Nicomachus of Gerasa (; ) was an Ancient Greek Neopythagorean philosopher from Gerasa, in the Roman province of Syria (now Jerash, Jordan). Like many Pythagoreans, Nicomachus wrote about the mystical properties of numbers, best known for his works Introduction to Arithmetic and Manual of Harmonics, which are an important resource on Ancient Greek mathematics and Ancient Greek music in the Roman period. Nicomachus' work on arithmetic became a standard text for Neoplatonic education in Late antiquity, with philosophers such as Iamblichus and John Philoponus writing commentaries on it. A Latin paraphrase by Boethius of Nicomachus's works on arithmetic and music became standard textbooks in medieval education.
Life
Little is known about the life of Nicomachus except that he was a
Pythagoreanism who came from
Gerasa. His
Manual of Harmonics was addressed to a lady of noble birth, at whose request Nicomachus wrote the book, which suggests that he was a respected scholar of some status. He mentions his intent to write a more advanced work, and how the journeys he frequently undertakes leave him short of time.The approximate dates in which he lived () can only be estimated based on which other authors he refers to in his work, as well as which later mathematicians who refer to him. He mentions Thrasyllus in his
Manual of Harmonics, and his
Introduction to Arithmetic was apparently translated into
Latin in the mid 2nd century by
Apuleius,while he makes no mention at all of either Theon of Smyrna's work on arithmetic or
Ptolemy's work on music, implying that they were either later contemporaries or lived in the time after he did.
Philosophy
Historians consider Nicomachus a Neopythagorean based on his tendency to view numbers as having
mystical properties rather than their mathematical properties,
[Eric Temple Bell (1940), The development of mathematics, page 83.][Frank J. Swetz (2013), The European Mathematical Awakening, page 17, Courier] citing an extensive amount of Pythagorean literature in his work, including works by
Philolaus,
Archytas, and Androcydes. He writes extensively on
, especially on the significance of
prime numbers and
perfect numbers and argues that
arithmetic is ontologically prior to the other mathematical sciences (
music,
geometry, and
astronomy), and is their
cause. Nicomachus distinguishes between the wholly conceptual immaterial number, which he regards as the 'divine number', and the numbers which measure material things, the 'scientific' number. Nicomachus provided one of the earliest Greco-Roman multiplication tables; the oldest extant Greek multiplication table is found on a wax tablet dated to the 1st century AD (now found in the
British Museum).
[David E. Smith (1958), History of Mathematics, Volume I: General Survey of the History of Elementary Mathematics, New York: Dover Publications (a reprint of the 1951 publication), , pp 58, 129.]
Metaphysics
Although Nicomachus is considered a Pythagorean, John M. Dillon says that Nicomachus's philosophy "fits comfortably within the spectrum of
Middle Platonism." In his work on arithmetic, Nicomachus quotes from
Plato's
Timaeus[Plato, Timaeus 27D] to make a distinction between the intelligible world of Forms and the sensible world, however, he also makes more Pythagorean distinctions, such as between Odd and even numbers. Unlike many other Neopythagoreans, such as Moderatus of Gades, Nicomachus makes no attempt to distinguish between the
Demiurge, who acts on the material world, and The One which serves as the supreme
first principle. For Nicomachus,
God as the supreme first principle is both the demiurge and the Intellect (
nous), which Nicomachus also equates to being the monad, the potentiality from which all actualities are created.
Works
Two of Nicomachus' works, the
Introduction to Arithmetic and the
Manual of Harmonics are extant in a complete form, and two others, a work on
Theology of Arithmetic and a
Life of Pythagoras survive in fragments, epitomes, and summaries by later authors. The
Theology of Arithmetic (), on the Pythagorean mystical properties of numbers in two books is mentioned by Photius. There is an extant work sometimes attributed to Iamblichus under this title written two centuries later which contains a great deal of material thought to have been copied or paraphrased from Nicomachus' work.
Nicomachus's Life of Pythagoras was one of the main sources used by Porphyry and
Iamblichus, for their (extant)
Lives of Pythagoras. An
Introduction to Geometry, referred to by Nicomachus himself in the
Introduction to Arithmetic,[Nicomachus, Arithmetica, ii. 6. 1.] has not survived. Among his known lost work is another larger work on music, promised by Nicomachus himself, and apparently referred to by
Eutocius in his comment on the sphere and cylinder of
Archimedes.
Introduction to Arithmetic
Introduction to Arithmetic (, ) is the only extant work on mathematics by Nicomachus. The work contains both philosophical prose and basic mathematical ideas. Nicomachus refers to
Plato quite often, and writes that
philosophy can only be possible if one knows enough about
mathematics. Nicomachus also describes how
natural numbers and basic mathematical ideas are eternal and unchanging, and in an
abstract object realm. The work consists of two books, twenty-three and twenty-nine chapters, respectively.
Nicomachus's presentation is much less rigorous than Euclid centuries earlier. Propositions are typically stated and illustrated with one example, but not proven through inference. In some instances this results in patently false assertions. For example, he states that from it can be concluded that , only because this is true for a=6, b=5 and c=3.
Boethius' De institutione arithmetica is in large part a Latin translation of this work.
Manual of Harmonics
Manuale Harmonicum (Ἐγχειρίδιον ἁρμονικῆς,
Encheiridion Harmonikes) is the first important
music theory treatise since the time of
Aristoxenus and
Euclid. It provides the earliest surviving record of the legend of
Pythagoras's epiphany outside of a smithy that pitch is determined by numeric ratios. Nicomachus also gives the first in-depth account of the relationship between music and the ordering of the universe via the "music of the spheres." Nicomachus's discussion of the governance of the ear and voice in understanding music unites
Aristoxenus and Pythagorean concerns, normally regarded as antitheses.
[ ] In the midst of theoretical discussions, Nicomachus also describes the instruments of his time, also providing a valuable resource. In addition to the
Manual, ten extracts survive from what appear to have originally been a more substantial work on music.
Legacy
Late antiquity
The
Introduction to Arithmetic of Nicomachus was a standard textbook in Neoplatonic schools, and commentaries on it were written by
Iamblichus (3rd century) and
John Philoponus (6th century).
The Arithmetic (in Latin: De Institutione Arithmetica) of Boethius was a Latin paraphrase and a partial translation of the Introduction to Arithmetic.
Medieval European philosophy
The work of Boethius on arithmetic and music was a core part of the
Quadrivium liberal arts and had a great diffusion during the
Middle Ages.
Nicomachus's theorem
At the end of Chapter 20 of his
Introduction to Arithmetic, Nicomachus points out that if one writes a list of the odd numbers, the first is the cube of 1, the sum of the next two is the cube of 2, the sum of the next three is the cube of 3, and so on. He does not go further than this, but from this it follows that the sum of the first cubes equals the sum of the first
odd numbers, that is, the odd numbers from 1 to
. The average of these numbers is obviously
, and there are
of them, so their sum is
Many early mathematicians have studied and provided proofs of Nicomachus's theorem.
See also
-
Superparticular number
-
Superpartient number
Notes
Bibliography
Editions and translations
Introduction to Arithmetic
Manual of Harmonics
-
Andrew Barker, editor, Greek Musical Writings vol 2: Harmonic and Acoustic Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 245–69.
-
Sofia Di Mambro (ed.), Nicomaco di Gerasa. Manuale di armonica, edizione critica, traduzione e commento (Mathematica graeca antiqua 5), Roma, F. Serra 2025.
Primary sources
-
-
Photius, Bibliotheca
-
Anonymous, Theology of Arithmetic
External links
