Heliocentric Theory
Teaching around 150 BC, he is known to have been a follower of the heliocentric theory of Aristarchus of Samos, which stated that the Earth rotated around its own axis which in turn revolved around the Sun. According to Plutarch, Seleucus was the first to demonstrate the heliocentric system through reasoning, but it is not known what arguments he used. According to Bartel Leendert van der Waerden, Seleucus may have constructed his heliocentric theory by determining the constants of a geometric model and by developing methods to compute planetary positions using this model, as Nicolaus Copernicus later did in the 16th century. He may have used trigonometric methods that were available in his time, as he was a contemporary of Hipparchus.
Since the time of Heraclides Ponticus (387 BC–312 BC), the inferior planets Mercury and Venus are named at times solar planets, as their positions diverge from the Sun by only a small angle.
According to the Greek geographer Strabo, Seleucus was also the first to assume the universe to be infinite. None of his original writings or Greek translations have survived, though a fragment of his work has survived only in Arabic translation, which was later referred to by the Persian philosopher Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi (865–925).
Read more about this topic: Seleucus Of Seleucia
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—H.L. (Henry Lewis)