HYPATIA

Hypatia was born in Alexandria in 370 AD and was the daughter of the mathematician and astronomer Theon. She received a very good education in Athens and Italy. In Athens she attended classes at the Neoplatonic school, while also studying with Proclus. After her return to Alexandria she took over the Platonist school there, which followed the teachings of Plotinus, one of the first Neoplatonist philosophers. Due to its geographical isolation from the rest of Egypt, Alexandria was free from misogynistic traditions known to the rest of the Roman Empire. According to sources, in addition to being a philosopher, mathematician and astronomer, she also held the presidency of the Neoplatonic School of Alexandria and was a person worthy of respect, who exercised influence over the important rulers of Alexandria and the Mediterranean. She edited works on geometry, algebra and astronomy, and knew how to make astrolabes and hygroscopes. Although her work is lost, the tradition in which she worked and the texts she commented on proved to be the precise basis for the next step in the history of mathematics. Hypatia was brutally murdered by religious fanaticism. Many researchers divide the era of Paganism from the era of Christianity according to the date of her death, 415, versus 529 when Justinian closed the Athenian School.