科农Conon of Samos

据说科农曾在亚历山大港担任克劳狄乌斯·托勒密三世（又称托勒密 Euergetes）的宫廷天文学家，例如见[1]和[2]。然而，奥托·纽格包尔 [5]声称：-

把科农说成“宫廷天文学家”只是现代人的发明；托勒密时期的埃及并不存在这样的职位……

科农尤其因卡利马科斯关于后发座的诗篇Berenice's Lock而被铭记。也许正是由于这首诗，科农才为维吉尔和普罗佩提乌斯所熟知。

后发座的故事是这样的：王后贝勒尼基二世，即 托勒密 Euergetes 的妻子，发誓如果她的丈夫从第三次叙利亚战争中胜利归来，她将把一绺头发献给神庙。这场战争是 托勒密 Euergetes 为报其姐妹在叙利亚被谋杀之仇而进行的。当他在公元前245年胜利归来时，贝勒尼基剪下那绺头发并放在神庙中。第二天，那绺头发消失了，科农 宣称他能在室女座、狮子座和牧夫座之间的星空中看到它。从那时起，这个星座就被称为后发座。

科农是阿基米德的终身朋友，两人交换数学思想。托马斯·利特尔·希思写道[4]：-

很可能是在亚历山大港，[阿基米德]结识了科农（他作为数学家和朋友都极为敬重此人）。

帕普斯指出，现在称为阿基米德螺线的曲线是由科农发现的，尽管阿基米德大量使用了它。托马斯·利特尔·希思在[4]中写道，科农是：-

……被引述为关于平面螺线的一个定理的提出者，该定理由阿基米德证明：然而，这似乎是一个错误，因为阿基米德在其论著开头说，他将某些定理（无证明）寄给了科农，如果科农在世，他肯定会证明它们。

科农关于conic sections的工作成为阿波罗尼奥斯的阿波罗尼奥斯的Conics第四卷的基础，尽管阿波罗尼奥斯在序言中对科农的评论并不赞赏。阿波罗尼奥斯说，科农寄给Thrasydaeus一篇作品，讨论圆锥曲线（包括圆）的交点，但科农的结果不正确，并被西奥多罗斯的Nicoteles看出不正确。阿波罗尼奥斯所指的作品是科农的Pros Thrasydaion，现已失传，因此我们无法判断这些评论的准确性。

同样失传的还有科农关于天文学的主要著作，即De astrologia的七卷，其中包含日食观测。克劳狄乌斯·托勒密将十七个“季节的标志”归于科农，他可能是在这部著作中给出的。至于科农作为观测者的技能，公元一世纪写作的Seneca说[5]：-

……科农是一位细心的观测者，并且他“记录了埃及人观测到的日食”。

但奥托·纽格包尔[5]补充说，这是：-

……鉴于我们对埃及天文学的了解，一个难以认真对待的故事。

关于科农利用巴比伦观测的工作的讨论，见文章[3]。

对科农的另一种评价以诗歌形式来自罗马诗人卡图卢斯（公元前84年—公元前54年），他写道科农（例如见[1]）：-

……洞悉了浩瀚宇宙的一切光辉，揭示了星辰的升落，太阳的炽热光芒如何黯淡，星辰如何在固定时刻隐退。

Conon of Samos is said to have served as court astronomer to Ptolemy III (also known as Ptolemy Euergetes) in Alexandria, see for example [1] and [2]. However, Neugebauer [5] claims that:-

It is only a modern invention to make Conon a 'court astronomer'; no such rank existed in Ptolemaic Egypt...

Conon is remembered particularly for Callimachus's poem Berenice's Lock about the constellation Coma Berenices. It may be as a result of this poem that Conon is well known to Virgil and Propertius.

The story of the constellation Coma Berenices is that Queen Berenice II, the wife of Ptolemy Euergetes, swore a vow that she would dedicate a lock of her hair to the temple if her husband returned victorious from the Third Syrian War. The war was fought by Ptolemy Euergetes to avenge the murder of his sister in Syria. When he returned victorious in 245 BC, Berenice cut off the lock of her hair and placed it in the temple. The following day the lock of hair had vanished and Conon declared that he could see it in the stars between Virgo, Leo and Bootes. From that time on the constellation has been known as Coma Berenices.

Conon was a lifelong friend of Archimedes and the two exchanged mathematical ideas. Heath writes [4]:-

It was probably at Alexandria that [Archimedes] made the acquaintance of Conon of Samos (for whom he had the highest regard both as a mathematician and a friend).

Pappus states that the curve now known as the spiral of Archimedes was discovered by Conon although it was much used by Archimedes. Heath writes in [4] that Conon was :-

... cited as the propounder of a theorem about the spiral in a plane which Archimedes proved: this would, however, seem to be a mistake, as Archimedes says at the beginning of his treatise that he sent certain theorems, without proofs, to Conon, who would certainly have proved them had he lived.

Conon's work on conic sections became a basis for the fourth book of Conics of Apollonius of Perga despite the fact that Apollonius makes less than admiring remarks about Conon in the preface. Apollonius says that Conon sent a piece of work to Thrasydaeus which discussed the points of intersection of conics (including circles) but that Conon's results were incorrect and were seen to be so by Nicoteles of Cyrene. The work to which Apollonius refers is Conon's Pros Thrasydaion which is now lost so we cannot judge the accuracy of the comments.

Also lost is Conon's major work on astronomy, the seven books of De astrologia, which included solar eclipse observations. Ptolemy attributes seventeen "signs of the seasons" to Conon which he may have given in this work. As to Conon's skills as an observer, Seneca, writing in the first century AD, says [5]:-

... that Conon was a careful observer and that he "recorded solar eclipses observed by the Egyptians".

But Neugebauer [5] adds that this is:-

... a story difficult to take seriously in view of what we know of Egyptian astronomy.

For discussion on Conon's work with Babylonian observations, see the article [3].

Another assessment of Conon came in poetic fashion from Catullus, the Roman poet (84 BC - 54 BC), who wrote that Conon (see for example [1]):-

... discerned all the lights of the vast universe, and disclosed the risings and settings of the stars, how the fiery brightness of the sun is darkened, and how the stars retreat at fixed times.