Editing Ptolemy (section)

==Biography==
Ptolemy's date of birth and birthplace are both unknown. The 14th-century astronomer [[Theodore Meliteniotes]] wrote that Ptolemy's birthplace was [[Ptolemais Hermiou]], a Greek city in the [[Thebaid]] region of Egypt (now El Mansha, [[Sohag Governorate]]). This attestation is quite late, however, and there is no evidence to support it.<ref name=citizenship>{{harvtxt|Neugebauer|1975|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=vO5FCVIxz2YC&pg=PA834 834]}}</ref>{{efn|
"The only place mentioned in any of Ptolemy's observations is Alexandria, and there is no reason to suppose that he ever lived anywhere else. The statement by Theodore Meliteniotes that he was born in Ptolemais Hermiou (in Upper Egypt) could be correct, but it is late ({{circa|1360}}) and {{nobr|unsupported." — Toomer & Jones (2018)<ref>
{{cite encyclopedia
 |last1=Toomer |first1=Gerald    |author-link=Gerald Toomer
 |last2=Jones  |first2=Alexander
 |year=2018  |orig-date=2008
 |title=Ptolemy (or Claudius Ptolemaeus)
 |encyclopedia=Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography
 |publisher=Encyclopedia.com
 |url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Ptolemy.aspx
 |access-date=21 January 2013
}}
</ref>}}
}}

It is known that Ptolemy lived in or around the city of [[Alexandria]], in the [[Egypt (Roman province)|Roman province of Egypt]] under [[Roman Empire|Roman rule]].<ref>
{{cite book
 |title=A History of Greek Mathematics
 |url=https://archive.org/details/ahistorygreekma00heatgoog
 |last=Heath |first=Sir Thomas
 |publisher=Clarendon Press
 |year=1921|location=Oxford
 |pages={{mvar|vii}}, 273
}}
</ref>
He had a Latin name, Claudius, which is generally taken to imply he was a [[Roman citizen]].<ref>
{{cite book
 |last=Neugebauer |first=Otto E. |author-link=Otto E. Neugebauer
 |title=A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vO5FCVIxz2YC&pg=PA834
 |year=2004
 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media
 |isbn=978-3-540-06995-9
 |page=834}};
:
{{cite encyclopedia
 |first1=Gerald |last1=Toomer |author-link=Gerald Toomer
 |entry=Ptolemy (or Claudius Ptolemaeus)
 |entry-url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Ptolemy.aspx
 |title=Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography
 |orig-date=2008
 |publisher=Encyclopedia.com
 | date= 2018
 | last2= Jones | first2= Alexander
}}
</ref>
He was familiar with Greek philosophers and used Babylonian observations and Babylonian lunar theory. In half of his extant works, Ptolemy addresses a certain Syrus, a figure of whom almost nothing is known but who likely shared some of Ptolemy's astronomical interests.<ref>
{{Cite thesis
 |last=Tolsa Domènech |first=Cristian
 |year=2013
 |title=Claudius Ptolemy and self-promotion: A study on Ptolemy's intellectual milieu in Roman Alexandria
 |url=http://diposit.ub.edu/dspace/bitstream/2445/48989/1/CTD_THESIS.pdf
 |s2cid=191297168
 |institution= Universitat de Barcelona
 |degree= Doctoral
}}
</ref>

Ptolemy died in Alexandria.<ref name=":0">
{{cite book
 | last1 = Pecker | first1 = Jean Claude | author1-link=Jean Claude Pecker
 | last2 = Dumont | first2 = Simone
 | editor = Kaufman, Susan 
 | year = 2001
 | title=Understanding the Heavens: Thirty centuries of astronomical ideas from ancient thinking to modern cosmology
 |  pages= 309–372
 | publisher= Springer
 | isbn=3-540-63198-4
 | doi= 10.1007/978-3-662-04441-4_7
 | chapter=From pre-Galilean astronomy to the Hubble Space Telescope and beyond
}}
</ref>{{rp|style=ama|p=311}} Ptolemy's year of death is not directly recorded by primary sources, and has to be inferred from the scale of his work.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2025-01-31 |title=Ptolemy {{!}} Accomplishments, Biography, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ptolemy |access-date=2025-02-03 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en |quote=The size and content of his subsequent literary production suggests that he lived until about 170 ce.}}</ref> Suggested years of death include {{Circa|165}},<ref>{{Cite book |last=Holme |first=Audun |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zXwQGo8jyHUC&dq=Claudius+Ptolemy+death+165&pg=PA144 |title=Geometry: Our Cultural Heritage |date=2010-09-23 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-3-642-14441-7 |pages=144 |language=en}}</ref> {{Circa|168}},<ref name=":0" />{{rp|style=ama|p=311}} {{Circa|170}},<ref name=":1" /> and {{Circa|175}}.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Toomer |first=J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YTbSDwAAQBAJ |title=Ptolemy's Almagest |date=1998-11-08 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-00260-6 |pages=1 |language=en}}</ref>

