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Ἵππαρχος · Hipparchus, Hipparchos (ι 521) · Suda

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Near ι521

ι517Hipparchia
ι518Hipparchion speechless
ι519Hipparkhos, Hipparchos, Hipparchus
ι520Hipparchus, Hipparchos, Hipparkhos
ι521Hipparchus, Hipparchos
ι522cavalry-commander, hipparch
ι523Hipparkhos, Hipparchos, Hipparchus
ι524hipparch's tablet
ι525cavalry

Suda/Ι iota/ι521

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Ἵππαρχος

Hipparchus, Hipparchos

Translated by Mary Pendergraft22 Aug 2000Vetting: high7 revisions

biography
chronology
geography
mathematics
philosophy
science and technology

5 notes · 40 words

Translation

From Nicaea,¹ a philosopher, lived at the time of the consuls.²
He wrote On the Phaenomena of Aratus,³ On the Arrangement of the Fixed Stars and the Catasterisms,⁴ On the Monthly Motion of the Moon in Latitude, and (?)Against Eratosthenes.⁵

Greek original · Adler’s text

Ἵππαρχος, Νικαεύς, φιλόσοφος, γεγονὼς ἐπὶ τῶν ὑπάτων. ἔγραψε περὶ τῶν Ἀράτου Φαινομένων, Περὶ τῆς τῶν ἀπλανῶν συντάξεως καὶ τοῦ καταστηριγμοῦ, Περὶ τῆς κατὰ πλάτος μηνιαίας τῆς σελήνης κινήσεως, καὶ εἰς τὰς ἀρίστους.

Betacode

*(/ipparxos, *nikaeu/s, filo/sofos, gegonw\s e)pi\ tw=n u(pa/twn. e)/graye peri\ tw=n *)ara/tou *fainome/nwn, *peri\ th=s tw=n a)planw=n sunta/cews kai\ tou= katasthrigmou=, *peri\ th=s kata\ pla/tos mhniai/as th=s selh/nhs kinh/sews, kai\ ei)s ta\s a)ri/stous.

Notes (5)

Second half of the second century BCE. (His recorded observations are datable to the years 147-127.) See generally OCD(4) s.v. Hipparchus(3); also web address 1 and web address 2.
Although the frequency and respect with which Ptolemy refers to his work in the Almagest attest to his importance in the history of astronomy, his precise contributions are hard to determine. His careful observations supplemented his use of Babylonian sources, and made possible the discovery for which, perhaps, he is best known: the discovery of the precession of the equinoxes, that is, the recognition that the sun's position at the time of the equinoxes changes, over time, in relation to the background of the zodiacal constellations.
1In Bithynia. This reference to his birthplace is confirmed by later coins from Nicaea that bear his name and image. Because much of his professional life was apparently spent in Rhodes, he is often identified as Hipparchus of Rhodes. ↩
2Textually corrupt, as Adler notes. (Such a dating would be unparalleled in the Suda.) ↩
3(For Aratus see alpha 3745.) This is the only work that survives; Manitius' edition (below) includes a German translation. ↩
4The last word translates katasthri/smou, rather than the text's katasthrigmou=, following Toomer. Hipparchus' star catalogue provided raw materials for Ptolemy's, despite their differences. ↩
5(For Eratosthenes see epsilon 2898.) This title is known from Strabo (1.1.12; 2.1.41) to belong to a work on geography; it surely lies behind the garbled ei)s ta\s a)ri/stous of the text. [DW: other suggested possibilities, noted by Adler, are ei)s ta\s a)sterismou/s and ei)s ta\s a)steri/skous.]

References

G.J. Toomer. "Hipparchus." Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Supplement I. 1978, 207-224
C. Manitius, ed. Hipparchi in Arati et Eudoxi Phaenomena Commentaria. Leipzig, 1894
D.R. Dicks. The Geographical Fragments of Hipparchus. 1960
G. Grasshoff. The History of Ptolemy's Star Catalogue. 1990

External resources

Web address 1 turnbull.dcs.st-and.ac.uk
Web address 2 www98.phys.virginia.edu

Linked from1 entry

δ1149ΔιόδωροςDiodoros, Diodorus, Diodore[sc. At first] a monk, [sc. but later] in the times of Julian and Valens bishop of Tarsus of Cilicia. He wrote a variety of things, as Theodore Lector says in his Ecclesiastical History. They are as follows:…

Neighbouring entries

ι519ἽππαρχοςHipparkhos, Hipparchos, Hipparchus ι520ἽππαρχοςHipparchus, Hipparchos, Hipparkhos ι521ἽππαρχοςHipparchus, Hipparchos ι522Ἵππαρχοςcavalry-commander, hipparch ι523ἽππαρχοςHipparkhos, Hipparchos, Hipparchus

Revision history7 revisions · last 19 Feb 2023

19 Feb 2023cosmeticule — Catharine Roth
4 Aug 2014updated a ref — David Whitehead
1 Apr 2014tweaked tr; expanded n.5 — David Whitehead
29 Aug 2013reduced links, tweaked note — Catharine Roth
14 Jan 2013cosmetics — David Whitehead
29 Sep 2005cosmetics, new keyword — Catharine Roth
7 Aug 2002augmented and rearranged notes; added keywords; cosmetics — David Whitehead
22 Aug 2000Translated — Mary Pendergraft

Cite this entry

Suda On Line, s.v. Ἵππαρχος (Adler number iota 521), trans. Mary Pendergraft, 22 Aug 2000. https://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/sol/sol-entries/iota/521

Translation by Mary Pendergraft for Suda On Line, revised by Catharine Roth, David Whitehead, licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Shown unchanged, under the same licence, non-commercially. Original on SOL ↗