19.347 K.), including a work On Joints (E, A-103 [p. 23 Nachm.]). C
A attests to his work on pathology, classifying kinds of dropsy (Chron. 3.101–
102, CML 6.1.2, p. 740), and offering prognoses based on intestinal worms (4.114, p. 838).
The Schol. Nik. The ̄r. 52c preserve his explanation of a rare plant name in N.
A P., in Gale ̄n Antid. 2.14 (14.188–189 K.), preserves H’ record
of his antidote, and A A records two prescriptions: 6.84 (CMG 8.2, p. 230) a
mineral and incense trokhiskos for fleshy overgrowth in the ears, and 7.22 (p. 270) a
collyrium including sun-dried blood from a donkey’s heart and a boy’s urine. Aëtios records
many other recipes attributed to an anethnic Apollo ̄nios, which may belong to this man, or
to a later Apollo ̄nios, such as A. C, A. P, A. P, A.
P, or A. T, or especially A. “M”: vegetal remedy for ears 6.79
(pp. 223–224), vegetal remedy for nasal polyps 6.91 (p. 238), vegetal remedy for cataracts
7.101 (p. 353), and mineral and incense ocular wound plaster with saffron 7.109 (p. 375).
Michler (1968) 43, 96; Jacques (2002) 298–299.
PTK
Apollo ̄nios of Mundos (120 – 80 BCE)
Studied with the “Chaldeans,” i.e., Babylonian astrologers, and cast horoscopes; he also wrote
a work explaining comets as long-period planets of elongated shape and on non-circular
orbits (S, QN 7.4, 7.17). For periodic comets, compare also the Talmud, Horayoth 10a
(in 95 CE, R. Joshua said “a certain star rises once in 70 years and leads the sailors astray”).
P.T. Keyser, “On Cometary Theory and Typology from Nechepso-Petosiris through Apuleius to
Servius,” Mnemosyne 47 (1994) 625–651 at 648.
PTK
Apollo ̄nios of Perge ̄ (ca 220 – ca 170 BCE)
Chronology. In the introduction to Conics II, Apollo ̄nios mentions (a) having introduced
his dedicatee Eude ̄mos to P L “the Geometer,” (b) sending the new
work via his son, also A. Philo ̄nide ̄s is known to have been active in the mid-2nd
c. BCE, so that Apollo ̄nios would have been mature in the early 2nd c. BCE. (P’ claim
that Apollo ̄nios studied with “the students of E” seems to be pure fiction).
Wo rk s. The Conics, Apollo ̄nios’ major work, originally in eight books, is mostly extant:
Books I–IV in Greek (E’ commentary also survives), Books V–VII in what appears
to be the fairly close Arabic translation by the Banu ̄ Musa ̄ (Toomer). Cutting Off of a Ratio
survives in Arabic only. Pappos’ discussion of books on analysis (Collection, Book VII) offers a
detailed survey of the aforementioned work together with five others by Apollo ̄nios, no
longer extant (Cutting off of an Area, Determinate Section, Inclinations, Tangencies, Plane Loci). All
appear to be detailed surveys of various combinations arising from a geometrical problem
with several parameters. Pappos’ Collection II (unfortunately fragmentary) is dedicated to a
single work by Apollo ̄nios, unattested otherwise, where the letters of an hexameter line are
considered as Greek numerals and multiplied (!). This calculatory tour de force may
resemble A’ Sand-Reckoner; another lost work, the “Quick Delivery,” offered (to use
modern notation) an approximation of π closer than Archime ̄de ̄s’ estimate in the Measure-
ment of the Circle. A desire to compete against Archime ̄de ̄s is easy to imagine. Also attested
are a study comparing dodecahedra and icosahedra (an obvious attempt to further Euclid’s
APOLLO ̄NIOS OF MUNDOS