I teach philosophy and astronomy in Alexandria, and I preserve mathematical knowledge through commentary: on Diophantus's thirteen-volume Arithmetica, on Apollonius's conic sections, and an edition of Ptolemy's Almagest.
Modern scholars recover my surviving work
4 milestones
The Suda's claim that all my writings were lost was overturned; some works survive and spurious inventions were rejected
Taught philosophy, mathematics and astronomy in Alexandria and was widely known as a great teacher and wise counselor
Mentored a student in constructing a plane astrolabe using Ptolemy's Planisphaerium and family expertise
Contributed textual edits to the central astronomical textbook that students and astronomers used
My generation of scholars did not publish original treatises. We kept the classical mathematical works alive by commenting on them. After the Mouseion closed and the Serapeum fell, I put my effort into preserving those books and making them usable for students.
I taught my students that a Neoplatonic philosopher must bring the highest moral standards into political life and act for the good of fellow citizens. In 413 my former student Synesius held me to that same teaching.
Like my father, I set aside Iamblichus's teaching and taught the original Neoplatonism of Plotinus. It was a moderate, less polemical philosophy, open to Christian students, and I hoped it could show that philosophy and Christianity can coexist.
My father Theon headed the Mouseion, an exclusive school in Alexandria, and his great achievement was a corrected edition of Euclid's Elements. I took up his Plotinian Neoplatonism and his editor's craft, and in mathematics I came to surpass him.
