Dimensuratio Prouinciarum and Diuisio orbis terrarum (400 – 500 CE?)
Two brief geographical works in Latin giving the names, boundaries, and dimensions
of the provinces of the Roman Empire and of some regions beyond it, such as India.
The Dimensuratio also lists islands. The works are independent of one another but based
on the same sources. Most scholars believe that they ultimately go back to A’s
survey.
Ed.: GLM 9 – 20.
RE 5.1 (1903) 647 and 1236–1237, G. Wissowa; KP 2.33–34, A. Lippold; BNP 4 (2004) 418,
K. Brodersen.
Natalia Lozovsky
D K ⇒ D K
D- ⇒ D-
Diodo ̄ros (Astron.) (150 BCE – 250 CE)
Geometer and astronomer, possibly identifiable with a commentator on A named
Diodo ̄ros, and with a Diodo ̄ros of Alexandria who wrote on astronomical topics. The
geometer Diodo ̄ros authored a treatise On Analemma concerning the theory underlying sun-
dials. P wrote a lost commentary on this work, and P speaks of Diodo ̄ros as
one of the earlier writers on sundials. Diodo ̄ros’ method of determining the cardinal direc-
tions from three measured shadows (a problem equivalent to finding the axis of a hyperbola
given three points on the curve and one on the axis) is reported by H G,
Abu Said ad-Darir, and al-Biruni. We also know from Pappos’ reference that On Analemma
contained a construction requiring the trisection of a given angle. According to al-Nairizi,
the commentator on E’s Elements, Diodo ̄ros attempted a geometrical demonstration
of Euclid’s fifth postulate, perhaps in a different book.
Diodo ̄ros, the commentator, is cited intermittently in the scholia to Aratos’ poem; he
criticized Stoic interpreters such as K as well as H, and was in turn
attacked by an otherwise unknown Do ̄sitheos. Diodo ̄ros of Alexandria figures, together with
M, E, Hipparkhos, and L, in an anonymous list of astronomers, and he
is cited by A and M on the distinction between mathematical and
physical astronomy, the meaning of the words kosmos and “star” (aste ̄r), and the nature of
the Milky Way.
Ed.: D.R. Edwards, Ptolemy’s Περ αναλ μματο – An Annotated Transcription of Moerbeke’s Latin Translation
and of the Surviving Greek Fragments with an English Version and Commentary (1984) 152–182.
Neugebauer (1975) 840–843; NDSB 2.304–305, J.L. Berggren.
Alexander Jones
Diodo ̄ros (Metrol.) (350 – 410 CE)
All that survives of Diodo ̄ros’ possibly metrological work On weights is a very short table of
the equivalence rates between a talent and its parts, namely mina, drachma, obol and
khalkós, the bronze coin. Diodo ̄ros’ table possibly reflects contemporary variations in
exchange rates between imperial coins.
DIODO ̄ROS (METROL.)