Autolycus of Pitane Biography

Autolycus of Pitane is a bit hard to pin down. Using various sources and references, we can guess that he was born about 360 BC in Pitane, Aeolis, Asia Minor (now Turkey). Little is known about his life, but Euclid references some of his work and he taught Arcesilaus.

Autolycus's main claim to fame is that his book, On the Moving Sphere, is said to be the oldest completely preserved Greek treatise on a mathematical subject. This was a mathematical astronomy text dealing with the geometry of the sphere. It appears to be based on the earlier works of Eudoxus of Cnidos. These texts put forward the theory that the universe is a series of concentric spheres whose axes run through the center of the Earth.

Autolycus also wrote another surviving text called On Risings and Settings, based on observational astronomy. He apparently wrote two versions of this book as his knowledge and writing skills improved. It deals with the apparent rising and setting of the fixed stars.

He died about 290 BC.