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Research atlas for early Christianity. Claims are tagged attested, traditional, or disputed. Copyrighted full texts, including CCEL editions, are not included.

person

Hypatia

Also known as Hypatia of Alexandria

medium

  • born. c. 360medium · Wikidata P569
  • died. 415-03high · Wikidata P570

Neoplatonist philosopher and mathematician killed by a Christian mob in 415, during conflict between the prefect Orestes and Cyril.

Wikipedia extract

Hypatia was a Neoplatonist philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician who lived in Alexandria, at that time in the province of Egypt and a major city of the Roman Empire. In Alexandria, Hypatia was a prominent thinker who taught subjects including philosophy and astronomy, and in her lifetime was renowned as a great teacher and a wise counselor. Not the only fourth century Alexandrian female mathematician, Hypatia was preceded by Pandrosion. However, Hypatia is the first female mathematician whose life is reasonably well recorded. She wrote a commentary on Diophantus's thirteen-volume Arithmetica, which may survive in part, having been interpolated into Diophantus's original text, and another commentary on Apollonius of Perga's treatise on conic sections, which has not survived. Many modern scholars also believe that Hypatia may have edited the surviving text of Ptolemy's Almagest, based on the title of her father Theon's commentary on Book III of the Almagest.

CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikipedia contributors. Source page

Sources

  • Hypatia · Wikipedia contributorsAccessed 2026-11-12 · CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wikidata Q11903 · Wikidata contributorsAccessed 2026-11-12 · CC0 1.0

Authority files

Related

philosophers · women · alexandria · 5th-century

Hypatia · DeChurched Atlas