A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

Smith, William

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. William Smith, LLD, ed. 1890

(Ἱπποκράτης), literary.

1. Of Chios, a Pythagorean philosopher, who lived about S. C. 460. He is mentioned chiefly as a mathematician, and is said to have been the first who reduced geometry to a regular system. He seems to have been also engaged in researches respecting the square of a circle; but we have no means of judging of his merits as a mathematician, and Aristotle (Ethic. ad Eudem. 8.14) states that in every other respect he was a man not above mediocrity. (Comp. Aristot. Sophist. Elench. 1.10; Plut. Sol. 2; Proclus in Euclid. ii. p. 19; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. i. p. 848, &c.)