Eratosthenes was a native of Cyrene, on the south coast of the Mediterranean
Sea, and was only a few uears younger than Archimedes. He spent many years
of his early life in Athens and, at about the age of forty, was invited by Ptolemy
¥² of Egypt to come to Alexandria as turor to his son and to serve as chief
librarian at the University there. It is told that in old age, about 194 B.C. he
became almostblind from lphthalmia and committed suicide by voluntary
stavation. |
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Eratosthenes was singularly gifted in all the branches of knowledge of his
time. He was
distinguished as a mathemarician, an astronomer, a tgeographer,
an historian, a philosopher, a poet, and an athlete. It is said that the students at
the University of Alexandria used to call himpentathlus, the champion in five
athletic sports. He was also called Beta, and some speculation has been offered
as to the possible origin of this nickname. some believe that it was because his
broad and brilliant knowledge caused him to be looked upon as a second Plato.
A less kind explanation is that, although he was gifted in many field in many fields, he always
failed to top his contemporaries in any one brach; in other words, he was
always second best. Each of these explanations weakens somewhat when it is
learned that certain astronomer Apollonius (very likely Apollonius of Perga)
was called Epsilon. Because if this, the historian James Gow has suggested
that perhaps Beta and Epsilon arose simply fron the Greek numbers (2 and5)
of certain offices or lecture rooms at the University particularly associated with
the two men. On the other hand, Ptolemy Hephaesitio claimed that Apollonius
was called Epsilon because he studied the moon, of which the letter e
symbol.
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