Hiketas of Surakousai (ca 400 – 350 BCE)
Belongs to a group of later Pythagoreans active in Surakousai in the first part of the 4th
c. (DK 50–51, 55). An astronomical hypothesis, ascribed to him, is identical to that of his
countryman E: the Earth rotates about its own axis in 24 hours, whereas the
diurnal rotation of the heavens is only apparent (A1). This was a modification of P’
system; Hiketas could have been his follower, though not necessarily a pupil.
T refers to Hiketas’ theory which therefore must have been put into writing.
DK 50; T.L. Heath, Aristarchus of Samos (1913); Dicks (1970).
Leonid Zhmud
Hilarius of Arles (425 – 450 CE)
The nobly-born and liberally-educated bishop of Arles, among other writings, composed
verses on the hot spring at Grenoble; G T preserves one quatrain.
FLP 454; OCD3 706 – 707, P. Rousseau.
PTK
H ⇒ H
H (V.) ⇒ E (V.)
Himilko ̄n (of Carthage?) (520 – 480 BCE?)
Wrote a periplous of his voyage up the Atlantic coast of Iberia to the Kassiterides, frag-
ments of which describe the shallow Ocean: P 2.169 and A, OM 117 – 129,
380 – 389, 402–415.
BNP 6 (2005) 332 (#6), L.-M. Günther.
PTK
Hipparkhos (Veterin.) (before ca 350 CE)
Quoted by P S on evaluating stallions for stud. The passage is pre-
served in Greek in the Hippiatrika (Pel. 3 = Hippiatrica Parisina 85 = Hippiatrica Berolinensia
14.10).
Fischer (1980) 3.
Anne McCabe
Hipparkhos of Nikaia (ca 140 – 120 BCE)
Astronomer, astrologer, geographer, without a doubt the most important of P’s
predecessors, and central in incorporating Babylonian astronomy into Greek mathematical
astronomy. Unfortunately eclipsed by Ptolemy’s Almagest, most of Hipparkhos’ works have
not survived. His short commentary on the Phainomena of A and E survives,
but all other evidence is secondary. He wrote at least one book ( possibly two) on the fixed
stars, including material excerpted in later parape ̄gmata, and he is also known to have
compiled a star catalogue, long thought the basis of Ptolemy’s but now generally seen
as independent. Indeed, parts of the Almagest are so indebted to Hipparkhos that it is
HIPPARKHOS OF NIKAIA