274 
TRIGONOMETRY 
the superlative yeyicrTos. made up a word Al-majisti, which 
became Almagest; and it has been known by this name ever 
since. The complicated character of the system expounded 
by Ptolemy is no doubt responsible for the fact that it 
speedily became the subject of elaborate commentaries. 
Commentaries on the Syntaxis. 
Pappus 1 cites a passage from his own commentary on 
Book I of the Mathematica, which evidently means Ptolemy’s 
work. Part of Pappus’s commentary on Book Y, as well as 
his commentary on Book VI, are actually extant in the 
original. Theon of Alexandria, who wrote a commentary on 
the Syntaxis in eleven Books, incorporated as much as was 
available of Pappus’s commentary on Book V with full 
acknowledgement, though not in Pappus’s exact words. In 
his commentary on Book VI Theon made much more partial 
quotations from Pappus; indeed the greater part of the com 
mentary on this Book is Theon’s own or taken from other 
sources. Pappus’s commentaries are called scholia, Theon’s 
vnoyvruiaTa. Passages in Pappus’s commentary on Book V 
allude to ‘ the scholia preceding this one ’ (in the plural), and 
in particular to the scholium on Book IV. It is therefore all 
but certain that he wrote on all the Books from I to VI at 
least. The text of the eleven Books of Theon’s commentary 
was published at Basel by Joachim Camerarius in 1538, but 
it is rare and, owing to the way in which it is printed, with 
insufficient punctuation marks, gaps in places, and any number 
of misprints, almost unusable; accordingly little attention has 
so far been paid to it except as regards the first two Books, 
which were included, in a more readable form and with a Latin 
translation, by Halma in his edition of Ptolemy. 
Translations and editions. 
The Syntaxis was translated into Arabic, first (we are told) 
by translators unnamed at the instance of Yahya b, Khalid b. 
Barmak, then by al-Hajjaj, the translator of Euclid (about 
786-835), and again by the famous translator Ishaq b. Hunain 
(d, 910), whose translation, as improved by Thabit b. Qurra 
1 Pappus, viii, p. 1106.13.