"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"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"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

A philosopher, mathematician, and martyr, Hypatia is one of antiquity's best-known female intellectuals. For the sixteen centuries following her murder by a mob of Christians Hypatia has been remembered in books, poems, plays, paintings, and films as a victim of religious intolerance whose death symbolized the end of the Classical world. But Hypatia was a person before she was a symbol. Her great skill in mathematics and philosophy redefined the intellectual life of her home city of Alexandria. Her talent as a teacher enabled her to assemble a circle of dedicated male students. Her devotion to public service made her a force for peace and good government in a city that struggled to maintain trust and cooperation between pagans and Christians. Despite these successes, Hypatia fought countless small battles to live the public and intellectual life that she wanted. This book rediscovers the life Hypatia led, the unique challenges she faced as a woman who succeeded spectacularly in a man's world, and the tragic story of the events that led to her murder.