Editing Hypatia (section)

===Murder===
According to [[Socrates Scholasticus]], during the Christian season of [[Lent]] in March 415, a mob of Christians under the leadership of a [[Reader (liturgy)|lector]] named Peter raided Hypatia's carriage as she was travelling home.{{sfn|Novak|2010|page=240}}{{sfn|Watts|2017|pages=114–115}}{{sfn|Haas|1997|page=313}} They dragged her into a building known as the ''[[Caesareum of Alexandria|Kaisarion]]'', a former pagan temple and center of the [[Imperial cult of ancient Rome|Roman imperial cult]] in Alexandria that had been converted into a Christian church.{{sfn|Watts|2008|page=198}}{{sfn|Novak|2010|page=240}}{{sfn|Haas|1997|page=313}} There, the mob stripped Hypatia naked and murdered her using ''[[Ostracon|ostraka]]'',{{sfn|Novak|2010|page=240}}{{sfn|Dzielska|1996|page=93}}{{sfn|Watts|2017|pages=115–116}}{{sfn|Watts|2008|pages=198–199}} which can either be translated as "[[roof tiles]]", "[[Oyster|oyster shells]]" or simply "shards".{{sfn|Novak|2010|page=240}} Damascius adds that they also cut out her eyeballs.{{sfn|Watts|2017|page=116}} They tore her body into pieces and dragged her limbs through the town to a place called Cinarion, where they set them on fire.{{sfn|Novak|2010|page=240}}{{sfn|Watts|2017|page=116}}{{sfn|Watts|2008|pages=198–199}} According to Watts, this was in line with the traditional manner in which Alexandrians carried the bodies of the "vilest criminals" outside the city limits to cremate them as a way of symbolically purifying the city.{{sfn|Watts|2017|page=116}}{{sfn|Watts|2008|page=199}} Although Socrates Scholasticus never explicitly identifies Hypatia's murderers, they are commonly assumed to have been members of the ''[[parabalani]]''.{{sfn|Haas|1997|pages=235–236, 314}} Christopher Haas disputes this identification, arguing that the murderers were more likely "a crowd of Alexandrian laymen".{{sfn|Haas|1997|page=314}}

Socrates Scholasticus presents Hypatia's murder as entirely politically motivated and makes no mention of any role that Hypatia's paganism might have played in her death.{{sfn|Cameron|Long|Sherry|1993|page=59}} Instead, he reasons that "she fell a victim to the political jealousy which at that time prevailed. For as she had frequent interviews with Orestes, it was calumniously reported among the Christian populace that it was she who prevented Orestes from being reconciled to the bishop."{{sfn|Novak|2010|page=240}}<ref>''Ecclesiastical History'', [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/hypatia.html Bk VII: Chap. 15] (miscited as VI:15).</ref> Socrates Scholasticus unequivocally condemns the actions of the mob, declaring, "Surely nothing can be farther from the spirit of Christianity than the allowance of massacres, fights, and transactions of that sort."{{sfn|Novak|2010|page=240}}{{sfn|Watts|2008|page=199}}{{sfn|Watts|2017|page=117}}

The Canadian mathematician Ari Belenkiy has argued that Hypatia may have been involved in a controversy over the date of the Christian holiday of Easter 417 and that she was killed on the [[March equinox|vernal equinox]] while making astronomical observations.{{sfn|Belenkiy|2010|pages=9–13}} Classical scholars [[Alan Cameron (classical scholar)|Alan Cameron]] and Edward J. Watts both dismiss this hypothesis, noting that there is absolutely no evidence in any ancient text to support any part of the hypothesis.{{sfn|Cameron|2016|page=190}}{{sfn|Watts|2017|page=157}}