Anthemius de Tralles born towards 474 and died towards 534 was famous a Mathématicien and Byzantine Architecte.

As an architect, it went famous for the construction of the basilica Holy-Sophie to Constantinople, with Isidore de Milet, between 532 and 537. Its competences were also employed in Ingénierie, for example during the repair of the stoppings of Daras.

As a mathematician, it carried out remarkable works on the Conique S - this was extremely useful besides for him for the construction of Holy-Sophie. Among those, one can quote a method of construction of a ellipse with a string fixed at the two hearths - said method of the gardener - or the study of the focal properties of a Parabole, which enabled him to design parabolic mirrors to concentrate the rays of the Sun: “burning mirrors”.

It is in Anthemius which one owes the account of the burning mirrors that Archimedes would have made build to set fire to the veils of the galères Roman arrivals to besiege Syracuse. Transmitted to the Rebirth in the writings of Alhazen and Vitellion, this account will be taken again, sometimes like object of research (Oronce Fine), sometimes like object of contempt (Descartes) by the scientists of the Rebirth at the XVIIe century.

A fragment of its treaty on the burning mirrors was published in 1777 per L. Dupuy under the Περί παραδόξων μηχανημάτων title (“marvellous Machines”), and was still republished in 1786 in the Histoire of the Academy of the Instrumentalists (vol. 42).