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Autolycus of Pitane (c. 360 BC–c. 290 BC) was a Greek
Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
 astronomer
Astronomer

An astronomer is a scientist who studies Celestial body such as planets, stars, and Galaxy.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using physical laws....
, mathematician
Mathematician

A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and/or research is the field of mathematics....
, and geographer
Geographer

A geographer is a scientist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's physical natural environment and human habitat .Though geographers are historically known as people who make maps, map making is actually the field of study of cartography, a subset of geography....
.

lycus was born in Pitane
Pitane (Aeolis)

Pitane was an ancient Greece town of Aeolis, in Anatolia. In ancient times it was a port city and a member of the Delian League. About 334 BC, Macedon Philip II of Macedon tried to take over the city, but was repulsed by Memnon and 5,000 Greek mercenaries provided by Darius III of Persia....
, a town of Aeolis
Aeolis

Aeolis or Eolis or Aeolia or Eolia was an area that comprised the west and northwestern region of Asia Minor, mostly along the coast, and also several offshore islands , where the Aeolians Ancient Greece city-states were located....
 within Western Anatolia
Anatolia

Anatolia or Asia Minor is a region of Western Asia, comprising most of the modern Republic of Turkey. It is a geographic region bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Caucasus to the northeast, the Aegean Sea to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and the Iranian plateau to the east and southeast....
. Of his personal life nothing is known, although he was a contemporary of Aristotle
Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greeks philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, Poetics , theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology....
 and his works seem to have been completed in Athens
Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
 within the years 335 BC and 300 BC. Euclid
Euclid

Euclid , floruit 300 BC, also known as Euclid of Alexandria, was a Greek mathematics and is often referred to as the Father of Geometry. He was active in Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy I ....
 references some of Autolycus' work, and Autolycus is known to have taught Arcesilaus
Arcesilaus

Arcesilaus was a Greece philosopher and founder of the Second or Middle Platonic Academy—the skepticism phase of the Academy. Arcesilaus succeeded Crates of Athens as head of the Academy c....
.






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Autolycus of Pitane (c. 360 BC–c. 290 BC) was a Greek
Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
 astronomer
Astronomer

An astronomer is a scientist who studies Celestial body such as planets, stars, and Galaxy.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using physical laws....
, mathematician
Mathematician

A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and/or research is the field of mathematics....
, and geographer
Geographer

A geographer is a scientist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's physical natural environment and human habitat .Though geographers are historically known as people who make maps, map making is actually the field of study of cartography, a subset of geography....
.

Life and work

Autolycus was born in Pitane
Pitane (Aeolis)

Pitane was an ancient Greece town of Aeolis, in Anatolia. In ancient times it was a port city and a member of the Delian League. About 334 BC, Macedon Philip II of Macedon tried to take over the city, but was repulsed by Memnon and 5,000 Greek mercenaries provided by Darius III of Persia....
, a town of Aeolis
Aeolis

Aeolis or Eolis or Aeolia or Eolia was an area that comprised the west and northwestern region of Asia Minor, mostly along the coast, and also several offshore islands , where the Aeolians Ancient Greece city-states were located....
 within Western Anatolia
Anatolia

Anatolia or Asia Minor is a region of Western Asia, comprising most of the modern Republic of Turkey. It is a geographic region bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Caucasus to the northeast, the Aegean Sea to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and the Iranian plateau to the east and southeast....
. Of his personal life nothing is known, although he was a contemporary of Aristotle
Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greeks philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, Poetics , theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology....
 and his works seem to have been completed in Athens
Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
 within the years 335 BC and 300 BC. Euclid
Euclid

Euclid , floruit 300 BC, also known as Euclid of Alexandria, was a Greek mathematics and is often referred to as the Father of Geometry. He was active in Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy I ....
 references some of Autolycus' work, and Autolycus is known to have taught Arcesilaus
Arcesilaus

Arcesilaus was a Greece philosopher and founder of the Second or Middle Platonic Academy—the skepticism phase of the Academy. Arcesilaus succeeded Crates of Athens as head of the Academy c....
. Autolycus' surviving works include a book on sphere
Sphere

A sphere is a symmetrical geometrical object. In non-mathematical usage, the term is used to refer either to a round ball or to its two-dimensional surface....
s entitled On the Moving Sphere and another On Risings and Settings of celestial bodies. Autolycus' works were translated by Maurolycus in the sixteenth century.

On the Moving Sphere is believed to be the oldest mathematical treatise from ancient Greece that is completely preserved. All Greek mathematical works prior to Autolycus' Spheres are taken from later summaries, commentaries, or descriptions of the works. One reason for its survival is that it had originally been a part of a widely used collection called "Little Astronomy". In his Sphere, Autolycus studied the characteristics and movement of a sphere. The work is simple and not exactly original since it consists of only elementary theorems on spheres that would be needed by astronomers, but its theorems are clearly enunciated and proved. Its prime significance, therefore, is that it indicates that by his day there was a thoroughly established textbook tradition in geometry that is today regarded as typical of classical Greek geometry. The theorem statement is clearly enunciated, a figure of the construction is given alongside the proof, and finally a concluding remark is made. Moreover, it gives indications of what theorems were well known in his day (around 320 BCE). Two hundred years later Theodosius
Theodosius of Bithynia

Theodosius of Bithynia was a Greek people astronomer and mathematician who wrote the Sphaerics, a book on the geometry of the sphere. Born in Tripolis , in Bithynia, Theodosius is cited by Vitruvius as having invented a sundial suitable for any place on Earth....
' wrote Sphaerics, a book that is believed to have a common origin with On the Moving Sphere in some pre-Euclidean textbook, possibly written by Eudoxus
Eudoxus

Eudoxus was the name of two ancient Greece:* Eudoxus of Cnidus , Greek astronomer and mathematician.* Eudoxus of Cyzicus , Greek navigator....
.

In astronomy, Autolycus studied the relationship between the rising and the setting of the celestial bodies in his treatise in two books entitled On Risings and Settings. The second book is actually an expansion of his first book and of higher quality. He wrote that "any star which rises and sets always rises and sets at the same point in the horizon." Autolycus relied heavily on Eudoxus' astronomy and was a strong supporter of Eudoxus' theory of homocentric spheres. The lunar crater Autolycus
Autolycus (crater)

Autolycus is a moon impact crater that is located in the southeast part of Mare Imbrium. West of the formation is Archimedes , a formation more than double the size of Autolycus....
 was named in his honour.

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