Nicomachus

c. 60–120 CE

Nicomachus of Gerasa, in Roman Syria, was the leading Pythagorean mathematician of the early empire. His Introduction to Arithmetic set out the theory of number — even and odd, prime and composite, perfect numbers, ratios, figured numbers and the means — as the gateway to philosophy; put into Latin by Apuleius and then by Boethius, it remained the school arithmetic of Europe for a thousand years. His Manual of Harmonics also survives, and Iamblichus built his own arithmetic upon him.