History of geometry lost. He was brought to the university at Alexandria by Ptolemy I, King of Egypt. "The Elements" began with definitions of terms, fundamental geometric principles (called "axioms" or "postulates"), and general quantitative principles (called "common notions") from which all the rest of geometry could be logically deduced. Following are his five axioms, somewhat paraphrased to make the English easier to read. Concepts, that are now understood as algebra, were expressed geometrically by Euclid, a method referred to as Greek geometric algebra. Archimedes (287-212 BC), of Syracuse, Sicily, when it was a Greek city-state, is often considered to be the greatest
Transmission of the Greek Classics Transmission of the Greek Classics The transmission of the Greek Classics to "Latin" Western Europe during the Middle Ages was a key factor in the development of intellectual life in Western Europe. Interest in Greek texts and their availability was scarce in the Latin West during the earlier Middle Ages, but as traffic to the East increased so did Western scholarship. Classical Greek philosophy consisted of various original works ranging from those from Ancient Greece (e.g. Aristotle) to those Greco-Roman scholars in the classical Roman Empire (e.g. Ptolemy). Though these works were originally written in Greek, for centuries the language