Anthemius of Tralles
{{Short description|Byzantine architect and mathematician (c. 474 – 533–558)}}
{{for|persons of a similar name|Anthemius (disambiguation)}}
Anthemius of Tralles ({{langx|grc|Ἀνθέμιος ὁ Τραλλιανός}}, Medieval Greek: {{IPA|el|anˈθemios o traliaˈnos|}}, Anthémios o Trallianós; {{c.|lk=no|474}} – 533 {{abbr|x|sometime between}} 558){{r|Boyer}} was a Byzantine Greek from Tralles{{harvnb|Heath|1911|p=98}}: "ANTHEMIUS, Greek mathematician and architect, who produced, under the patronage of Justinian (A.D.{{nbsp}}532), the original and daring plans for the church of St Sophia in Constantinople,{{nbsp}}... He was one of five brothers—the sons of Stephanus, a physician of Tralles—who were all more or less eminent in their respective departments.{{nbsp}}..." who worked as a geometer and architect in Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. With Isidore of Miletus, he designed the Hagia Sophia for Justinian I.
{{anchor|History|Biography}}
Life
Anthemius was one of the five sons of Stephanus of Tralles, a physician. His brothers were Dioscorus, Alexander, Olympius, and Metrodorus. Dioscorus followed his father's profession in Tralles; Alexander did so in Rome and became one of the most celebrated medical men of his time; Olympius became a noted lawyer; and Metrodorus worked as a grammarian in Constantinople.{{sfn|Heath|1911|p=98}}
Anthemius was said to have annoyed his neighbor Zeno in two ways: first, by engineering a miniature earthquake by sending steam through leather tubes he had fixed among the joists and flooring of Zeno's parlor while he was entertaining friends{{Cite book |last=Agathias |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wp92bUzuMoQC&dq=%22Zeno+and+his+friends+were+terrified%2C+and+ran+panic-stricken+into+the+street%22&pg=PA142 |title=The Histories |date= 2 May 2011|publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-082694-4 |language=en |chapter=Section 5.7.2-5}} and, second, by simulating thunder and lightning and flashing intolerable light into Zeno's eyes from a slightly hollowed mirror.{{sfn|Heath|1911|p=98}} In addition to his familiarity with steam, some dubious authorities credited Anthemius with a knowledge of gunpowder or other explosive compound.{{sfn|Heath|1911|p=98}}
Mathematics
Anthemius was a capable mathematician. In the course of his treatise On Burning Mirrors, he intended to facilitate the construction of surfaces to reflect light to a single point, he described the string construction of the ellipse{{r|Boyer}} and assumed a property of ellipses not found in Apollonius of Perga's Conics: the equality of the angles subtended at a focus by two tangents drawn from a point. His work also includes the first practical use of the directrix: having given the focus and a double ordinate, he used the focus and directrix to obtain any number of points on a parabola.{{sfn|Heath|1911|p=98}} This work was later known to Arab mathematicians such as Alhazen.
Eutocius of Ascalon's commentary on Apollonius's Conics was dedicated to Anthemius.{{r|Boyer}}
Architecture
File:Hagia Sophia Mars 2013.jpg, 2013]]
As an architect, Anthemius is best known for his work designing the Hagia Sophia.{{sfn|Heath|1911|p=98}} He was commissioned with Isidore of Miletus by Justinian I shortly after the earlier church on the site burned down in 532 but died early on in the project. He is also said to have repaired the flood defenses at Daras.{{sfn|O'Connor|Robertson|1999}}
Editions of ''On Burning-Glasses''
- {{citation |last=Dupuy |first=L. |title=Περί παραδόξων μηχανημάτων [Perí Paradóxōn Mēkhanēmátōn; Concerning Wondrous Machines] |date=1777 |language=el }}
- {{citation |title=Histoire de l'Academie des Instrumentistes |volume=XLII |language=fr}}
- {{citation |last=Westermann |first=A. |title=Παραδοξογράφοι [Paradoxográphoi; Marvel-Writers] |date=1839 |language=el }}
Notes
References
- {{Cite EB1911 |mode=cs2 |last=Heath |first=Thomas Little |author-link=Thomas Little Heath |wstitle=Anthemius |volume=2 |page=93 }}
- {{citation |last=Huxley |first=G. L. |year=1959 |title=Anthemius of Tralles: A Study in Later Greek Geometry |lccn=59-14700 |location=Cambridge, MA |pages=8–9 |url=https://archive.org/details/anthemiusoftrall0000huxl/page/8/ |url-access=limited }}
- {{citation |last=Huxley |first=G. L. |year=1970 |contribution=Anthemius of Tralles |title=Dictionary of Scientific Biography
|editor-last=Gillispie |editor-first=Charles Coulston |editor-link=Charles Coulston Gillispie |volume=1 (Abailard–Berg) |place=New York |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |pages=169–170 |contribution-url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofscie0001unse/page/169/mode/1up |contribution-url-access=limited }}.
- {{cite journal |last= Knorr |first=Wilbur |year=1983 |title=The Geometry of Burning-Mirrors in Antiquity |journal=Isis |volume=74 |number=1 |pages=53–73 |doi=10.1086/353176 |jstor=232280 }}
- {{MacTutor Biography |id=Anthemius |year=1999}}{{sfn whitelist|CITEREFO'ConnorRobertson1999}}
{{Ancient Greek mathematics}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:5th-century mathematicians
Category:6th-century mathematicians
Category:5th-century Byzantine writers
Category:5th-century Byzantine scientists
Category:6th-century Byzantine scientists
Category:6th-century Byzantine writers