In the great port-city of Alexandria, Hypatia taught mathematics, astronomy, and philosophy to students who came from across the Mediterranean. By the accounts that survive she was the foremost thinker of her age — and a woman in a role the age reserved for men.
She refined the instruments of astronomy, edited the works of earlier mathematicians, and held to the older conviction that the world could be understood by reason. Around her, the city was fracturing along lines of faith and power.
Her death at the hands of a mob in 415 CE has long stood as a marker — the moment the classical world's confidence in inquiry gave way. What she represented did not vanish, but it would be centuries before it gathered again.