Seleucus of Seleucia

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Seleukos von Seleukia (also Seleukos von Babylon ; * around 190 BC) was a Greek astronomer of the 2nd century BC. Since Poseidonios refers to him, he cannot have lived later than this.

Live and act

According to Strabo, Seleucus was of Chaldean (Babylonian) origin.

He is said to have defended the heliocentric worldview of Aristarchos of Samos as the only Greek astronomer . According to Strabo , he also dealt with tides , which he attributed to the action of the moon, whereby the sun also played a role ( spring tides ).

According to Plutarch ( Quaestiones Platonica ), like Aristarchus, he is said to have shown that the earth moves around the sun and the earth around its axis. While Aristarchus put this up as a hypothesis, Seleucus proved it through theoretical considerations. The development of trigonometry and the number and accuracy of observations were not yet sufficient for a proof in Aristarchus, but it was in Seleucus, if one assumes that he was living at the time of Hipparchus .

Like Aristarchus, Seleucus believed that the universe was infinite.

Honors

The lunar crater Seleucus is named after the astronomer.

literature

  • Matthias Gatzemeier: Seleukos , in: Jürgen Mittelstraß (Hrsg.): Encyclopedia Philosophy and Philosophy of Science. 2nd Edition. Volume 7: Re - Te. Stuttgart, Metzler 2018, ISBN 978-3-476-02106-9 , p. 331 (with detailed references).
  • Richard Goulet: Séleucos d'Érythrée ou de Séleucie. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Volume 6, CNRS Éditions, Paris 2016, ISBN 978-2-271-08989-2 , pp. 172-174.
  • Bartel Leendert van der Waerden : The heliocentric system in Greek, Hindu and Persian Astronomy . In: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 500, 1987, pp. 525-545.

Remarks

  1. ^ Strabo, Geographia 16.
  2. ↑ Van der Waerden 1987.
personal data
SURNAME Seleucus of Seleucia
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Seleucus of Babylon; Seleucus of Seleukia-Ctesiphon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH around 190 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 2nd century BC Chr.