Eutocius of Ascalon

Eutocius of Ascalon (/juːˈtoʊʃəs/; c. 480 – c. 540) was a Greek-speaking Palestinian mathematician who wrote commentaries on several Archimedean treatises and on the Apollonian Conics.

Life and work

Little is known about the life of Eutocius. He was born in Ascalon, then in Palestina Prima. He wrote commentaries on Apollonius and on Archimedes. The surviving works of Eutocius are:

Historians owe much of their knowledge of Archimedes' solution of a cubic by means of intersecting conics, alluded to in The Sphere and Cylinder, to Eutocius and his commentaries. Eutocius dedicated his commentary on Apollonius' Conics to Anthemius of Tralles, also a mathematician, and architect of the Hagia Sophia patriarchal basilica in Constantinople.