Heron

(Ἥρων)

1. a rhetorician, a native of Athens, and son of Cotys. According to Suidas, he wrote commentaries on Deinarchus, Herodotus. Thucydides, and Xenophon; a work entitled Αἱ ἐν Ἀθήναις δίκαι κεκριμένων Ὀνομάτων, in three books; an epitome of the history of Heracleides ; and a work on the ancient orators, entitled Θερὶ τῶν Ἀρχαίων Ῥητόρων καὶ τῶν Λόγων οἷς ἐνίκησαν πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἀλωνιζόμενοι. There are no data for determining when he lived. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iv. p. 239; Vossius, De Hist. Graec. p. 452, ed. Westermann.)

2. A grammarian, a native of Ephesus. Works

Heron is quoted frequently by Athenaeus (ii. p. 52 b, iii. p. 76 a, p. 111 c, &c.), and in the scholia on Apollonius Rhodius (1.769, 3.2). Other figures named Heron

Others of this name, not worth inserting, will be found mentioned in Fabricius (l.c.). [C.P.M]

(Ἥρων).

1. Of Alexandria, is called by Heron the younger (de Mach. Bell. 100.23, Fabr.) a pupil of Ctesibius, and he lived in the reigns of the Ptolemies Philadelphus and Euergetes (B. C. 284-221.) Of his life nothing is known; on his mechanical inventions we have but some scanty parts of his own writings, and some scattered notices. The common pneumatic experiment, called Hero's fountain, in which a jet of water is maintained by condensed air, has given a certain popular celebrity to his name. This has been increased by the discovery in his writings of a steam engine, that is, of an engine in which motion is produced by steam, and which must always be a part of the history of that agent. This engine acts precisely on the principle of what is called Barker's Mill : a boiler with arms having lateral orifices is capable of revolving round a vertical axis; the steam issues from the lateral orifices, and the uncompensated pressure upon the parts opposite to the orifices turns the boiler in the direction opposite to that of the issue of the steam. It is nearly the machine afterwards introduced by Avery, one of which, of six horse power, is, or lately was, at work near Edinburgh. * So says the translator of Arago's Eloge of Watt, and he adds that it is in pretty general use in Scotland. Heron's engine is described in his pneumatics presently mentioned; as also a double forcing pump used for a fire engine, and various other applications of the elasticity of air and steam. It is, however, but recently, that the remarkable claims of Heron to success in such investigations have received any marked notice. In the " Origine des Découvertes attribuées aux modernes," (3rd edition, 1796), by M. Dutens † This work is very valuable, from its giving at length every passage to which reference is made., who tries, with great learning, to make the best possible case for the ancients, the name of Heron is not even mentioned. Works

The remaining works, or rather fragments, of Heron of Alexandria, are as follows:-- 1. Χειροβαλλίστρας κατασκευὴ καὶ συμμετρία (de Construction et Mensura Manubalistae) Editions

First published (Gr.) by Baldi at the end of the third work presently noted. Also (Gr. Lat.) by Thevenot, Boivin, and Lahire, in the " Veterum mathematicorum Athenaei, Apollodori, Philonis, Heronis et aliorum Opera," Paris, 1693, fol. 2. Barulcus sive de Oneribus trahendis Libri tres

Barulcus sive de Oneribus trahendis Libri tres, a treatise brought by J. Golius from the East in Arabic, not yet translated or published (Ephemerid. Litter. Gotting. ann. 1785, p. 625, &c. cited by Fabricius). 3. Βελοτοιϊκά

Βελοτοιϊκά, Βελοποιηκά, or (Eutoc. in Arch. de Sph. et Cylind.) Βελοποιητικά, on the manufacture of darts. Editions

Edited by Bernardino Baldi (Gr. Lat.) with notes, and a life of Heron, Augsburg, 1616, 4to.; also in the Veter. Mathemat. &c. above mentioned. 4. Πνευματικά

Πνευματικά, or Spiritalia, the most celebrated of his works. Editions

Edited by Commandine (Lat.) with notes, Urbino, 1575, 4to., Amsterdam, 1680, 4to., and Paris, 1683, 4to. It is also (Gr. Lat.) in the Veter. Mathemat. &c. above mentioned. Translations

