Ptolemy (100-170 AD)
<p><b>Claudius Ptolemy</b> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English">/ˈtɒləmi/</a>; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_language" title="Greek language">Greek</a>: Κλαύδιος Πτολεμαῖος, <i>Klaúdios Ptolemaîos</i>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_Greek" title="Help:IPA for Greek">[kláwdios ptolɛmɛ́ːos]</a>; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Latin language">Latin</a>: <i>Claudius Ptolemaeus</i>; <abbr title="circa">c.</abbr> AD 100 – c. 170)<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy#cite_note-2">[2]</a></sup> was a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greeks_in_Egypt" title="Greeks in Egypt">Greco-Egyptian</a> writer, known as a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematician" title="Mathematician">mathematician</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomer" title="Astronomer">astronomer</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographer" title="Geographer">geographer</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrologer" class="mw-redirect" title="Astrologer">astrologer</a>, and poet of a single <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigram" title="Epigram">epigram</a> in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_Anthology" title="Greek Anthology">Greek Anthology</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy#cite_note-3">[3]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy#cite_note-4">[4]</a></sup> </p>
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He lived in the city of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandria" title="Alexandria">Alexandria</a> in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt_%28Roman_province%29" title="Egypt (Roman province)">Roman province of Egypt</a>, wrote in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koine_Greek" title="Koine Greek">Koine Greek</a>, and held <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_citizenship" title="Roman citizenship">Roman citizenship</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy#cite_note-5">[5]</a></sup> Beyond that, few reliable details of his life are known. His birthplace has been given as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemais_Hermiou" title="Ptolemais Hermiou">Ptolemais Hermiou</a> in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thebaid" title="Thebaid">Thebaid</a> in an uncorroborated statement by the 14th-century astronomer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Meliteniotes" title="Theodore Meliteniotes">Theodore Meliteniotes</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-ENC_6-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy#cite_note-ENC-6">[6]</a></sup> This is a very late attestation, however, and there is no other reason to suppose that he ever lived anywhere else than Alexandria,<sup id="cite_ref-ENC_6-1" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy#cite_note-ENC-6">[6]</a></sup> where he died around AD 168.<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy#cite_note-7">[7]</a></sup>
Ptolemy was the author of several scientific treatises, three of which were of continuing importance to later <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantium" title="Byzantium">Byzantine</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_science" class="mw-redirect" title="Islamic science">Islamic</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe" title="Europe">European</a> science. The first is the astronomical treatise now known as the <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almagest" title="Almagest">Almagest</a></i>, although it was originally entitled the "Mathematical Treatise" (Μαθηματικὴ Σύνταξις, <i>Mathēmatikē Syntaxis</i>) and then known as the "Great Treatise" (Ἡ Μεγάλη Σύνταξις, <i>Ē Megálē Syntaxis</i>). The second is the <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_%28Ptolemy%29" title="Geography (Ptolemy)">Geography</a></i>, which is a thorough discussion of the geographic knowledge of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Roman" class="mw-redirect" title="Greco-Roman">Greco-Roman</a> world. This manuscript was used by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus" title="Christopher Columbus">Christopher Columbus</a> as the map for his westward-bound path to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia" title="Asia">Asia</a>, in which he discovered the hitherto unknown <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Hemisphere" title="Western Hemisphere">lands of the Americas</a>. The third is the astrological treatise in which he attempted to adapt <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horoscopic_astrology" title="Horoscopic astrology">horoscopic astrology</a> to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotelian_physics" title="Aristotelian physics">Aristotelian</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_philosophy" title="Natural philosophy">natural philosophy</a> of his day. This is sometimes known as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apotelesmatika" class="mw-redirect" title="Apotelesmatika"><i>Apotelesmatika</i></a> (Ἀποτελεσματικά) but more commonly known as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrabiblos" title="Tetrabiblos"><i>Tetrabiblos</i></a> from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_language" title="Greek language">Greek</a> (Τετράβιβλος) meaning "Four Books" or by the Latin <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadripartitum" class="mw-redirect" title="Quadripartitum"><i>Quadripartitum</i></a>.</p>