A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

Πτολεμαῖος Κλαύδιος). A few words will be nec ssary on

the plan we intend to adopt in this article. Ptolemy stands before us in two distinct points of view : as a mathematician and astronomer; and as a geographer. There must of course be a separate treatment of these two characters. As an astronomer, it must be said that the history of the science, for a long train of centuries, presents nothing but comments on his writings : to treat the history of the latter would be so far to write that of astronomy itself. We shall, therefore, confine ourselves to the account of these writings, their principal contents, and the chief points of their bibliographical annals, without reference to commentators, or to the effect of the writings themselves, on the progress of science. And, though obliged to do this by the necessity of selection which our limits impose, we are also of opinion that the plan is otherwise the most advantageous. For, owing to that very close connection of Ptolemy's name with the history of astronomy of which we have spoken, the accessible articles on the subject are so discursive, that the reader may lose sight of the distinction between Ptolemy and his followers. The two other great leaders, Aristotle and Euclid, are precisely in the same predicament.

Of Ptolemy himself we know absolutely nothing but his date, which an astronomer always leaves in his works. He certainly observed in A. D. 139, at Alexandria; and Suidas and others call him Alexandrinus. If the canon presently mentioned be genuine (and it is not doubted), he survived Antoninus, and therefore was alive A. D. 161. Old manuscripts of his works call him Pelusiensis and Pheludiensis. But Theodorus, surnamed Meliteniota (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. x. p. 411), in the thirteenth century, describes him as of Ptolemais in the Thebaid, called Hermeius. Accordingly, our personal knowledge of one of the most illustrious men that ever lived, both in merits and fame, and who resided and wrote in what might well be called the sister university to Athens, is limited to two accounts of one circumstance, between the uncertainties of which it is impossible to decide, and which give his birth to opposite sides of the Nile. Weidler (Hist. Astron. p. 177) cites some description of his personal appearance from an Arabic writer, who does not state his source of information. Some writers call him king Ptolemy, probably misled by the name, which is nevertheless known to have been borne by private persons, besides the astronomer. On this, and some other gossip not worth citing, because no way Greek, see Halma's preface, p. lxi. Ptolemy is then, to us, the author of certain works; and appears in the character of promulgator of his own researches, and deliverer and extender of those of Hipparchus. In this last character there is some difficulty about his writings. It is not easy to distinguish him from his illustrious predecessor. It is on this account that we have deferred specific mention of HIPPARCHUS, as an astronomer, to the present article.

[P.S]