Diocles

Diocles is a Greek given name that appears in antiquity and is associated with more than one historical figure. The most frequently cited are a mathematician linked to a geometric curve and a writer on natural history.

Diocles the mathematician, active in the Hellenistic or late Classical period, is remembered for the curve that bears his name, the cissoid of Diocles. Classical sources attribute the discovery or early study of this curve to him, and it played a role in the development of Greek geometry and later mathematical traditions. Details about his life and surviving works are scarce, and modern scholars rely on later quotations and references.

Diocles of Carystus, a Greek writer from the city of Carystus on Euboea, is known from antiquity as an author on natural history and related topics. He is cited by later authors, and his works are regarded as part of the broad tradition of Greek scientific and philosophical prose. Most of his writings are lost, with knowledge of them surviving only through fragments and quotations.

Other individuals named Diocles appear in ancient sources but are less well documented, and their attributions are uncertain. Because the name occurs in a number of classical texts, Diocles is primarily remembered in the history of mathematics for the cissoid and in the context of Greek natural history through the Carystian writer.