Birth of Hypatia

Hypatia was born in 360 CE in Alexandria. A Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, mathematician and astronomer, Hypatia lived in Alexandria in Roman Egypt, where she taught the philosophy of Plato and Plotinus and was respected by pupils from the city's elite. She is said to have edited mathematical works and commented on Diophantus and Apollonius, and her father Theon was also a scholar. In a time of religious and political tension, she became caught up in a feud between Orestes, the Roman prefect, and Bishop Cyril of Alexandria. She was murdered by a Christian mob, and later thinkers have made her a symbol of learning and of the conflict between reason and fanaticism.

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