Marcus Junius Nipsus (or Nypsus) was a second-century Roman gromatic writer,[1][2][3] who also dealt with various mathematical questions.
His surviving writings are preserved in the Corpus Agrimensorum Romanorum, a compilation of Latin works on land surveying made in the 4th or 5th centuries AD.
[4] A work in the Corpus Agrimensorum Romanorum is introduced with the words incipit Marci Iuni Nipsi liber II feliciter ("Here begins Marcus Junius Nipsus' second book, well").
The text often addresses the reader directly, e.g. cum in agro assignato veneris ("when you come to an assigned piece of land", Nipsius La 286.12) which suggests that it was intended as a practical handbook and it is generally agreed that it was written in the 2nd century AD.
[6] In general, the opinion of Karl lachmann is accepted, which attributes the following three texts to him: These works are included in the oldest manuscript of the Corpus Agrimensorum Romanorum, the Codex Arcerianus in Wolfenbüttel.
Because of the requirement to form the long path along the river bank and the marking lines, this method is quite time consuming.
In the following part (Nipsius, La 288.18-289.17), it is explained how plots of land are formed between different long limites ("boundary lines").
While Hero discusses the underlying mathematical theory, like the Pythagorean theorem, Nipsus provides only numerical "recipes".