Hicetas (Ancient Greek:Ἱκέτας orἹκέτης; c. 400 – c. 335 BC) was aGreekphilosopher of thePythagorean School. He was born inSyracuse,Magna Graecia. Like his fellow PythagoreanEcphantus and the AcademicHeraclides Ponticus, he believed that the daily movement of permanent stars was caused by the rotation of theEarth around itsaxis.^[1] WhenCopernicus referred toNicetus Syracusanus (Nicetus of Syracuse) inDe revolutionibus orbium coelestium as having been cited byCicero as an ancient who also argued that the Earth moved, it is believed that he was actually referring to Hicetas.^[2]

Cicero refers to Hicetas in theAcademica, volume II, citing in turnTheophrastus.^[3][4] According to Heath:

Cicero [says] “Hicetas of Syracuse, as Theophrastus says, holds that the heaven, the sun, the moon, the stars and in fact all things in the sky remain still, and nothing else in the universe moves, except the earth; but as the earth turns and twists about its axis with extreme swiftness, all the same results follow as if the earth were still and the heaven moved". This is of course not well expressed…but Cicero means no more than that the rotation of the earth is a complete substitute for the apparent daily rotation of the heaven as a whole.^[5]

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