Claudius Ptolemy



Claudius Ptolemy (c. AD 90 – c. 168) was a Greco-Egyptian writer of Alexandria, known as a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in the city of Alexandria in the Roman province of Egypt, wrote in Greek, and held Roman citizenship. Beyond that, few reliable details of his life are known. His birthplace has been given as Ptolemais Hermiou in the Thebaid in an uncorroborated statement by the 14th century astronomer Theodore Meliteniotes. This is a very late attestation, however, and there is no other reason to suppose that he ever lived anywhere else than Alexandria, where he died around AD 168.

Ptolemy was the author of several scientific treatises, three of which were of continuing importance to later Islamic and European science. The first is the astronomical treatise now known as the Almagest, although it was originally entitled the "Mathematical Treatise" and then known as the "Great Treatise". The second is the Geography, which is a thorough discussion of the geographic knowledge of the Greco-Roman world. The third is the astrological treatise in which he attempted to adapt horoscopic astrology to the Aristotelian natural philosophy of his day. This is sometimes known as the Apotelesmatika but more commonly known as the Tetrabiblos from the Greek word meaning "Four Books" or by the Latin Quadripartitum.