A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology
William Smith, Ed.

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Heron

3. The younger, so called because we have not even an adjective of place to distinguish him from Heron of Alexandria, is supposed to have lived under Heraclius (A. D. 610-641). In his own work on Geodesy (a term used in the sense of practical geometry), he says that in his own time the stars had altered their longitudes by seven degrees since the time of Ptolemy: from which the above date must have been framed. But if he spoke, as is likely enough, from Ptolemy's value of the precession of the equinoxes, without observing the stars himself, he must have been about two hundred years later. He was a Christian.

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Works

The writings attributed to Heron the younger are,--

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1.

De Machinis bellicis

There is one Greek manuscript at Bologna.

Editions

Published (Lat.) by Barocius, Venice, 1572, 4to.

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2.

Geodaesia

Montucla notices this as the first treatise in which the mode of finding the area of a triangle by means of its sides occurs. Savile, who had a manuscript of this treatise, rejects with scorn the idea of its having been written by Heron; but we suspect that he supposed it to be attributed to Heron of Alexandria.

Editions

published (Lat.) with the above by Barocius.

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3.

De Obsidione repellenda,

ὅπως χρὴ τὸνν τῆς πολιορκουμένης τόλεως στρατηγὸν πρὸς τὴν πολιορκίαν ἀντιτάσσεσθυι

Editions

Published (Gr.) in the Veter. Mathemat. Opera, &c. mentioned in the life of Heron of Alexandria.

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4. Παρεκβολαὶ ἐκ τῶν στρατηγικῶν παρατάξεων, &c

This exists only in manuscript.

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5. Ἐκ τῶν τοῦ Ἥρωνος περὶ τῶν τῆς Γεωμετρίας καὶ Στερεωμετρίας ὀνουάτων

Editions

Published (Gr. Lat.) with the first book of Euclid, by Dasypodius, Strasburg, 1571, 8vo.

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6.

Excerpta de Mensuris

Editions

(Gr. Lat.), in the Analecta Graeca of the Benedictines, vol. i. Paris, 1688, 4to.

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7. Εἰσαγωγὴ τῶν γεωμετρουμένων

This work exists only in manuscript.

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Further Information

Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iv. p. 237 ; Heilbronner, Hist. Mathes. Univ.; Montucla, Hist. des Mathém. vol. i.

[A. DeM.]