=== Naming and nationality ===
[[File:Ptolemy urania.jpg|thumb|upright=.9|Engraving of a crowned Ptolemy being guided by [[Urania]], by [[Gregor Reisch]] (1508), from ''Margarita Philosophica'' showing an early conflation of the mathematician with the royal house of [[Ptolemaic Kingdom|Ptolemaic Egypt]], with the same last name.]]
Ptolemy's Greek name'', [[Ptolemy (name)|Ptolemaeus]]'' ({{lang|grc|Πτολεμαῖος}}, ''Ptolemaîos''), is an [[ancient Greek personal names|ancient Greek personal name]]. It occurs once in [[Greek mythology]] and is of [[Homeric Greek|Homeric form]].<ref>
{{cite dictionary
 |first=Georg |last=Autenrieth
 |dictionary=A Homeric Dictionary
 |title={{math|Πτολεμαῖος}}
 |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0073%3Aentry%3D*ptolemai%3Dos
 |via=perseus.tufts.edu
 |publisher=[[Tufts University]]
}}
</ref>
It was common among the [[Macedonia (ancient kingdom)|Macedonian]] upper class at the time of [[Alexander the Great]] and there were several of this name among Alexander's army, one of whom made himself [[pharaoh]] in 323 BC: [[Ptolemy I Soter]], the first pharaoh of the [[Ptolemaic Kingdom]]. Almost all subsequent pharaohs of Egypt, with a few exceptions, were named [[Ptolemaic dynasty|Ptolemy]] until [[Roman Egypt|Egypt became a Roman province]] in 30 BC, ending the Macedonian family's rule.<ref>
{{cite web
 |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ptol/hd_ptol.htm
 |title=Egypt in the Ptolemaic Period
 |last=Hill |first=Marsha
 |year=2006
 |website=Metropolitan Museum of Art
 |access-date=4 April 2020
}}
</ref>

The name ''Claudius'' is a Roman name, belonging to the [[Claudia gens|''gens'' Claudia]]; the peculiar multipart form of the whole name ''Claudius Ptolemaeus'' is a Roman custom, characteristic of Roman citizens. This indicates that Ptolemy would have been a [[Roman citizenship|Roman citizen]].<ref name=citizenship/> Gerald Toomer, the translator of Ptolemy's ''Almagest'' into English, suggests that citizenship was probably granted to one of Ptolemy's ancestors by either the emperor [[Claudius]] or the emperor [[Nero]].<ref>{{harvtxt|Toomer|1970|p=[http://www.u.arizona.edu/~aversa/scholastic/Dictionary%20of%20Scientific%20Biography/Ptolemy%20(Toomer).pdf 187]}}</ref>

The 9th century [[Persians|Persian]] [[Astronomy in the medieval Islamic world|astronomer]] [[Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi]] mistakenly presents Ptolemy as a member of [[Ptolemaic dynasty|Ptolemaic Egypt's royal lineage]], stating that the descendants of the Alexandrine general and Pharaoh [[Ptolemy I Soter]] were wise "and included Ptolemy the Wise, who composed the book of the ''Almagest''". Abu Ma'shar recorded a belief that a different member of this royal line "composed the book on astrology and attributed it to Ptolemy". Historical confusion on this point can be inferred from Abu Ma'shar's subsequent remark: "It is sometimes said that the very learned man who wrote the book of astrology also wrote the book of the ''Almagest''. The correct answer is not known."<ref>
{{cite book
 |first=Abu |last=Ma'shar
 |others=editors & translators Yamamoto, K. & Burnett, Ch. 
 |year=2000
 |title=De magnis coniunctionibus
 |place=Leiden
 |at= 4.1.4
 |language=ar, la
}}
</ref>
Not much positive evidence is known on the subject of Ptolemy's ancestry, apart from what can be drawn from the details of his name, although modern scholars have concluded that Abu Ma'shar's account is erroneous.{{refn|name=Heilen-2010|
 {{cite book
 |first=Stephan |last=Heilen
 |year=2010
 |section=Ptolemy's doctrine of the terms and its reception
 |title=(Jones, 2010)
 |page=68
}}<ref name=Jones-2010>
{{cite book
 |editor-last=Jones |editor-first=A.
 |year=2010
 |title=Ptolemy in Perspective: Use and criticism of his work from antiquity to the nineteenth century
 |publisher=Springer Netherlands
 |isbn=978-90-481-2787-0
 |series=Archimedes
 |url=https://www.springer.com/us/book/9789048127870
}}
</ref>{{rp|style=ama|p= 68}}
}}
It is no longer doubted that the astronomer who wrote the ''[[Almagest]]'' also wrote the ''[[Tetrabiblos]]'' as its astrological counterpart.<ref name=Robbins-1940-intro/>{{rp|style=ama|p= {{mvar|x}} }} In later [[Arabic]] sources, he was often known as "the [[Upper Egypt]]ian",<ref>J. F. Weidler (1741). ''Historia astronomiae'', p. 177. Wittenberg: Gottlieb.</ref><ref name=Bernal-1992/>{{rp|style=ama|p= 606}} suggesting he may have had origins in southern [[Egypt]].<ref name=Bernal-1992>
{{cite journal
 |first=M. |last=Bernal  |author-link=Martin Bernal
 |year=1992
 |title=Animadversions on the origins of western science
 |journal=[[Isis (journal)|Isis]]
 |volume=83 |issue=4 |pages=596–607
|doi=10.1086/356291 |s2cid=143901637 }}
</ref>{{rp|style=ama|pp= 602, 606}}
[[Astronomy in medieval Islam|Arabic astronomers]], [[Geography in medieval Islam|geographers]], and [[Physics in medieval Islam|physicists]] referred to his name in [[Arabic]] as ''Baṭlumyus'' ({{langx|ar|بَطْلُمْيوس}}).<ref>
{{cite book
 |first=Hassan |last=Tahiri
 |year=2008
 |section=The birth of scientific controversies, the dynamics of the Arabic tradition and its impact on the development of science: Ibn al-Haytham's challenge of Ptolemy's ''Almagest''
 |editor1=Rahman, Shahid 
 |editor2=Street, Tony 
 |editor3=Tahiri, Hassan 
 |title=The Unity of Science in the Arabic Tradition
 |volume=11
 |publisher=[[Springer Science+Business Media]] / Springer Netherlands
 |isbn=978-1-4020-8404-1  |doi=10.1007/978-1-4020-8405-8
 |section-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4020-8405-8_7
 |access-date=9 March 2024
 |pages=183–225
}}
</ref>

