), 222-234. 
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JOC/EFR February 1996