Watts' account of Hypatia's life is a work of scholarship, the product of some very thorough research, which provides a detailed and plausible interpretation of the life of a fascinating woman ... I would recommended this book for a university rather than school library, though it might have an appeal for a school pupil with an interest in studying prominent ... Read morefemale figures in antiquity ... It is also a book for the thoughtful reader who wishes to examine their own beliefs about how to live the good life and its compatibility with public life.
Alison Henshaw, Classics for All
Immersing Hypatia into her world of competing philosophers, jockeying bishops and local potentates, loyal students and rival monks, Watts restores the brilliant mathematician and philosophical leader, a woman all but submerged under the mask her violent death created. In the process, he also evokes the fabric of cosmopolitan late Roman Alexandria, a city in which Christians and others coexisted despite tensions that could and did erupt into moments of spectacular violence.
Susanna Elm, University of California, Berkeley
Hypatia of Alexandria led an exceptional life as a celibate teacher of philosophy and political adviser. Edward Watts uses his expert knowledge of her city, and of late antique education, to explain the content and context of her teaching, and to show how Alexandria made possible both her career and her appalling death. Hypatia's death made her a symbol of repression, but for her, philosophy was a way of life, and that is the focus of this excellent book.
Gillian Clark, University of Bristol
To shine as a mathematician; to alter decisively the teaching curriculum of an ancient university; to work for the peace of an explosive city: Hypatia of Alexandria had done all this before her senseless murder by a Christian mob in 415 CE. With zest and exemplary scholarship, Ed Watts has brought alive the vivid world of Alexandria that both made Hypatia's achievements possible and also led to her unexpected, shocking death. It is a book that shows that truth is stranger (and a lot more interesting) than the rose-tinted fiction which has usually enveloped the life and death of this remarkable woman.
Peter Brown, Princeton University
Watts is most compelling in the summations of his findings and narratives ... A careful historical portrait of one of antiquity's most accomplished women.
Steve Young, Library Journal
Anyone interested in Hypatia will want to read this book [...] they will end up with a much deeper understanding of the culture of Late Antiquity.
Fernando Q. Gouvea, Colby College
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