A history of Greek mathematics - Wilbourhall.org

538 COMMENTATORS AND BYZANTINES
combined two of these ideas and called it assigned or fixed
and procurable or capable of being found (nopifioit); others
'
fixed and known ', and a third class known and procurable ' '.
These various views are then discussed at length.
Domninus of Larissa, a pupil of Syrianus at the same time
as -Proclus, wrote a Manual of Introductory Arithmetic eyx^piSiov
dpiOfj.r]TiKrjs elaayooyfjs, which was edited by Boissonade
1
and is the subject of two articles by Tannery, 2 who also left
a translation of it, with prolegomena, which has since been
published. 3 It is a sketch of the elements of the theory of
numbers, very concise and well arranged, and is interesting
because it indicates a serious attempt at a reaction against the
Introductio arithmetica of Nicomachus and a return to the
doctrine of Euclid. Besides Euclid, Nicomachus and Theon
of Smyrna, Domninus seems to have used another source,
now lost, which was also drawn upon by Iamblichus. At the
end of this work Domninus foreshadows a more complete
treatise oh the theory of numbers under the title Elements of
Arithmetic (dpiO/jirjTiKr} a-Toi^e'iadcns;), but whether this was
ever written or not we do not know. Another tract
attributed to Domninus ttco? eari \6yov e/c Xoyov afeXelv
(how a ratio can be taken out of a ratio) has been published
with a translation by Ruelle 4 ; if it is not by Domninus, it
probably belongs to the same period.
A most honourable place in our history must be reserved
for Simplicius, who has been rightly called ' the excellent
Simplicius, the Aristotle-commentator, to whom the world can
never be grateful enough for the preservation of the fragments
of Parmenides, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Melissus,
Theophrastus and others' (v. Wilamowitz-Mollendorff). He
lived in the first half of the sixth century and was a pupil,
first of Ammonius of Alexandria, and then of Damascius,
the last head of the Platonic school at Athens.
When in the
year 529 the Emperor Justinian, in his zeal to eradicate
paganism, issued an edict forbidding the teaching of philo-
1
Anecdota Graeca, vol. iv, pp. 413-29.
2
Me'moires scientifiques, vol. ii, nos. 35, 40.
3
Revue des etudes grecques, 1906, pp. 359-82; Memoires scientifiques^
vol. iii, pp. 256-81.
4
Revue de Philologie, 1883, p. 83 sq.