Nikomakhos of Athens (ca 320 – 310 BCE)
A’s son, by his concubine Herpullis, a minor at his father’s death, and who died
young in battle, probably at Mounukhia harbor in 307 BCE (D S,
20.45.5–7); the extant Ethica Nicomachea and a lost work on his father’s Physics are attributed
to him: C, Fin. 5.12, D L 8.88, and Souda N-398.
RE 17.1 (1936) 462–463 (#19), K. von Fritz; DPA 4 (2005) 694–696, J.-P. Schneider.
PTK
Nikomakhos of Gerasa (100 – 150 CE)
Neo-Pythagorean philosopher; the Gerasa whence he came is likely to have been the
one in Palestine. Nikomakhos composed two surviving treatises, Introductio Arithmetica (two
books) on the philosophy of number and number theory, and Harmonicum Enchiridion on the
Pythagorean theory of pitches and tuning systems. In the latter (11) he cites T,
while C, Institutiones ( p. 140 Mynors) writes that A translated the Intro-
ductio Arithmetica into Latin, thus bracketing his date. The contents of two further lost works
are known in great part. Arithme ̄tika Theologoumena (“arithmetic subjected to theology”), an
exposition of Pythagorean number symbolism, was one source of the T
A, and Pho ̄tios also summarized it (Bibl. cod.187). A work on the life of
P is cited by P, Vita Pythagorae (20, 59) and was also exploited without
acknowledgement by I in his De Vita Pythagorica. Nikomakhos himself alludes to
a lost Introduction to Geometry in Introductio Arithmetica 2.6.
The Introductio Arithmetica moves fairly rapidly from discussing the ontology of numbers
to exposing elementary number-theoretic classifications of numbers, e.g. into even and odd,
prime and composite. Other prominent topics are ratio equalities and inequalities and
figurate numbers. The presentation is discursive and eschews proofs. In the Harmonicum
Enchiridion, Nikomakhos presents in a comparably discursive manner a Pythagorean the-
ory of the celestial and numerical foundations of musical pitch, while tacitly incorporating
elements from A.
DSB 10.112–114, L. Tarán; Barker (1989) 245–269; Dillon (1996) 352–361; DPA 4 (2005) 686–694,
G. Freudenthal.
Alexander Jones
Nikomakhos of Stageira (ca 410 – ca 370 BCE)
The father of A, who died in his son’s childhood; according to the Souda N-399,
he wrote a Iatrika in six books and a Phusika in one.
RE 17.1 (1936) 462 (#18), Kurt von Fritz.
PTK
Nikome ̄de ̄s (He ̄rakleitean) (230 – 50 BCE)
Interpreter of H, later than S B, according to
De ̄me ̄trios of Magnesia in D L 9.15; see also P.
RE 17.1 (1936) 500 (#13), R. Laqueur.
PTK
NIKOME ̄DE ̄S (HE ̄RAKLEITEAN)