Case file · Witch trials
Hypatia accused of sorcery
In March 415 a Christian mob in Alexandria murdered the philosopher and mathematician Hypatia. The 7th-century bishop John of Nikiû justified it by saying she had bewitched the prefect with magic.
415 CE · 31.20, 29.92 · status: account
The account
She was caught up in a feud between the prefect Orestes and Bishop Cyril. The sorcery charge, built on her work with astrolabes and mathematics, shows how learning could be cast as witchcraft.