NICHOMACHUS OF GERASA (Greco-Roman, c. 60-120 CE)
The medieval school curriculum, called "the seven liberal arts," was divided into two parts: the lower division was called the "trivium" (grammar, logic, and rhetoric); the upper was the "quadrivium" consisting of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy). This division indicates that math, music, and the celestial motions were considered of a piece, and it seems one expert on these was the Greco-Roman scholar Nicomachus of Gerasa (in northern Jordan). He wrote an Introduction to Arithmetic and a Manual of Harmonics in Greek; as a Neopythagorean he also wrote about the mystical properties of numbers. Little else is known about him, but it is believed that he wrote the Manual at the request of a lady of noble birth, to whom it is addressed. This suggests he was a respected scholar of some status.
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