c. 370-c. 399 B.C.

Greek Mathematician

The details of Aristaeus the Elder's life are scanty, and the list of his writings—all of them lost—is in question. Some of this may be accounted for by a confusion with a figure of whom even less is known, if indeed he actually existed: Aristaeus the Younger. Of the elder Aristaeus, however, historians do know that he was among the originators of conics and conic section theory, a man judged a "worthy mathematician" by no less a figure than his contemporary Euclid (c. 325-c. 250 B.C.).

The few known facts about Aristaeus the Elder come from the writings of Pappus (fl. c. A.D. 320), who lived six centuries later. In his Treasury of Analysis, Pappus referred to Aristaeus as "the Elder," leading to the inference that there must have been another Aristaeus born later; but this...