HIPPO'CRATESM
(
Ἱπποκράτης), literary.
1. Of Chios, a Pythagorean philosopher, who lived about S. C. 460.
He is mentioned chiefly as a mathematician, and is said to have been the first who reduced geometry to a regular system.
He seems to have been also engaged in researches respecting the square of a circle; but we have no means of judging of his merits as a mathematician, and Aristotle (
Ethic. ad Eudem. 8.14) states that in every other respect he was a man not above mediocrity. (Comp. Aristot.
Sophist. Elench. 1.10;
Plut. Sol. 2; Proclus
in Euclid. ii. p. 19; Fabric.
Bibl. Graec. vol. i. p. 848, &c.)