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
Ptolemy II of Telmessos a paternal first cousin called Antipater Epigonos and likely he had a paternal second cousin called Epigonos. Through his father, Ptolemy II was a direct descendant of Lysimachus who was one of the Diadochi of the Greek King Alexander the Great who was King of Thrace, Asia Minor and Macedonia and Ptolemy I Soter another of the Diadochi of the Greek King Alexander the Great who was the founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Ancient Egypt and his wife, Berenice I of Egypt. Berenice I was the great-niece of the powerful Regent Antipater, through her maternal grandfather Cassander, the brother