Attalus of Rhodes ( el, Ἄτταλος ὁ Ῥόδιος) was an ancient Greek grammarian,

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...

, and

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

, who lived in

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the S ...

in the 2nd century BC, and was a contemporary of

Hipparchus Hipparchus (; el, Ἵππαρχος, ''Hipparkhos''; BC) was a Greek astronomer, geographer, and mathematician. He is considered the founder of trigonometry, but is most famous for his incidental discovery of the precession of the equi ...

.. He wrote a commentary on the ''Phaenomena'' of

Aratus Aratus (; grc-gre, Ἄρατος ὁ Σολεύς; c. 315 BC/310 BC240) was a Greek didactic poet. His major extant work is his hexameter poem ''Phenomena'' ( grc-gre, Φαινόμενα, ''Phainómena'', "Appearances"; la, Phaenomena), the ...

. Although this work is lost,. Hipparchus cites him in his ''Commentary on the Phaenomena of Eudoxus and Aratus''.. Attalus sought to defend both Aratus and Eudoxus against criticisms from contemporary astronomers and mathematicians. Book IV of Apollonius of Perga's ''Conics'' is addressed to someone named Attalus, and it has been suggested that this may have been Attalus of Rhodes. However, this is not a good match chronologically, and Attalus was a common name at the time, so the connection is only speculative..

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Attalus Of Rhodes Ancient Greek astronomers Ancient Greek mathematicians 2nd-century BC Rhodians 2nd-century BC writers Ancient Rhodian grammarians Ancient Rhodian scientists 2nd-century BC mathematicians 2nd-century BC astronomers