What is "metrodorus"

Metrodorus is the name of numerous historical figures, including:

• Metrodorus of Lampsacus (the elder) (5th century BC), philosopher from the school of Anaxagoras
• Metrodorus of Cos (5th century BC), Pythagorean writer
• Metrodorus of Chios (4th century BC), philosopher from the school of Democritus
• Metrodorus of Lampsacus (the younger) (331–278 BC), Epicurean philosopher
• Metrodorus of Athens (mid 2nd century BC), philosopher and painter
• Metrodorus of Stratonicea (late 2nd century BC), philosopher, originally Epicurean, later a follower of Carneades
• Metrodorus of Scepsis (c. 145 BC – 70 BC), writer, orator and politician
• Metrodorus (grammarian) (c. 6th century AD), grammarian and mathematician who collected the mathematical epigrams in the Greek Anthology
• Metrodorus (4th century BC), physician who married Aristotle's daughter Pythias
• Metrodorus (late 3rd, early 2nd century BC), general in the employ of Philip V of Macedon during the Cretan War
• Metrodorus (late 1st, early 2nd century AD), pupil of the physician Sabinus

Metrodorus (; fl. c. 6th century) was a Greek grammarian and mathematician, who collected mathematical epigrams which appear in the Greek Anthology.

Nothing is known about the life of Metrodorus. The time he lived is not certain: he may have lived as early as the 3rd century AD, but it is more likely that he lived in the time of the emperors Anastasius I and Justin I, in the early 6th century.

His name occurs in connection with 45 mathematical epigrams which are to be found in book 14 of the Greek Anthology. Although he may have authored some of the epigrams, it is generally accepted that he collected most of them, and some of them may predate the 5th century BC. Many of the epigrams lead to simple equations, and they are of the same type as those found in the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus (17th century BC). Among the problems Metrodorus collected are:

• Twenty-three simple equations with one unknown, one of which is the famous epigram which reveals the age of Diophantus.
• Twelve are easy simultaneous equations with two unknowns.
• One gives a simultaneous equation with three unknowns.
• Six are problems about filling and emptying vessels by pipes.