Who is one ancient scholar before Copernicus who was thought to have written about the heliocentric model?

Question

Please outline who they were, where they were from and what their theory involved.

Answer 1

The Greek philosopher Aristarchus (310 - 230 BC) enunciated a cosmogony identical with that proposed by Copernicus nearly 2000 years later.

Try this wikipedia article.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristarchus...

Answer 2

I think Aristarchus was the first Greek that thought it was probably the earth that revolved around the sun, instead of vice versa.  

You do your own homework.  

-John

EDIT:  Woah, you knew all that off the top of your head, signofjonas?  You must have a Ph.D. in the history of ancient and medieval science.

Answer 3

~8-9th Century BC    The idea that the Earth is in motion around the Sun is proposed in Sanskrit texts in ancient India.  It is the first recorded evidence of heliocentrism.

4th Century BC   Greek philosopher Heraclides Ponticus proposes that the apparent daily motion of stars is created by the rotation of the Earth.

3rd Century BC   Greek astronomer Aristarchus of Samos advances heliocentrism in a now lost book.  The ideas of Aristarchus, however, were

described in a book by the great philosopher and scientist Archimedes called The Sand Reckoner.

2nd Century BC   Babylonian astronomer Seleucus of Seleucia proves support for the heliocentric theory by his study of ocean tides.

150 AD   Greek scientist Claudius Ptolemy publishes the Almagest, a scientific treatise which proposes a geocentric, or Earth-Centered model of planetary motion.  The Geocentric Model (also called that Ptolemaic Model) remained the accepted model for over a thousand years in the Western world.

9th century   Afghan astronomer Ja'far ibn Muhammad Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi develops a model of planetary motion which proposes that all planets revolve around the Sun.