is probably also the author of a survey of the east commissioned by A before
Gaius’ expedition to Armenia, against the Parthians and Arabs, 1 BCE (Pliny 6.141).
Ed.: GGM 1.244–256; FGrHist 781; W.H. Schoff, Parthian Stations by Isidore of Charax (1914).
M.L. Chaumont, “Études d’histoire parthe. V. La route royale des Parthes de Zeugma à Séleucie
du Tigre d’après l’itinéraire d’Isidore de Charax,” Syria 61 (1984) 63–107; A. Luther, “Zwei
Bemerkungen zu Isidor von Charax,” ZPE 119 (1997) 237–242.
Daniela Dueck
Isido ̄ros of Memphis (250 BCE – 540 CE)
A A 7.110 (CMG 8.2, p. 387) cites his collyrium: grind ammo ̄niakon
incense, cuttlefish ink, opopanax, silphium, verdigris, sagape ̄non, and gum in water,
and pour into a mixture of fennel-juice and honey.
Fabricius (1726) 303; RE 9.2 (1916) 2080 (#30), H. Gossen.
PTK
Isido ̄ros of Mile ̄tos (ca 500 – 558 CE)
Architect, mathematician, and academic. In 532 CE he collaborated with A
T in the design of Hagia Sophia, Constantinople, and he advised Justinian I in the
dams of Dara (Prokop. Aed. 1.1.24, 2.3.7). Isidoros edited mathematical texts, particularly
A and E, and was probably professor of geometry in Constantinople. He
also wrote a commentary on H A’s lost treatise On Vaulting. Among
Isidoros’ students was E A, who notes his teacher’s invention of a
device for drawing parabolas. Scholars have celebrated Anthe ̄mios and Isidoros as math-
ematical theorists akin to the architects of antiquity and the Renaissance. Although their
scientific interest is irrefutable, their editorial activities served the practical needs of their
profession rather than the search for higher mathematical principles.
RE 9.2 (1916) 2081, E. Fabricius; Downey (1948) 99–118; RBK 3 (1975) 505–508, M. Restle; Warren
(1976); Mainstone (1988) 157; Alan Cameron, “Isidore of Miletus and Hypatia: On the Editing of
Mathematical Texts,” GRBS 31 (1990) 103–127; ODB 1016, M.J. Johnson and W. Loerke; PLRE 3
(1992) 724 (#4).
Kostis Kourelis
Isido ̄ros of Mile ̄tos’ student (author of Elements Book XV) (520 – 580 CE)
The end of the pseudo-Euclidean “Book 15” of the Elements (Elementa 5.1, pp. 29–38 Heiberg),
extant in Greek but missing from known Arabic translations, treats the following question:
how to find by geometrical construction the inclination between adjacent faces of the five
regular solids. The constructions detailed therein are explicitly attributed to “Isido ̄ros our
great teacher” (29.21 Heiberg), later called “the most glorious man previously mentioned”
(30.26 Heiberg); the five “instrumental constructions” are given first and each is then carefully
justified through demonstrations, including analyses through data.
Four similar mentions of “Isido ̄ros the Milesian me ̄khanikos, our teacher” are found in
addenda to E’ commentaries on A: three (48.30, 224.9, 260.12
Heiberg) allude to Isido ̄ros’ proofreading of Eutokios’ commentaries (Decorps 2000: 62,
n.8), and the last (84.8–11) mentions a compass drawing parabolas invented and described
by Isido ̄ros in his commentary to H’s (lost) Kamarika. The precise references to
ISIDO ̄ROS OF MEMPHIS