Philo of byzantium biography examples
Philo of byzantium biography examples for adults...
Philo of Byzantium
(fl.
Philo of byzantium biography examples
ca. 250 b.c)
physics, mechanics, pneumatics.
Little is known of Philo’s life. Vitruvius includes him, with Archytas, Archimedes, Ctesibius, and others, in a list of inventors,1 while Hero of Alexandria mentions a work on an automatic theater by him2 and Eutocius cites his work on the duplication of the cube.3 These constitute the only references to Philo in antiquity; what else is known of him must be infered from the hints that exist in his few extant writings.
These writings, are fragements of a large book on mechanics, Philo’s only known work. Form reference to the bronze-spring catapult, recently invented by Ctesibius (fl. ca. 270 b.c.), it is possible to reach an approximate date for Philo’s career.
It is also clear that Philo was able to travel to Rhodes and Alexandria to study catapults, which suggests that he may have been wealthy, or have had a wealthy patron—perhaps his friends Arison, to whom each of the surviving books of the large