HICETAS
He was the first known person who realized that the earth revolved rapidly about its own axis—which few believed in his day and into modern times until Copernicus (See {590327}). Intuitively, most people assumed that if the earth were spinning, the people and things would fly off. Most ancients believed that the earth was stationary and the heavens were moving because they could see the stars move.
Hicetas (Ancient Greek: Ἱκέτας or Ἱκέτης; c. 400 – c. 335 BC) was a Greek philosopher of the Pythagorean School. He was born in Syracuse. Like his fellow Pythagorean Ecphantus and the Academic Heraclides Ponticus, he believed that the daily movement of permanent stars was caused by the rotation of the Earth around its axis. When Copernicus referred to Nicetus Syracusanus (Nicetus of Syracuse) in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium as having been cited by Cicero as an ancient who also argued that the Earth moved, it is believed that he was actually referring to Hicetas.
