There is not the slightest doubt that Aristarchus was the first to put forward the heliocentric hypothesis. Ancient testimony is unanimous on the point, and the first witness is Archimedes, who was a younger contemporary of Aristarchus, so that there was no possibility of a mistake. Copernicus himself admitted that the theory was attributed to Aristarchus, though this does not seem to be generally known.

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The heliocentric hypothesis is stated in language which leaves no room for dispute as to its meaning. The sun, like the fixed stars, remains unmoved and forms the centre of a circular orbit in which the earth revolves round 1:1 the sphere of the fixed stars has its centre at the centre of the sun.