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Eratosthenes arrested Polemarchus, following the orders of the Thirty to seize the money of the metics, and then he brought him to the Council, where he was condemned to death without a proper trial. Eratosthenes could not deny that he had arrested Polemarchus but he hoped to be acquitted by distorting the recent past, which the jurors ignored in all its details. An examination of the questions and answers of Lysias and Eratosthenes, and an assessment of their arguments shows that Lysias was right to regard his opponent as guilty, but the latter still had chances to be acquitted.

Andrej I. Schetnikov (ΣΙΓΜΑ: The Centre for Educational Projects, Novosibirsk), on the basis of testimonies by Nicomachus of Gerasa, Theon of Smyrna and other later authors, reconstructs an algorithm of developing all the numerals (provisionally called the ‘algorithm of Nicomachus’) and demonstrates how this algorithm could be found in the background of the so-called Plato’s ideal numbers. Besides, he suggests that the Platonicus by Erathosthenes, preserved in a fragmentary form by Theon, could be used as a supplementary source for reconstructing the content of the famous lecture of Plato On the Good.

A certain Augustan ‘rehabilitation’ of Bacchus may be traced in Virgil’s Georgics, in response to the god’s role in the self-presentation of Mark Antony, especially with reference to the movement on the worship of Bacchus in Book 2. An analysis of the ritual elements is offered here. Nonetheless, certain references to Bacchus in the Georgics suggest that he is a volatile symbol, difficult to control: some of these reside in Virgil’s allusions to Eratosthenes’ Erigone.

Eratosthenes (circa 276 B.C.–194 B.C.) is considered a famous scientist of ancient Greece. He was a mathematician and geographer. Born in Cyrene, now Shahhat (Libya), he was appointed to teach the son of the Egyptian King Ptolemy III Euergetes. In 240 B.C., he became the third chief librarian the Great Library of Alexandria. Eratosthenes laid basics for mathematical geography. He was the first to calculate precisely in an original way the Earth meridian's length between Syene and Alexandria. For this purpose he used perpendicular projection of the sun rays during summer solstice (06.22) near the town Syene, now Aswan. His estimation of the length of the Earth's radius (6300 km) is close to present estimation (6371 km). He calculated that a year possesses 365.25 days. He also emphasized the significance of maps as the most important thing in geography. Eratosthenes was the first one to use the term “geographem” to describe the Earth. In this way he legitimized the term of geography. He also put into system geographical information from various sources in order to obtain a map of the world as precise as possible.