Abstract
THE advance of the Imperial armies to Cyrene recalls the time when that city was a home of learning and the capital of Pentapolis, a tract of country containing the five cities Cyrene, Arsinde, Berenice, Ptolemais (or Barce) and Appolonia. Cyrene was the birthplace of several learned men, among whom was Eratosthenes, the geometer and mathematician. A personal friend of Archimedes, Eratosthenes was educated at Alexandria and Athens, and for the greater part of his life was in charge of the University library at Alexandria. He was, says Ball, the Admirable Crichton of his age. He constructed instruments which were used for centuries at the University of Alexandria, suggested the calendar in which every fourth year contains 366 days, determined the obliquity of the ecliptic, measured the length of a degree on the earth's surface and attempted to determine the circumference of the earth. In old age he lost his sight, and starved himself to death at the age of eighty-two.
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Cyrene: Birthplace of Eratosthenes, 276–196 B.C. Nature 147, 202 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/147202c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/147202c0