西里西亚的辛普利修斯Simplicius of Cilicia

西里西亚的辛普利修斯出生在安纳托利亚南部的西里西亚的辛普利修斯，该地自公元前一世纪起曾是罗马的一个行省。我们知道他去了亚历山大，在阿摩尼乌斯 Hermiae的学校学习哲学。

Ammonius本人是普罗克洛的学生，而阿什凯隆的欧托基奥斯将他对阿基米德的On the sphere and cylinder第一卷的评注献给了他。Ammonius一生中的主要工作是撰写关于亚里士多德的批判性著作，这显然影响了西里西亚的辛普利修斯，后者本人也撰写了大量关于亚里士多德的评注。

在亚历山大跟随Ammonius学习之后，西里西亚的辛普利修斯前往雅典，在那里他与新柏拉图主义者哲学家达马斯基奥斯一起学习。Damascius写了Problems and Solutions about the First Principles，该书发展了由普罗克洛所阐述的新柏拉图主义哲学。西里西亚的辛普利修斯再次接触到了与他在亚历山大所学到的相似观点，他的哲学以一致的方式构建起来。

大约在520年，Damascius 被任命为 柏拉图学园 的负责人，当基督教皇帝查士丁尼于529年关闭它时，他仍是负责人。与此同时，查士丁尼关闭了所有其他异教学校。当查士丁尼成为皇帝时，他的军队正在幼发拉底河上与波斯国王的军队作战。因此，当 Damascius、西里西亚的辛普利修斯 和 科学院 的其他五名成员被迫离开雅典时，他们前往波斯，在波斯国王霍斯劳一世的宫廷中服务，这是很自然的。霍斯劳是一位伟大的文化赞助人，西里西亚的辛普利修斯 受到这位统治者的良好接待。然而，霍斯劳和查士丁尼签署了于532年批准的《永久和平条约》，这使得 西里西亚的辛普利修斯 能够返回雅典。

关于西里西亚的辛普利修斯和其他前往波斯的哲学家，条约的条款并不完全清楚。拜占庭诗人、其当代史的作者阿加提阿斯在565年查士丁尼去世后写到了这些事件。他写道（见[1]）：-

……条约的条款本可以保证哲学家们在自身环境中的充分安全：他们不应被强迫接受任何违背个人信念的东西，也永远不应被阻止按照自己的哲学学说生活。

然而，Cameron在[4]中对Agathias这一说法的准确性提出了质疑，而且西里西亚的辛普利修斯返回雅典后的情况可能并不像Agathias所暗示的那样轻松。

有一些证据表明 西里西亚的辛普利修斯 确实在雅典度过了余生，写作和进行研究，但肯定不被允许讲课。这反映在他著作的性质上，这些著作不是讲课课程风格，而是对 亚里士多德 著作的精心构建的解释，特别是它们试图调和 柏拉图 和 亚里士多德 的观点。

在 西里西亚的辛普利修斯 留存下来的著作中，人们认为最早的是他对 爱比克泰德 的 Enchiridion 的评注，一些历史学家认为这是 西里西亚的辛普利修斯 在亚历山大里亚时写的。然而，这似乎极不可能，Cameron 在 [4] 中认为它是在 西里西亚的辛普利修斯 在波斯期间写的论点似乎更有说服力。当然，这似乎是在对 亚里士多德 的评注之前写的，其中第一个是对 De Caelo 的评注。接着是 西里西亚的辛普利修斯 对 亚里士多德 的 Physics 的评注，这两部著作对数学史尤为重要。

在对 De Caelo 的评注中，西里西亚的辛普利修斯 详细叙述了 欧多克索斯 的 同心球，他还讲述了后来 卡里普斯 对该理论所做的修改。西里西亚的辛普利修斯 在给出这些细节时引用了 罗德岛的欧德摩斯 的 History of Astronomy，但他并没有直接引用那部著作，而是引用了 索西琴尼（他写于公元二世纪），后者又引用了 罗德岛的欧德摩斯。

在他对 亚里士多德 的 Physics 的评注中，西里西亚的辛普利修斯 大段引用了现已失传的 罗德岛的欧德摩斯 的 History of Geometry。特别是，西里西亚的辛普利修斯 引用了关于 罗德岛的欧德摩斯 的著作中关于 安提丰 对 化圆为方 的尝试，以及 希俄斯的希波克拉底 在将某些 lunes 化为平方时的尝试。同样在这部对 亚里士多德 的 Physics 的评注中，西里西亚的辛普利修斯 给出了来自 杰米纽斯 对 波希多尼 的 Meteorologica 的摘要的重要引文。

西里西亚的辛普利修斯 写了一部对 欧几里得 的 Elements 的评注，该评注以阿拉伯语译本的形式流传下来。这在 [6] 中有所讨论，作者在其中讨论了这样一个事实：该评注并未包含 西里西亚的辛普利修斯 本人对 平行公设 的证明尝试，尽管有证据表明 西里西亚的辛普利修斯 确实做过这样的证明尝试。在 [6] 中讨论了 西里西亚的辛普利修斯 对平行公设的证明尝试如何进入阿拉伯数学，并最初受到批评，随后被纳入一个新的“证明”中，该证明旨在将批评意见考虑在内。

