Person: Serenus

Serenus was a Greek geometer who wrote commentaries on other mathematicians' work as well as proving some geometric theorems of his own.

It can also be deduced from a copy of the second treatise of Serenus which has survived.
Serenus was a commentator on the texts of others but, unlike some commentators, he was a fine mathematician in his own right.
The two treatises by Serenus are On the Section of a Cylinder and On the Section of a Cone both of which have survived.
Serenus shows how to find the cylinder which is cut in the ellipse EEE.
It appears that Peithon's work treated as a bit of a joke and Serenus tries to in these propositions to show that Peithon's ideas are mathematically sound.
In the first 57 propositions in On the Section of a Cone Serenus examined triangular sections of right and scalene cones made by planes passing through the vertex.
Serenus wrote a commentary on Apollonius's Conics unfortunately is lost, except for a fragment preserved by Theon of Smyrna.
That he wrote such a work is confirmed by Serenus in his own writings.

Born about 300, Antinopolis, Egypt. Died about 360.

View full biography at MacTutor

African, Ancient Greek, Origin Egypt

Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0!

O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive