Elijah Crouch

This is the first English translation of Photius I of Constantinople’s review (Bibliotheca, Codex 187) of Nicomachus of Gerasa’s lost Theology of Arithmetic. Photius both summarizes and criticizes the Neopythagorean treatise, which associates the monad through the decad with Greek gods, goddesses, and mythological figures, as well as incorporating ideas from the Neoplatonic and Neopythagorean traditions along the way. This codex contains valuable arithmological background for the medieval quadrivium, and shows how Christians interacted with pagan ideas on these subjects in the Byzantine era. The chapter presents the Greek text (the Scuola Normale Superiore edition), a facing English translation, introduction, notes, and bibliography.