more logically for the movement of the heavens (he had a very strong influence on Ptolemy who took up his work several centuries later) and did not suffer from a theory which required the earth to move. This to Hipparchus flew solidly in the face of common sense. But in other respects he was a very accomplished mathematician, geomotrist and astronomer. He rejected astrology and based his work solely on rigorous observation--which avoided metaphysical speculation. He was highly instrumental in the creation of trigonometry--including the formula for spherical triangles. He created a star catalogue, which was quite accurate--and which listed almost 1000 stars. Philosophy and ReligionHellenistic Philosophy, 322 BC to 235 AD, overlaps the Hellenistic Period (from Alexander the Great, d.323, to Cleopatra, d.30 BC) and the Early Roman Empire (30 BC to the death of Alexander Severus, 235 AD). Plato's school at the Academy and Aristotle's school (the Peripatetics) at the Lyceum continued, joined by several other schools, including the Cynics and Hedonists, but especially the Stoics and Epicureans. StoicismThe Stoic school was founded by Zeno of Citium (335-263), a man of Phoenician descent from Cyprus, and was named after the kind of open building with a porch, a stoa, found in the Athenian marketplace, where Zeno taught and the school became established. After coming to Athens, Zeno was a student of Crates, but broke away out of humiliation at the kinds of things he was expected to do. Stoicism, which became the dominant Hellenistic school of philosophy, emphasized that happiness depends only on goodness (rather as Socrates had thought) and that all external conditions of life can and must be endured without apathy (suffering). EpicureanThe school of Hedonism was reputedly founded by Aristippus of Cyrene (c.435-360) and later modified by Epicurus (341-270), who settled in Athens and taught from the garden of his house, where the school remai...