Ptolemy wrote in [[Koine Greek]],<ref>
{{cite book
 |last=Tomarchio |first=J.
 |year=2022
 |title=A Sourcebook for Ancient Greek: Grammar, Poetry, and Prose
 |page={{mvar|xv}}
 |publisher=CUA Press
 |isbn=9781949822205
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_dOUEAAAQBAJ
}}
</ref>
and can be shown to have used [[Babylonian astronomical diaries|Babylonian astronomical data]].<ref>
{{cite book
 |first=A. |last=Aaboe |author-link=Asger Aaboe
 |year=2001
 |title=Episodes from the Early History of Astronomy
 |place=New York, NY  |publisher=Springer
 |pages=62–65
}}
</ref><ref name=Jones-1991/>{{rp|style=ama|p= 99}}
He might have been a Roman citizen, but was ethnically either a [[Greeks in Egypt|Greek]]<ref name=Britannica-482098/><ref name=Katz-1998/><ref>
{{cite encyclopedia
 |title=Ptolemy
 |encyclopedia=Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
 |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
 |year=2006
}}
</ref>
or at least a [[Hellenization|Hellenized]] Egyptian.{{efn|
"But what we really want to know is to what extent the Alexandrian mathematicians of the period from the 1st to the 5th&nbsp;centuries [[Common Era|CE]] were Greek. Certainly, all of them wrote in Greek and were part of the Greek intellectual community of Alexandria. Most modern studies conclude that the Greek community coexisted"&nbsp;... 
:
... "So should we assume that Ptolemy and Diophantus, Pappus and Hypatia were ethnically Greek, that their ancestors had come from Greece at some point in the past but had remained effectively isolated from the Egyptians? It is, of course, impossible to answer this question definitively. But research in papyri dating from the early centuries of the common era demonstrates that a significant amount of intermarriage took place between the Greek and Egyptian communities&nbsp;...
:
And it is known that Greek marriage contracts increasingly came to resemble Egyptian ones. In addition, even from the founding of Alexandria, small numbers of Egyptians were admitted to the privileged classes in the city to fulfill numerous civic roles. Of course, it was essential in such cases for the Egyptians to become "Hellenized": To adopt Greek habits and the Greek language. Given that the Alexandrian mathematicians mentioned here were active several hundred years after the founding of the city, it would seem at least equally possible that they were ethnically Egyptian as that they remained ethnically Greek. In any case, it is unreasonable to portray them with purely European features when no physical descriptions {{nobr|exist. — V.J. Katz (1998, p. 184)<ref name=Katz-1998>
{{cite book
 |first=Victor J. |last=Katz
 |year=1998
 |title=A History of Mathematics: An introduction
 |page=184
 |publisher=Addison Wesley
 |isbn=0-321-01618-1
}}
</ref>}}
}}<ref name=Sarton>
[[George Sarton]]
 (1936).
 "The Unity and Diversity of the Mediterranean World",
 ''Osiris''
 '''2''', p. 406–463 [429].
</ref><ref>
[[J.H. Parry|John Horace Parry]]
 (1981).
 ''The Age of Reconnaissance'',
 p. 10.
 [[University of California Press]].
 {{isbn|0-520-04235-2}}
</ref>