Menelaus of Alexandria

Menelaus of Alexandria (/ˌmɛnɪˈleɪəs/; Greek: Μενέλαος, Menelaos; c. 70 – 140 CE) was a Greekmathematician and astronomer, the first to recognize geodesics on a curved surface as natural analogs of straight lines.

Although very little is known about Menelaus's life, it is supposed that he lived in Rome, where he probably moved after having spent his youth in Alexandria. He was called Menelaus of Alexandria by both Pappus of Alexandria and Proclus, and a conversation of his with Lucius, held in Rome, is recorded by Plutarch.

Ptolemy (2nd century CE) also mentions, in his work Almagest (VII.3), two astronomical observations made by Menelaus in Rome in January of the year 98. These were occultations of the stars Spica and Beta Scorpii by the moon, a few nights apart. Ptolemy used these observations to confirm precession of the equinoxes, a phenomenon that had been discovered by Hipparchus in the 2nd century BCE.

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