西里西亚的辛普利修斯作为注释者的重要性在[1]中有所描述：-

[西里西亚的辛普利修斯]没有高估自己的贡献，而是十分清楚自己受惠于其他哲学家，尤其是Alexander、扬布利科斯和波菲利。他毫不犹豫地称自己的注释不过是对这些著名大师著作的入门介绍，也不狂热地固守自己的解释；他乐于用更好的解释来替换它们。另一方面，注释者的工作远非一项中立的事业或仅仅关乎博学；它主要是一个更熟悉所考察文本并阐明某些晦涩段落的机会；因此西里西亚的辛普利修斯始终关心获取可靠文献并核查这些信息的历史价值……

Simplicius was born in Cilicia in southern Anatolia which had been a Roman province from the first century BC. We know that he went to Alexandria where he studied philosophy at the school of Ammonius Hermiae.

Ammonius himself was a pupil of Proclus and Eutocius dedicated his commentary on Book I of Archimedes' On the sphere and cylinder to him. Ammonius's main work throughout his life was writing critical works on Aristotle and this clearly influenced Simplicius who was himself to write extensive commentaries on Aristotle.

After studying under Ammonius in Alexandria, Simplicius went to Athens where he studied with the Neoplatonist philosopher Damascius. Damascius had written Problems and Solutions about the First Principles which develops the Neoplatonist philosophy as expounded by Proclus. Again Simplicius was exposed to similar views to those he had learnt in Alexandria and his philosophy was built up in a consistent way.

Damascius had been made head of Plato's Academy in about 520 and he was still head when the Christian emperor Justinian closed it in 529. At the same time Justinian closed all the other pagan schools. When Justinian had become emperor, his troops were fighting on the Euphrates River against the armies of the Persian king. It was therefore natural that Damascius, Simplicius and five other members of the Academy, when forced out of Athens, went to Persia to serve at the court of the Persian king Khosrow I. Khosrow was a great patron of culture and Simplicius was well received by the ruler. However, Khosrow and Justinian signed the Treaty of Eternal Peace which was ratified in 532 which led to Simplicius being able to return to Athens.

It is not entirely clear what the terms of the treaty were in regard to Simplicius and the other philosophers who had gone to Persia. Agathias, the Byzantine poet and author of a history of his own times, wrote of these events after the death of Justinian in 565. He wrote that (see [1]):-

... the terms of the treaty would have guaranteed to the philosophers full security in their own environment: they were not to be compelled to accept anything against their personal conviction, and they were never to be prevented from living according to their own philosophical doctrine.

The accuracy of this view by Agathias has been challenged by Cameron in [4], however, and things may not have been as easy for Simplicius after his return to Athens as Agathias suggested.

There is some evidence that Simplicius did remain in Athens for the rest of his days, writing and undertaking research but certainly not being allowed to lecture. This is reflected by the nature of his writings which are not of the lecture course style, but instead are carefully constructed interpretations of the writings of Aristotle and in particular they attempt to harmonise the views of Plato and Aristotle.

Of the writings of Simplicius that have survived, it is thought that the earliest is his commentary on Epictetus's Enchiridion which some historians believe was written by Simplicius while he was still in Alexandria. This, however, seems highly unlikely and the argument by Cameron in [4] that it was written during Simplicius's time in Persia seems much more convincing. Certainly this seems to have been written before the commentaries on Aristotle, the first of which is the commentary on De Caelo. This is followed by Simplicius's commentary on Aristotle's Physics and both these works are particularly important for the history of mathematics.

In the commentary on De Caelo Simplicius gives a detailed account of the concentric spheres of Eudoxus and he also relates the modifications to the theory made later by Callippus. Simplicius is quoting from Eudemus's History of Astronomy in giving these details, but he does not quote directly from that work, rather quoting from Sosigenes (who wrote in the second century AD) who in turn quotes from Eudemus.

In his commentary on Aristotle's Physics Simplicius quotes at length from Eudemus's History of Geometry which is now lost. In particular Simplicius quotes the writing on Eudemus on Antiphon's attempts to square the circle and also the attempts of Hippocrates when he squared certain lunes. Also in this commentary on Aristotle's Physics Simplicius gives important quotations from Geminus's summary of Posidonius's Meteorologica.

Simplicius wrote a commentary on Euclid's Elements which survives in an Arabic translation. This is discussed in [6] where the author discusses the fact that the commentary does not contain an attempt at a proof of the parallel postulate by Simplicius himself, despite the evidence that indeed Simplicius did attempt such a proof. In [6] there is a discussion of how Simplicius's attempted proof of the parallel postulate entered Arabic mathematics and was first criticised, then incorporated into a new 'proof' designed to take the criticism into account.

The importance of Simplicius as a commentator is described in [1]:-

[Simplicius] did not overestimate his own contributions but was quite aware of his debt to other philosophers, especially to Alexander, Iamblichus, and Porphyry. He did not hesitate to call his own commentaries a mere introduction to the writings of these famous masters, nor did he cling fanatically to his own interpretations; he was happy to exchange them for better explanations. On the other hand, the work of the commentator is far from being a neutral undertaking or a question of mere erudition; it is chiefly an opportunity to become more familiar with the text under consideration and to elucidate some intricate passages; hence Simplicius's constant concern to obtain reliable documents and to check the historical value of this information...