Boethius and Aryabhata the Elder were both mathematicians who were doing mathematical writing in 510 CE.  Boethius' writings were recognized, not because they were good, but because he was writing when few others in Europe were producing any mathematical quality.  He was an intelligent man, but his writings would not have been recognized among the quality of his peers.  Aryabhata wrote summaries of the mathematics thus far, which in and of itself is useful and helpful information, but the amazing thing about his work is he wrote it in verse.   The accomplishments of both have been recognized in that they have had celestial bodies named after them.  There is a Crater of Boethius on the moon and on mercury, there is a Crater of Aryabhata on the moon.

Boethius was lived from the year 475-524 in Italy.  He wrote texts on geometry and arithmetic.  Even though they were poorly written they were used for years in Europe.  His friend, Theodoric, the king of Italy and Goths, hired him to astonish the less sophisticated Barbarian kings.  Boethius had a goal to harmonize the two philosophies of Aristotle and Plato.  In order to do this he began translating.  He translated Aristotle's Organon but died before translating the Plato's work.
Aryabhata the Elder lived from either 476-499 or 476-550 in India.  The title of the book that Aryabhata finished in 499 is Aryabhatiya.  As mentioned, his writings were in verse and included a summary of Hindu math until that point in time.  Specifically, they covered topics such as astronomy and spherical trigonometry, arithmetic, algebra and plane trigonometry.  He included correct formulas for area of triangle and circle, but the incorrect volumes of sphere and pyramid.  He was the first known to use algebra.  There are topics of fractions, quadratic equations, sums of power series, and table of sines, pi, versine=1-cos.  His trig tables include the tables of ½ chords.  He wrote on the square and cube roots, geometry problems, progression, and indeterminent equations of the first degree. Arabhata also wrote on the topic of astronomy and the nature of the solar system.  One thing he mentioned for the first time the idea of planets orbits being elliptical.

From Boethius and Aryabhata we should realize that intelligence is one thing, but good timing and good summaries will make a lasting impression.

Author: Maggie Cooper

References:
Simon, Fraser, Indian History timeline, "Aryabhata the Elder," <http://mathsem.math.sfu.ca/History_of_Math/India/5thCenturyAD/Aryabhata.html>.

Eves, Howard, "An Introductions to the History of Mathematics, 6th ed, Saunders College Publishing, SanDiego, 1990, pg678.

University of St.Andrews, Math MacToutor, "Aryabhata teh Elder," <http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Aryabhata.html>, Dec. 1996.

University of St.Andrews, Math MacToutor, "Boethius," <http://www-groups.dcs.st-and-ac-uk/~history/Mathematicians/Boethius.html>.

University of St.Andrews, Math Mactoutor, "Trig Functions," <http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Trigonometric_functions.html#21>, June 1996.