Anthemius of Tralles

File:Anthemius Trallianus – Fragment d'un ouvrage grec d'Anthèmius sur des Paradoxes de mècanique, 1777 – BEIC 4780621.jpg

Fragment of a Greek work by Anthemius on Paradoxes of mechanics (Fragment d'un ouvrage grec d'Anthèmius sur des Paradoxes de mècanique), 1777

Anthemius of Tralles (Template:Langx, Medieval Greek: Template:IPA, Anthémios o Trallianós; Template:C. – 533 Template:Abbr 558)Template:R was a Byzantine Greek from Tralles<ref>Template:Harvnb: "ANTHEMIUS, Greek mathematician and architect, who produced, under the patronage of Justinian (A.D.Template:Nbsp532), the original and daring plans for the church of St Sophia in Constantinople,Template:Nbsp... He was one of five brothers—the sons of Stephanus, a physician of Tralles—who were all more or less eminent in their respective departments.Template:Nbsp..."</ref> who worked as a geometer and architect in Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. With Isidore of Miletus, he designed the Hagia Sophia for Justinian I. Template:Anchor

Life

Anthemius was one of the five sons of Stephanus of Tralles, a physician. His brothers were Dioscorus, Alexander, Olympius, and Metrodorus. Dioscorus followed his father's profession in Tralles; Alexander did so in Rome and became one of the most celebrated medical men of his time; Olympius became a noted lawyer; and Metrodorus worked as a grammarian in Constantinople.Template:Sfn

Anthemius was said to have annoyed his neighbor Zeno in two ways: first, by engineering a miniature earthquake by sending steam through leather tubes he had fixed among the joists and flooring of Zeno's parlor while he was entertaining friends<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and, second, by simulating thunder and lightning and flashing intolerable light into Zeno's eyes from a slightly hollowed mirror.Template:Sfn In addition to his familiarity with steam, some dubious authorities credited Anthemius with a knowledge of gunpowder or other explosive compound.Template:Sfn

Mathematics

Anthemius was a capable mathematician. In the course of his treatise On Burning Mirrors, he intended to facilitate the construction of surfaces to reflect light to a single point, he described the string construction of the ellipseTemplate:R and assumed a property of ellipses not found in Apollonius of Perga's Conics: the equality of the angles subtended at a focus by two tangents drawn from a point. His work also includes the first practical use of the directrix: having given the focus and a double ordinate, he used the focus and directrix to obtain any number of points on a parabola.Template:Sfn This work was later known to Arab mathematicians such as Alhazen.

Eutocius of Ascalon's commentary on Apollonius's Conics was dedicated to Anthemius.Template:R

Architecture

File:Hagia Sophia Mars 2013.jpg

Exterior of the Hagia Sophia, 2013

As an architect, Anthemius is best known for his work designing the Hagia Sophia.Template:Sfn He was commissioned with Isidore of Miletus by Justinian I shortly after the earlier church on the site burned down in 532 but died early on in the project. He is also said to have repaired the flood defenses at Daras.Template:Sfn

Editions of On Burning-Glasses

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References

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