autolycus of pitane (; c. 360 â c. 290 bc) was a greek astronomer, mathematician, and geographer. the lunar crater autolycus was named in his honour. == life and work == autolycus was born in pitane, a town of aeolis within ionia, asia minor. of his personal life nothing is known, although he was a contemporary of aristotle and his works seem to have been completed in athens within the years 335 bc and 300 bc. euclid references some of autolycus' work, and autolycus is known to have taught arcesilaus. autolycus' surviving works include a book on spheres entitled on the moving sphere and another on risings and settings of celestial bodies. autolycus' works were translated by maurolycus in the sixteenth century. on the moving sphere is believed to be the oldest mathematical treatise from ancient greece that is completely preserved. all greek mathematical works prior to autolycus' spheres are taken from later summaries, commentaries, or descriptions of the works. one reason for its survival is that it had originally been a part of a widely used collection called "little astronomy", which was preserved by translation into arabic in the 9th century. in europe, it was lost, but was brought back during the crusades in the 12th century, and translated back into latin.theodosius of bithynia in his sphere, autolycus studied the characteristics and movement of a sphere. the work is simple and not exactly original since it consists of only elementary theorems on spheres that would be needed by astronomers, but its theorems are clearly enunciated and proved. its prime significance, therefore, is that it indicates that by his day there was a thoroughly established textbook tradition in geometry that is today regarded as typical of classical greek geometry. the theorem statement is clearly enunciated, a figure of the construction is given 
290_BC_deaths 360_BC_births 3rd-century_BC_Greek_people 3rd-century_BC_writers 4th-century_BC_Greek_people Aeolians Ancient_Greek_astronomers Ancient_Greek_geographers Ancient_Greek_mathematicians