It first appeared, however, in an Italian translation by Bernardo Aleotti, Bologna, 1547, 4to., Ferrara, 1589, 4to.; and there is also (Murhard) an Italian translation, by Alessandro Giorgi, of Urbino, 1592, 4to., and by J. B. Porta, Naples, 1605, 4to. There is a German translation by Agathus Cario, with an appendix by Solomon de Caus, Bamberg, 1687, 4to., Frankfort, 1688, 4to. 5. Περὶ αὐτοματοποιητικῶν (de Automatorum Fabrica Libri duo) Translation

Translated into Italian by B. Baldi. Venice, 1589, 1601, 1661, 4to. Edition

(Gr. Lat.) in the Veter. Mathemat., &c. above mentioned. Fragments and Lost Works

A fragment on dioptrics (Gr.) exists in manuscript, and two Latin fragments on military machines are given by Baldi at the end of the work on darts. The following lost works are mentioned :-- Τὰ περὶ ὑδροσκοπειῶν, by Proclus, Pappus, and Heron himself; Μηχανικαὶ ἰσογωγαί, by Eutocius, Pappus, and Heron himself; Περὶ μετρικῶν, by Eutocius; Περὶ τροχιωδιῶν, by Pappus; and a work Περὶ ζυγίων, is mentioned by Pappus, and has been supposed to be by Heron. Further Information

Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iv. p. 234; Murhard's Catalogue ; Heilbronner, Hist. Mathes. Univ. ; Montucla, Hist. des Mathém. vol. i.

2. The teacher of Proclus, of whom nothing more is known. Fabricius (Bibl. Graec. vol iv. p. 239) takes this to be the Heron who is mentioned by Eutocius as the commentator on the arithmetic of Nicomachus.

3. The younger, so called because we have not even an adjective of place to distinguish him from Heron of Alexandria, is supposed to have lived under Heraclius (A. D. 610-641). In his own work on Geodesy (a term used in the sense of practical geometry), he says that in his own time the stars had altered their longitudes by seven degrees since the time of Ptolemy: from which the above date must have been framed. But if he spoke, as is likely enough, from Ptolemy's value of the precession of the equinoxes, without observing the stars himself, he must have been about two hundred years later. He was a Christian. Works

The writings attributed to Heron the younger are,-- 1. De Machinis bellicis

There is one Greek manuscript at Bologna. Editions

Published (Lat.) by Barocius, Venice, 1572, 4to. 2. Geodaesia

Montucla notices this as the first treatise in which the mode of finding the area of a triangle by means of its sides occurs. Savile, who had a manuscript of this treatise, rejects with scorn the idea of its having been written by Heron; but we suspect that he supposed it to be attributed to Heron of Alexandria. Editions

published (Lat.) with the above by Barocius. 3. De Obsidione repellenda, ὅπως χρὴ τὸνν τῆς πολιορκουμένης τόλεως στρατηγὸν πρὸς τὴν πολιορκίαν ἀντιτάσσεσθυι Editions

Published (Gr.) in the Veter. Mathemat. Opera, &c. mentioned in the life of Heron of Alexandria. 4. Παρεκβολαὶ ἐκ τῶν στρατηγικῶν παρατάξεων, &c

This exists only in manuscript. 5. Ἐκ τῶν τοῦ Ἥρωνος περὶ τῶν τῆς Γεωμετρίας καὶ Στερεωμετρίας ὀνουάτων Editions

Published (Gr. Lat.) with the first book of Euclid, by Dasypodius, Strasburg, 1571, 8vo. 6. Excerpta de Mensuris Editions

(Gr. Lat.), in the Analecta Graeca of the Benedictines, vol. i. Paris, 1688, 4to. 7. Εἰσαγωγὴ τῶν γεωμετρουμένων

This work exists only in manuscript. Further Information

Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iv. p. 237 ; Heilbronner, Hist. Mathes. Univ.; Montucla, Hist. des Mathém. vol. i. [A. DeM.]

(Ἥρων), a Byzantine writer of uncertain age, but who lived previous to the emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, composed a work on agriculture, divided into twenty books, which was a compilation from most of those works which were extracted by the writers of the " Geoponica," who likewise perused the work of Heron, which is lost. Heron was perhaps the author of a work on Measures, extant in the Imperial Library at Vienna. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iv. p. 239, vol. viii. pp. 19, 20.) [W.P]

See Hero.