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Concept
Anatolius of Laodicea
Summary
Anatolius of Laodicea (Greek: Ανατόλιος Λαοδικείας; early 3rd century – July 3, 283), also known as Anatolius of Alexandria, was a Syro-Egyptian saint and Bishop of Laodicea on the Mediterranean coast of Roman Syria in AD 268. He was not only one of the foremost scholars of his day in the physical sciences, as well as in Aristotelian and platonic philosophy, but also a renowned computist and teacher of the neoplatonic philosopher Iamblichus.
Anatolius is recognized as a saint by both the Eastern Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Church. His feast day, like the one of his namesake Saint Anatolius of Constantinople, is celebrated on 3 July.
Anatolius was born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt, during the early 3rd century. Prior to becoming one of the great lights of the Church, Anatolius enjoyed considerable prestige at Alexandria while working as a senator. According to Eusebius of Caesarea, he was credited with a rich knowledge of arithmetic, geometry, physics, rhetoric, dialectic, and astronomy. Eusebius states that Anatolius was deemed worthy to maintain the school of the Aristotelian succession in Alexandria. The pagan philosopher Iamblichus also studied among his disciples.
There are fragments of ten books on arithmetic written by him; it's a mostly complete work known to us by the name Introduction to Arithmetic. This work seems to have been copied by the author of the curious writing entitled Theologoumena arithmetica, a Neoplatonic treatise heavily influenced by Pythagoreanism, uncertainly attributed to lamblichus ─ though not written in his style, it is a discussion of each of the first ten natural numerals that mixes accounts of formal arithmetical properties with mystical philosophical analysis.
The character of its writing may be illustrated by the following quotation from it attributed to Anatolius: "[Four] is called the "just number", due to the square being equal to its perimeter (i.e 4x4 = 4+4+4+4); of the numbers lesser than four, the perimeter of the square is greater than the area, while of those greater, the perimeter is lesser than the area.
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