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
Ptolemy [[Category:Roman-era geographers]] [[Category:Giftedness]] Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , "Klaúdios Ptolemaîos" ; ; ) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, geographer and astrologer. He lived in the city of Alexandria in the Roman province of Egypt, wrote in Koine Greek, and held Roman citizenship. The 14th-century astronomer Theodore Meliteniotes gave his birthplace as the prominent Greek city Ptolemais Hermiou () in the Thebaid (). This attestation is quite late, however, and, according to Gerald Toomer, the translator of his "Almagest" into English, there is no reason to suppose he ever lived anywhere other than Alexandria. He died there around AD 168. Ptolemy