Apollonius of Perga(261 av. J.-C. — 189 av. J.-C.)
Apollonius of Perga
6 min read
Apollonius of Perga was a Greek geometer and astronomer of the Hellenistic period. He is famous for his major treatise, the Conics, which studies the curves obtained by slicing a cone (ellipse, parabola, hyperbola). His work profoundly influenced mathematics and astronomy right up to the modern era.
Frequently asked questions
Key Facts
- Born around 240 BC in Perga, in Pamphylia (Asia Minor, present-day Turkey)
- Author of the Conics, a treatise in eight books on conic sections, a reference work for nearly two millennia
- He gave us the names 'ellipse', 'parabola' and 'hyperbola' still used today
- Developed geometric models (epicycles and eccentrics) to explain the motion of the planets
- Died around 190 BC, probably in Alexandria, the great center of Hellenistic learning
Works & Achievements
A major treatise studying the sections of a cone: ellipse, parabola and hyperbola, whose names he established. The most influential work ever written on these curves.
A geometric model explaining the irregular motion of the planets through nested circles. Adopted by Hipparchus and then Ptolemy for over a thousand years.
A geometry treatise known mainly through an Arabic translation. It solves problems of dividing segments according to given ratios.
A work lost in its Greek form, devoted to problems in which a specified area must be cut off. Known through the summaries of Pappus.
A treatise on drawing circles tangent to given points, lines or circles (the famous “Problem of Apollonius”). Lost, but reconstructed during the Renaissance.
A collection on curves (lines and circles) defined as geometric loci. Known through the commentaries of Pappus.
Minor works cited by ancient authors, including a study of the cylindrical screw and a method for handling very large numbers. Now lost.
Anecdotes
Apollonius of Perga was nicknamed "the Great Geometer" by his contemporaries, a rare title in Antiquity. His reputation came above all from his treatise on Conics, whose scope and rigor surpassed everything that had been written before him on the subject.
It is to Apollonius that we owe the names still used today: "ellipse", "parabola" and "hyperbola". These Greek words described a precise geometric property of each curve, and we still use them in mathematics class more than two thousand years later.
To explain the seemingly irregular motion of the planets in the sky, Apollonius devised a system of circles: a small circle (the epicycle) whose center moves along a large circle. This idea was taken up by Ptolemy and dominated astronomy for nearly 1,400 years.
In the preface to his Conics, Apollonius dedicates each book to a friend or a student and recounts that he wrote the work at the urgent request of a geometer named Naucrates, who was passing through Alexandria. He admits that he first gave a hasty version before carefully revising everything.
The eight books of the Conics formed an immense work, but the eighth book has been lost. Of the seven that survived, four have come down to us in Greek and three others only thanks to Arabic translations made by scholars of the Middle Ages, who thus saved his genius from oblivion.
Primary Sources
Apollonius greets Eudemus. If you are in good health and things are otherwise going as you wish, that is well; I myself am keeping reasonably well. During the time I spent with you in Pergamon, I observed your eagerness to become acquainted with the work I have composed on conics.
Apollonius, who completed the eight books of the Conics, having filled out the first four books of Euclid on conic sections and added four more, handed down eight volumes of Conics.
Apollonius of Perga demonstrated, concerning the stations and retrogradations of the planets, theorems relating to the hypotheses of the epicycle and the eccentric.
Apollonius of Perga, the geometer, is counted among the men of learning originating from the cities of Asia Minor.
Key Places
A Greek city of Asia Minor, on the southern coast of present-day Turkey, where Apollonius was born. It gave him the epithet “of Perga.”
A great intellectual center of the Hellenistic era, home to the Library and the Museum. Apollonius studied, worked, and probably died there.
A kingdom and city of Asia Minor ruled by Attalus I, home to a great library. Apollonius stayed there and met the geometer Eudemus.
An important Greek city on the Aegean coast of Asia Minor, a cultural hub of the region in which Apollonius moved. Some sources connect him to this Ionian intellectual milieu.
