Mathematics in Greece and Rome

Before you go you should familiarize yourself with the geography of the area. Here are some nice maps. There are many things to see, so think about what you would like to see before we go. Here is a page that mostly has links to other sites, including some on mathematics and science.

Athens   

Mathematicians born in Athens:   Antiphon, Plato, Theaetetus, Zenodorus.

• Antiphon (480 - 411) is known for having originated the idea of exhausting an area by means of inscribed regular polygons with an ever increasing number of sides, an idea upon which ... Eudoxus founded his epoch-making method of exhaustion.
• Plato (427-347)
• Theaetetus (c417 - c369) is known from the two dialogues that Plato wrote about him. His work survives in Book X of the Elements on irrationals and was the first to investigate the octahedron and icosahedron.
• Zenodorus (c200 - c140) wrote a lost work on isoperimetric figures and also was aware of the property of burning mirrors.

Our tour includes the Acropolis, the Acropolis Museum and the old Plaka neighborhood. We will later visit the Hellenic Center.

There is a mathematics museum in Athens.

Samos    

Mathematicians born in Samos: Aristarchus, Conon, Pythagoras

 Here is some information about oracles, including pictures of two from the Sistine Chapel.

Miletus     

Mathematicians born in Miletus:  Anaximander, Leucippus, Thales

Mykonos  

• Paraportiani - One of the most famous architectural structures in Greece. Its name means inner or secondary door which it was to the Medieval stone walls which encircled the area.
• Archaeological Museum - Houses marble sculptures, ceramics and jewellery recovered from the islands of Delos, Renia and Mykonos.
• Aegean Maritime Museum

Rome   

Mathematicians born in Rome: Boethius , Fermi, Fiorentini, Frattini, Ricci, Siacci, Torricelli

• Boethius (480 - 524) wrote a low quality book on Arithmetic (based on Nichomachus) that was used for centuries. His Geometry does not survive.
• Enrico Fermi (1901 - 1954) wrote a doctoral dissertation on the theory of probability, but is best known for his work in physics. He received a Nobel Prize for his work on radioactivity and after receiving it came to the US (he had to pass an arithmetic test to get a visa).
• Mario Fiorentini (born 1918) was self-educated in mathematics and served as a high school teacher. He published a few papers in geometry, algebra, and linkages.
• Giovanni Frattini (1852 -1925) worked on differential geometry and algebra. The Frattini subgroup is named after him. It is the set of all non-generating elements or, equivalently, the intersection of all proper maximal subgroups. 
• Michelangelo Ricci  (1619 -1682) was friends with Sluze and Torricelli. He is known for his Exercitatio geometrica, De maximis et minimis (1666) 19 page work where he finds the maximum of x^m(a - x)ⁿ and the tangents to y^m = kxⁿ.
He was made a cardinal by Pope Innocent XI in 1681. He is not to be confused with the Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1552 -1610) who translated the first six books of Euclid into Chinese.
• Francesco Siacci (1839 -1907) was an army officer who rose to the rank of major general. He taught ballistics at the Military Academy in Turin and wrote a masterly treatise on the subject (1888; French translation 1891).
• Evangelista Torricelli (1608-1647) was a Camaldolese monk who studied with Castelli. He was widely read in mathematics and impressed Galileo with his work on parabolic trajectories. I am especially fond of his infinite hyperbolic solid that has no center of gravity.

Here are ideas about what to see in Rome.

The Vatican Museums

In the Pauline Chapel of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, Cigoli painted a vision from the Apocalypse, Chapter 12 in the cupola: "A Woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars." Defiantly, Cignoli painted a maculate moon, not the immaculate moon that was the customary accompaniment of the immaculate Virgin.

http://www.emis.de/journals/NNJ/Martines.html