Euclid's Elements Euclid's Elements The Elements ( "Stoicheia") is a mathematical treatise consisting of 13 books attributed to the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid in Alexandria, Ptolemaic Egypt c. 300 BC. It is a collection of definitions, postulates, propositions (theorems and constructions), and mathematical proofs of the propositions. The books cover plane and solid Euclidean geometry, elementary number theory, and incommensurable lines. "Elements" is the oldest extant large-scale deductive treatment of mathematics. It has proven instrumental in the development of logic and modern science, and its logical rigor was not surpassed until the 19th century. Euclid's "Elements" has been referred to as the
Aristobulus of Alexandria quoted by Anatolius. He is incorrectly named "Aristobulus of Paneas" in Rufinus' Latin translation of Eusebius' "Historia Ecclesiastica" (7, 32, 16). It is a wrong translation of the Greek ὁ πάνυ, "the Great". In addition, the author here quoted by Eusebius, Anatolius of Laodicea (270 CE), was mistaken in believing that Aristobulus was one of the 70 priests who translated the Torah into Greek (the "Septuagint") during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (3rd century BC). Anatolius of Laodicea incorrectly said that he lived in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus. A further mistake in Rufinus' Latin translation of the Anatolius